Nintendo Okie

Howdy:

• Large and varied cast of characters
• Easily accessible to new fans as well as old
• Simply gorgeous to look at

See Ya:

• Large amounts of attacks and combos can be overwhelming
• Cast of characters might be too unfamiliar for some
• I wish I had a fight stick

When it comes to fighting game experience my knowledge has been previously limited to anything that started with the words Street and Fighter.  It was not a genre that I wanted to invest huge amounts of time, or when I was younger my parents money, into becoming really good at.  I’ve dabbled here and there with different fighters throughout the years, but it wasn’t until the Wii that I’ve even entertained learning a lot about a fighter.  I picked up Smash Bros. Brawl on the advice of my children because they had so much fun playing their cousin’s copy of Melee on the GameCube.

Capcom has had quite a bit of success in terms of fighting games over the years with what is arguably the most successful franchise ever in Street Fighter.  They’ve also had the Vs. series become rather popular over its different iterations.  The latest game in the franchise is Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, a game that was thought impossible to even bring to the United States, but Capcom listened to the fans and the game saw release here, with a few minor changes.

The Vs. series differs from traditional fighting games in that it is a tag team affair.  You start off by choosing two fighters from a roster of 13 Capcom brawlers and 13 characters from the Tatsunoko anime library.  The Capcom side of the roster is filled with familiar faces like Ryu, Chun-Li and Mega Man.  It also includes some newer faces like Frank West and the PTX-40A from Lost Planet.  Due to having a brother who was a huge fan of anime growing up I was actually familiar with many of the names on both sides of the roster so I was immediately drawn in by that.  Tekkeman, Ken the Eagle, Yatterman and Casshan headline their cast of characters.  Each of these fighters has a style that is unique and despite the fact that many of the button combinations are similar they all feel very different from each other.  The roster is the ultimate make it or break it part of a fighting game and this game definitely has a solid roster, even if you’re unfamiliar with half of them initially.

Whether you’re new to fighting games or a veteran of many battles TvC has a control scheme that you’ll be comfortable with.  The combat system is a bit pared down from a traditional fighting game.  There are only 3 attack buttons and a button for your partner, but combined with different stick movements there are plenty of movements for each character that give them a large variety of moves.  Newcomers to fighting games will find the Wii Remote/Nunchuk combination in TvC very friendly and forgiving.  If you’re not comfortable with the complex move sets required for traditional controls you can input simple commands using a single direction combined with a single button to pull off moves that will make you feel like you’ve been playing the game for years.

There are four different single player modes to choose from that are great warm-ups for the solid online play.  You can play in a traditional arcade mode where you choose two fighters and progress through a series of 8 fights that have a “min-boss” halfway through.  I say mini-boss in that it is not the main fight in the mode, but the fighter you compete against in that fight is one of two characters that fill a very large portion of the screen.  Finishing this fight and the fight at the end will unlock new outfits and more for the two characters that you chose at the beginning of the game.  There is also a time attack mode where you attempt to finish the arcade mode as fast as possible.  Survival mode has you facing off against opposing fighters until you lose.  There is also a training mode where you can practice the moves for any fighter until you’re comfortable with their fighting styles.

There are a number of different attack styles and combos that you will need to be familiar with if you want to compete successfully online.  They’re not as necessary for playing against the AI, but learning these will be very helpful.  Sacrificing part of your health bar can give you access to a Baroque Cancel that will allow you to deal more damage to your opponents for a short period of time.  Hyper Combos are beefed up variations of your special attacks that do huge amounts of damage if not avoided.  The HP scale in this game is as ridiculously over the top as every other aspect of the game.  Who knew it was possible to deal out damage in excess of 5 or 6 billion to your opponent?  That’s a very common sight, though, in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.

Online play is the new home of fighting games this generation.  They’ve always been best when fighting against another player, whether in person or across the world.  Tatsunoko vs. Capcom has a very nice online system where you can fight in free matches against anyone with no benefits or penalties.  Competing in ranked matches pits you against fighters who are evenly matched with you, according to your battle points.  Winning fights increases your battle points and losing has the opposite effect.  There are also leader boards that keep track of stats for recent weeks and months and show you where you compare to other fighters around the world.  The one issue I had was due to being a more defensive fighter.  Each of my online matches was dictated by the person who went on offense first and didn’t let up.  Being the quickest and the fastest generally won the matches I competed in.  I don’t know if this was simply a matter of the people I was fighting against or if this is indicative of the game as a whole.  Don’t let this put you off because it’s definitely not a drawback.  It’s just a play style that takes a bit of getting used to.  There is even a simple way to somewhat bypass the need for friend codes if you’ve had a fight against someone you’d like to fight again.  After the match you have the ability to add them to your Friend or Rival roster by choosing yes when asked.

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is, without a doubt one of the best looking games on Wii to date.  Particle effects accompany every special attack.  Flames and explosions fill every part of the screen and there is no slow down whatsoever to accompany these highly detailed animations.  The movement of the fighters themselves is very smooth and transitioning from one attack to another animates almost flawlessly.  There’s no doubt that Capcom has put a lot of effort behind making this a truly remarkable experience for a Wii audience that was clamoring to have this game on their system.

Whether you’re a new entrant into the realm of fighting games or you’ve been playing them for years there is something in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom for you.  It’s very easy to get into and the learning curve is dictated by how much time you really want to put into learning the moves.  If you’re comfortable with the relative randomness of the one button attacks or you want complete freedom the controls morph to your style.  Capcom took a big risk in bringing the title to North America, but they put a lot of effort into this game and if Street Fighter has become a bit too complex for you over the years then Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars might just be the fighting game you’re looking for.

Final Score: 4/5 Above Average

Review copy of the game purchased at Gamestop

Played through arcade mode with 8 combinations of fighters,Survival Mode twice and 23 matches online.