Vampire Chronicle: The Chaos Tower Import Preview

Vampire Chronicle: The Chaos Tower is Capcom's 2D PSP brawler that revives the company's sorely missed Vampire franchise in portable form. We got our first look at the impressive fighter at this year's Tokyo Game Show and have been anxiously awaiting its Japanese release. The game is a compilation of the three entries in the series that are based, in part, on the limited edition, online-enabled Dreamcast game released in August of 2000. However, before you think this is just a quick-and-dirty port to the PSP, know that Vampire Chronicle features an impressive amount of extra content and Wi-Fi functionality. We've been tearing through the recently released import and are pleased to report that the game does a stellar job of pulling double duty as both a fine showcase for the PSP and an excellent compilation of the underrated 10-year-old fighting series.

You'll find five modes to explore in Vampire Chronicle, some of which should be familiar, including arcade, network, and training, and some of which should not be familiar, including tower and chronicle. First and foremost is the arcade mode, which re-creates the experiences from the excellent arcade entries in the series. Given the game's archival slant, you'll be able to choose fighters from any installment in the series, such as Vampire, Vampire Hunters, and Vampire Saviour, as well as any follow-ups to the titles that featured gameplay tweaks and balancing. Network is the game's multiplayer option. However, unlike the previous home versions of the franchise, you won't have to get a second controller to let your friend join in. Instead, you'll just have to enable Wi-Fi on your PSP before engaging in some wireless "versus action."

The network battles come in two varieties, versus and limit battle. Versus is your standard one-on-one fight, while limit battle randomly assigns a handicap to both fighters, such as no kicking or no punching, that forces you to get creative on your quest to victory. As with the arcade mode, you and your opponent can choose from any fighter across any iteration of the game. Training lets you hone your skills, with the character of your choosing, against a customizable computer opponent.

In addition to the aforementioned modes, which are par for the course in a Capcom fighter, Vampire Chronicle features two original modes, tower and chronicle. Both are fantastic additions to the already compelling package. Tower is a survival-style mode that lets you pick three characters from the game's roster of 18 fighters. As with the arcade mode, you'll be able to pick your fighters from the various games in the series--including Vampire, Vampire Hunter, Vampire Hunter 2, and Vampire Saviour--depending on which game's handling you prefer. The team of three will represent the champions you take on a journey to the top of a mysterious tower. Your ascent through each of the floors will revolve around defeating the enemies you encounter in one-on-one battles. Your route to the top will change dynamically based on your performance, and to progress to the next floor, you'll have to defeat a set number of opponents.

To add to the challenge, the fighting and/or winning conditions will change. So, for example, you may have to defeat a foe with a supermove or be forced to fight with kicks only. How you handle these challenges determines which route you'll take to the top. If you manage to clear certain conditions, you may find yourself in some interesting battles that you wouldn't ordinarily engage in. If this all sounds pretty challenging, that's because it is. If one of your fighters is defeated, he or she is out of the competition for good, forcing you to both fight carefully and pick a good team. The stress of doing such a thing is reduced slightly by the fact that the fighters you aren't currently using will regenerate health over time. Still, don't plan on blowing through the mode anytime soon, because even if you do manage to get to the top, odds are there are a few floors with alternate routes that you've missed.

Your progress in tower mode will directly affect your experience in chronicle mode, which, while not really a gameplay mode, will certainly suck up your time. The mode is another tie-in to the game's archival approach, and it will contain a near-encyclopedic collection of materials related to the different games in the franchise.

You'll find three different areas to explore: illustration, sound, and movie. Each will contain material that you'll unlock as you progress through tower mode. Illustration features slick line drawings of the cast of fighters, and sound features both sound effects and music tracks from the games. Meanwhile, movie features what appear to be all the cinematics from the games. From the looks of things so far, Chronicle will house everything any fan of the franchise could want...and then some.

But no matter how fully loaded the game is, Vampire Chronicle's success or failure on the PSP hinges on how it plays. Thankfully, it looks as though Capcom has that one aspect of the game in the bag. You'll find two distinct control modes to best suit your needs. Normal is the standard six-button configuration that we all know and love, which maps out three sets of punches and kicks to the PSP's face and shoulder buttons. A new, easy configuration distills control down to a four-button system that's similar to what Capcom has used in its last batch of fighters.

Both control modes handle well, which is a relief given the Vampire series' emphasis on speed. The game's battles are faster paced than Capcom's other fighters of the same era, and they make make use of a chain combo system that lets you string together an impressive number of blows against an opponent. We're pleased to say that despite the series 10-year-old age, Vampire's game mechanics have matured gracefully.

The same can be said for the game's 2D visuals, which were noteworthy back in the day thanks to their smooth animation and inventive character design. We're extremely impressed by how polished the game looks on the PSP screen and how naturally it's eased into a widescreen presentation. For purists who take issue with the game's appearance, Capcom has included an option to tweak the ratio of the game on the PSP by incorporating black borders on either side of the picture. The game runs at a commendable pace, regardless of how insane the action is, which isn't always the case for older games shoehorned onto powerful hardware.

The audio sounds practically arcade-perfect, and it includes an insane amount of audio from all its arcade counterparts, which offers a great aural complement to the action. The combination of character voice samples and catchy music tracks makes Vampire Chronicle very easy on the ears.

However, as cool as the entire package is, we're noticing a few minor blemishes on the otherwise slick offering. The loads between fights border on being longer than we'd like to see, and some of the fighting moves are harder to pull off than they used to be due to the PSP's D pad and button configuration. While these minor issues are a little annoying, we doubt they'll ruin the game for anyone.

Based on what we've played so far, Vampire Chronicle: The Chaos Tower is certainly living up to our lofty expectations. The core fighting is solid and easy to pick up; it's just difficult to master. If you're thinking of importing the game, it should be reasonably safe to do so, because the bulk of the menus are in English, so they shouldn't pose problems for newcomers. The only time you'll really miss out on something is when playing in tower mode, which gives you info on victory conditions in Japanese text. While Vampire Chronicle: The Chaos Tower has now hit the streets of Japan, just in time for the PSP launch this week, there hasn't been any word on the game's US release yet. As a result, look for more information on the game in the coming months.