Darkstalkers Resurrection Review

I’m going to come clean and say that I never played any of the Darkstalkers games as a kid. I was blind to fighting games beyond Tekken or Streetfighter, and, well, anything that required more technique than bashing the face buttons. So I’m not going into this HD update with much of a perspective on what’s been improved. The only knowledge I have of the game is that it contributes some of Marvel vs Capcom 3’s weirdest (Not to mention skimpiest) characters.

Resurrection includes two of the most recent games in the series, providing a decent range of different arenas and fighters to pick from. What’s really refreshing is the small and focused roster that hits the sweet spot between choice and individuality – unlike the more recent additions to the Tekken series, where you have over fifty characters to choose from and many of them are just reskins of classic fighters. Darkstalkers has a quality over quantity approach that allows you to find a fighter you love and learn them inside out with dedicated tutorials. It probably has the most, ahem, eclectic range of fighters you’re ever going to see – cat people, succubi, golems, werewolves – all against a pseudo-goth-via-Japan backdrop.

The new HD shine really does make a difference, and both games included in the package have awesome old-school soundtracks intact. The games are lucky enough to be from a period in gaming’s visual history that doesn’t really have much to hide – the gloriously pixellated sprites and battle effects are distant enough from what we expect from our games these days, simply presenting itself as a fun recollection of how games used to be. You can even choose to view it via an arcade cabinet frame (amongst a selection of other viewing modes). It’s crisp, it’s stylish – fights are completely refined and technical, button bashing here won’t get you anywhere.

Compared to other fighting games, Darkstalkers has always been a touch more bizarre than competitors and sister series. Even now, it’s a fresh injection of weird, a welcome yet unexpected guest. If Street Fighter brings beer and Doritos to the fighting genre party, Darkstalkers brings absinthe and sugar cubes and sits in the corner with an unsettling grin.   Of course, it’s important to remember that Darkstalkers was built upon a foundation laid by Ken, Ryu, and Chun-Li, but where Street Fighter is heavily grounded in the real, in actual martial art styles, Darkstalkers throws reality to the wind and takes inspiration from folklore, both popular and obscure. You’ll be beating up Egyptian mummies as Red Riding Hood, or taking down a werewolf with a cutesy take on China’s hopping vampires. It’s insane, it’s off the wall – and it’s an extremely solid fighting game more than capable of keeping up with modern series.

I felt far more compelled by Darkstalkers 3 than I ever did by Street Fighter IV (and that has nothing to do with Morrigan, believe it or not). Fights are more intense, they can go on for longer without becoming a drag, and the challenge is always persistent. If you get bored of the arcade mode you can take your chances online, and the game fares just as well there. A filtering system helps you find the kind of match you’re looking for against the kind of skill level you’re playing at, and it ends up becoming the best way to learn how to play the game.

Of course, it doesn’t really compare to playing the game in the same room as your competition, but if you’re playing in a group, you can spectate, allowing you to size up who you’re up against and potentially learn some new techniques. The game automatically keeps your last ten fights saved, erasing them as you go along, but you can choose to save them individually. You can also tag them, potentially transforming a simple video sharing feature into a thriving source of new techniques and tutorials for the studying.

For your money, Resurrection delivers a surprisingly scarce kind of fighting game – the small, specialised roster of incredibly oddball fighters with their own fierce independence. Alongside some fantastic core games you also get a host of fun and practical features – like the ability to upload matches straight to YouTube, play individual  or view replays to learn new strategies. Much, much more than a simple re-release – this is how all updates should be treated, true to the original but building upon the experience without compromising core gameplay, highlight the great points and compensate for any flaws exposed by the simple passage of time. If all HD updates were treated like this, they might be a hell of a lot more successful. Buy it, regardless of your reason, it’s a reborn classic up there with the genre heavyweights.

Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.