...a great collection of one of the most overlooked fighting series out there.
At its core, this collection is very much like Street Fighter Alpha Anthology. It's got all the games in the series and they are arcade perfect. There are secrets and unlockables which include Capcom art and and fan art for you to enjoy. While that's all fine and good the main attractions here are the Vampire games. Like I said, they are all arcade perfect with every frame of animation in tact. The graphics are colorful and vibrant while the music is dark and moody. Think of a gothic Street Fighter Alpha with monster movie characters and you get the idea. The only thing that purists will scoff at is a loading screen which is almost non-existent. The PS2 handles the game with almost no noticeable load time. For me, it's arcade perfect. Some may disagree.
As for the games, they are all different and have elements that make each one unique. Here is a breakdown of each title included in this collection:
Vampire- The first game in the series. This game was made on the CPS2 board and basically plays a lot like Super Street Fighter II Turbo or the first Street Fighter Alpha. The animations are nice and it features characters that are similar incarnations of popular monsters in old horror movies (Wolfman, Frankenstein, Succubus...). This is an okay game but much like the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology's first game, Street Fighter Alpha, you won't play it much. It's just a good starting point and nice to have in order to complete the collection.
Vampire Hunter - In this sequel the series gets a little more interesting. It's basically more of the same but with some additional characters and a new feature. The animations seem better and the characters are more balanced than in the original game. It is a lot more fun than Vampire and the music is certainly more familiar if you have played Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo or Pocket Fighter. The boss characters from Vampire are now playable and the super move bars can be added up so you can execute more than one super move or use it to a varying degree.This is one of the games that stands out in this collection and it is just a blast to play.
Vampire Savior - Here we have another home run; more like the grand slam of the collection! This is the gem of the series. Being the third game Capcom decided to make some changes. First off, just so you know, this is Darkstalkers 3 in America. If you have played it then you know what to expect here. For those that have not played it let me clue you in. Here we have the same basic idea; monster movie characters thrown in a Street Fighter style game. Where this game stands out is the energy bar works more like an old school SNK game rather than Capcom fighters. As you and your opponent square off your energy goes down if you get hit but if you avoid your opponent's attacks then your energy starts to build back up a little. This makes the matches last a lot longer and makes the game very intense. As soon as you knock out you opponent in one round, your energy bar does not start over for the next round. You have the same amount of energy until you are knocked out by your opponent and vice versa. This change in formula is why Vampire Savior is a much more engaging and intense game to play than the others before it. It's just great fun and one of the best 2D fighters out there. Originally intended to be an all encompassing Vampire game, this was to include all of the fighters from the previous two games along with the new boss in this game, Jedah. The problem was the CPS2 board simply didn't have the memory to include everyone so three characters were left out. Those omitted characters are Donovan, Huitzil, and Pyron. They are replaced by J. Talbain, Rikuo, and Sasquatch.
Vampire Hunter 2 - This game is a puzzlement to me. It almost has nothing to do with Vampire Hunter except a return to the traditional energy bar system and the characters that were included in that game. It barrows everything else from Vampire Savior ie. the backgrounds, the graphics, etc. This game also lacks the charm of Vampire Savior because it steals so much from it and just isn't as much fun to play. When playing it you get the feeling that you should be playing either Vampire Hunter or Vampire Savior... but not this. Still, it's part of the collection and it's nice to have if you're a completest.
Vampire Savior 2 - Are we confused with the chronology of this series yet? No, this isn't a mix up on my part. Vampire Savior 2 is actually after Vampire Hunter 2. It does the same thing as Vampire Hunter 2 in that it is basically Vampire Savior with three different character (not extra characters). It has also taken the exact same backgrounds and music from the game with it's shared moniker. The only difference here is all of the colors have been changed a wee bit to make it seem like a different game... but it's not. The good news is that back is the energy bar system that Vampire Savior introduced so you can expect intense battles once again. The back story on this game is interesting. It seems Capcom originally wanted to push the CPS2 board as far as they could with the original Vampire Savior so they could have a huge blowout fighter with every character in the Vampire universe included. Sadly, it wasn't to be. The CPS2 board just didn't have the memory capacity to accommodate all of the characters into one game. So Capcom had to leave out three fighters in Vampire Savior. Not satisfied with the result, Capcom decided to release Vampire Savior 2 by putting in the three character that were left out while taking three characters out of Vampire Savior so the CPS2 board could handle it. This is the only reason this game saw a release. It was only available in Japan but is a nice addition if you want to play with the characters included here rather than what you had in the original. Here, Donovan, Huitzil, and Pyron step in to replace J. Talbain, Rikuo, and (the beloved) Sasquatch.
There you have it folks. incidentally this is an outstanding collection and should be in every 2D fighting game fan's collection. For the money it's a great deal. While Vampire Hunter and the two Vampire Saviors are the gems that steal the show, the inclusion of the other games is nice and there are some great unlockable pieces of art to be seen as I mentioned before. All in all this is a great fighter. It feels like Street Fighter Alpha with a twist. Darkstalkers 3 saw a release on the PS1 and was nice because it included all of the characters in one game (Capcom's wish came true). The only problem was the load times were terrible and the animation wasn't up to standards. This is a better collection for fans of the Darkstakers series. If you can import games, I highly suggest this title to you. You won't be sorry. If you are an importer and are concerned with the game being in Japanese, not to worry. The menus are all in English as is most of the game. The only part that holds Japanese text is the dialogue between fights when someone wins or loses and the endings. It's very minimal and has no effect on game play. So feel free to import and enjoy. Vampire: Darkstalkers Collection is a great collection of one of the most overlooked fighting series out there.