DarkStalkers: The Night Warriors

"Now as for my first review of 2004, it shall be this alright debut of a series whose age will soon be about half a score."

Darkstalkers, highly considered as one of THE most criminally underrated 2D fighting game series' ever. This 1995 port of the 1994 arcade suprise underground hit is a pretty good, decently priced and findable introduction to the series that is Darkstalkers. However the sequels in Capcom-made fighting game series' are generally better than their prodecessors and this is certainly no exception. However if you already got the much easier to find/afford and generally MUCH better sequel that is ''Darkstalkers 3'', than this is a pretty alright game to get as well. (Especially since the 2nd game is a Sega Saturn-exclusive rarity unfortantely but thats a different story.)

However this game does have a good amount of quality in it. Most of the characters that many fans have adored are here. The music maybe a bit outdated but its far from bad. While the graphics and artwork are still looking good even to this date in age. The storylines of most of the characters are well utilized and give you a little extra bit of desire to seek the sequels. (Then again while the quality of Capcom's storytelling abilities maybe a bit questionable when it comes to things like Street Fighter. They did very well when it came to the Darkstalkers series.)

One small little intresting tidbit is that apparently unlike ''Darkstalkers 3'' this title doesn't censor out the blood at all. (While blood is only accessible if you put in the ''Japanese Version'' gameshark code for DS3.) I know its certainly no big deal at all, but its a little oddity worth mentioning nevertheless. And speaking of small and petty thing, all the characters have about only one winquote (and most of them aren't all that good I mean c'mon Street Fighter II managed to avoid that flaw).

The gameplay is a mixed bag in quality, its not utterly terrible but its just awfully limited. (Which is why I think this game probably would've been better if a SNES port was availible as well. A SNES port would've most likely been more enjoyable, and considering the year and such it would've been perfectly capable. WHY did Capcom made this for the PS One only for Consoles back then I'll never know.) However the difficulty even on Easy setting can be a bit hard, its not INCREDIBLY hard. But yet lets just say that a Gameshark would probably feel necessary here if you know what I mean.

Overall its a good start to the underground cult classic series that is Darkstalkers that'll suprisingly be a decade old. While high expectations are not recomended, this game is. It maybe quite flawed but its still a pretty good fighting game nevertheless.

+ Its a pretty good start to the series that is still nicely innovative with a good portion of the characters already in with their storylines are in well.
+ The graphics, music and artwork are genuinely well done.
+ The gameplay maybe a bit more frustrating than its prodecessors but its not utterly terrible.
+ Its not incredibly hard to find either (nor expensive)
+ However unlike the much better sequel ''Darkstalkers 3'' the blood hasn't been censored at all.
- The sequels of Capcom fighters are generally better than their originals, this is no exception.
- This probably would've been better on the SNES than PSX.
- The Gameplay is awfully smaller and more frustrating than the sequels. (Though the frustration is a lot loosened with a Gameshark.)
- Its a lot harder than DS3.
- All characters have only one winning quote each

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/01/04, Updated 02/16/04