It's a good looking fast paced fighter with plenty of depth, but I think the hype for it goes a little overboard.
(-) the Gamecube controls are baffling; some of the characters are extremely annoying; not much to do with the single player modes; online mode is laggy; why the hell is Mega Man so weak?
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is a fighting game where there is a crossover between the well known American Capcom characters of anime and the little known Tatsunuko Japanese animation studio. There seemed to be a large cult going on for this game by players, a lot of hype has built up, and even PS3 and 360 owners demanding a port for their systems since this is allegedly so much better than Marvel VS Capcom, but Capcom actually created a press release saying it wouldn't happen (HA! HA! HA!). But now that the hype is gone and I've actually played the game I wanted to give an honest review for it.
This is a tag-team fighter. You choose two of at least twenty different heroes, then you fight with them cooperatively against another pair of enemies. The fighting has just the right mix of basic and complex elements, you having your regular punches and kicks to work with, as well as special attacks once you charge enough energy. But more experienced players will learn that you can also use cross-over assists, and other alternative specials for each character. The battle themselves are pretty lighthearted and its easy to tell that this game was imported to us through the arcades, and what makes this interesting is how it makes the game more fun. Old school fans of classic games such as Street Fighter will feel very at home here.
The character roster is all over the place. Be aware that this game wasn't intended to be released outside of the Pacific, but still the character roster is solid when you consider that half the roster is unknown to anyone outside Japan. You have Ryo and Chun-Li returning from Street Fighter, the hilarious and opinionated Frank West from Dead Rising, and the almighty and all-powerful Zero from Mega Man X. All these were good character choices, and there are many others that you won't mind trying with your spare time, like Veitwiful Joe who surprisingly fits in, but others just seem to bring the game down. Doronjo makes some of the most annoying noises I have ever heard in a video game so far when you attack her, and most of everything about her from her appearance to her special moves make no sense. Another annoying character was Yetterman-2, who is basically the stereotype trampy girl who doesn't even fight that well compared to others. And what's bad is this is a tag-team fighter, and since there aren't that many characters, you'll be dealing with these nuisances nearly every time you play, which is a disappointment. I was also pretty disappointed by the inclusion of Mega Man Volnutt, mainly because he's just a child and his move set is so weak. I was hoping I could have the fearless Mega Man X team up with Zero to fight off bad guys, but that wish just didn't come true.
Although the fighting component is strong enough, you're a little light on game modes to take advantage of it. The Arcade Mode is probably where you'll start, which you'll fight enemies to advance, a few pair of enemies, a large enemy by itself like a large robot, and at the end a very challenging final boss. There are only five unlockable characters in the game, and to get them you'll have to repeat Arcade mode with a large amount of characters to collect them all. However, the final boss is best played against characters with ranged attacks, and the one that finishes off the beast is the one that you unlock the story mode for, thus counting on the records, and some characters simply aren't capable of fighting the boss very well. So you're better off fighting with a trusty powerful character, I myself liked the balance of close-up and range attacks with the Street Fighter famous Ryo, and with your favorite character another one that isn't so great.
And besides your Arcade mode you have training, which is obviously training against a dummy opponent to increase your skills. You also have an Endurance mode, which you fight a series of opponents with limited recovery and without your fighters dying. But the computer opponents are extremely easy in the beginning, and the difficulty jumps only a tip toe distance after each fight, which means the mode will demand at least 40 rounds or more before you face a challenging opponent. The mode is extremely easy, in fact my brother reached the maximum limit of 100 kills by having PTX-40A spam the chainsaw move over and over again. That means Endurance mode can become tedious at a quick rate, and you'll feel as if you're straining yourself to play the game long enough to rightfully lose against an opponent without intentionally letting them get the better of you.
There is also an online mode for Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom, which works relatively well. You have your records and leader boards, and everything works like it's supposed to, but the lag is completely unacceptable at times. Which that is too bad, because competition online can get pretty compelling when you face a similar player in skill, and they even record your fighting and classify you in two groups, fire for offensive, ice for defensive, and thunder for a mix, but the online mode definitely suffers from a lack of maintenance.
Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom Ultimate All-Stars is the most visually impressive Wii game I have seen yet. The characters are cel-shaded, and unravel their attacks quick an easy, and their special attacks are bright screen-filling moves with jolt and energy that makes for a very exciting and pretty game to watch. The environments don't look quite as great but still look good enough to blend the action with a well-rounded visual package. It even looks better than Marvel Vs. Capcom on the PS3, and I'm not joking. I've seen that game being played at a Wal-Mart demo PS3 and it looked visually weak compared to other games on that system.
The control quality will vary depending on which method you use. The remote and nunchuck combo controls are smooth and simple, pressing a single button and different joystick directions to use different attacks, and special attacks are performed easily by pressing A and B simultaneously. There weren't even attacks that demanded some form of remote waggling or shaking, and I admit I would have liked if at least the IR pointer was used to navigate the menus, which it isn't. However the Gamecube controller isn't so good of a choice. The manual says this is the preferred method of playing the game, and given the arcade nature of the game it's easy to see why, but I couldn't figure out how to use special attacks with it! What the hell? I've read other reviewers and they explained you have to press an overly long chain of buttons to activate a special attack, and I just don't see why people think it's better.
Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom is still a pretty good fighter, on a system that desperately lacks fighting games, as well as cutting edge graphics, and it's great to see that Wii owners are finally being treated to a game that makes 360/PS3 owners jealous. But I feel the hype for it has been for a game that people imagined they thought was way, way greater than it turned out to be in reality. The character roster could have used some additions, as well as omitting certain characters, and the Gamecube controllers need refined. But Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom Ultimate All-Stars has little in the way of making a later sequel, which could indeed turn into a game that people ought to hype for if they can continue the strengths as well as improving what needs to be improved.