It’s one of those series that Capcom seemed to have completely forgotten about in their quest to pump out seventy Street Fighter knock-offs. Quite a few just stereotyped it as “Street Fighter with monsters”, then walked off to play 40th version of SF2. And in many ways, the first one was just that. At the same time, though, it had a kind of charm to it, something that could hook you if you actually bothered to try. That, and Morrigan was sexy, even though she completely sucked.
Then they released Nightwarriors, which was to Darkstalkers what Super SF2 was to original SF2. It allowed you to play as the two boss characters from Darkstalkers (Hutzil and Pyron), and added two new characters (Donovan, who had points for style but piss-poor moves, and Hsien Ko, a chinese vampire chick that attacked with hammers, claws, knives, etc.). Once again, it was largely ignored, though.
Then they released Vampire Savior, which will go down in history as my favorite fighting game EVER! Screw all those “Capcom vs. Somebody” games; this one was cooler! Too bad people ignored it again.
Basically, VS was a completely different game. It had all the characters from Nightwarriors (except Donovan, Hutzil and Pyron, as they were NOT fan-favorites), as well as several new faces (B.B. Hood, who will be lovingly described later, Q-Bee, a cross between a Bumblebee and a human, Lilith, Morrigan’s pre-pubescent sister, and Jedah, who will also be lovingly described later). Characters then went through six stages, followed by a seventh with a unique boss (although most still fought Jedah). Attacks now sported more variety, characters had more depth, and everything in general was improved, but the game was still passed up. There was a VS2, which added the three missing characters, as well as a new character (Anita, the little girl that follows Donovan around), which was made into Darkstalkers 3 for the PSX, but that one was largely ignored, as well. And thus, the series died.
So far, the only character still appearing is Morrigan, who showed up in a few of the “Capcom vs. Somebody” games, but none of the other characters have appeared. In fact, here are a few that I think SHOULD make an appearance:
*Jedah. That’s a definant. Many Capcom villains can be classified as nuts (M. Bison, Dr. Wily, etc.), but this guy is certifiably insane! He’s a winged demon with a black coat, which sounds pretty typical. His normal attacks range from extending his claws and using his wings, to ripping an arm off and shooting blood and turning his wings into a scythe. He also has the COOLEST SUPER IN FIGHTER HISTORY! He causes a bunch of arms to grab his opponent and drag him through a pool of blood, where the arms begin to beat the poor victim sensless while Jedah cackles. Oh, and one of his victory poses has him ripping his eyes out and laughing.
*B.B. Hood. She’s a cross between Little Red Riding Hood and Rambo. At first, she looks very innocent; blonde curles, little red hood, picnic basket, cute little puppy always following her. Then the player presses the F. Punch, and she pulls out an Uzi and fills everything with lead. Then comes the F. Kick, as she kicks a Land Mine straight at her opponent’s feet. Her basket doubles as a Rocket Launcher, she has apple-shaped bombs, and one of her specials has her summoning two giant army guys with miniguns and automatic rocket launchers. Of course, parents would complain that she’s teaching kids to smoke and shoot people for fun, but that’s another story.
*Donovan. In Nightwarriors, he was my favorite character style-wise. I never played VS2, but from what I heard, they improved him greatly, even though his projectile was still worthless. He’s a half-vampire monk with a big sword. He’s always followed by Anita, a little girl who has a lot of evil inside of her, and cannot feel emotion as a result. So, basically, Donovan’s trying to slaughter evil so that a little girl can smile. Nice guy. He attacks by summoning the gods; in fact, one of his specials has an ENORMOUS god flying over the opponent and crushing them with a giant foot. Oh, and his ending in Nightwarriors was kinda depressing. Watch it and see why.
I might write more later. I’ll see how the thread turns out first.
I stick with Strider/Morrigan or Strider/Ryu.