Darkstalkers 3

If there's one genre that Capcom knew how to do near perfectly for decades, it was 2D fighting games (3D is more iffy for them). Their hand-drawn fighters ran the gamut from the highly technical pugilism of Street Fighter 2 to the chain-combo craziness of Marvel Vs. Capcom. In the middle of that range lay the horror-themed Darkstalkers series. While the third game in that series provided a nice little change of pace in the arcades, the Playstation port is almost as painful as a Soul Fist to the face.

Story has never been a real concern for Capcom's fighting games, and Darkstalkers 3 is no different. The Vampire Lord Jedah invites the Night Warriors to his realm to take their power. Fortunately, that flimsy premise does draw in some creative characters including the pint-size merc B.B. Hood, the mummy Anakaris, and the Sasquatch to join classic characters like Donovan, Felicia, and the face of the series Morrigan.


Capcom's always had trouble adapting their 2D fighters to the original Playstation. Due to the limited RAM in the system, Capcom faced a no-win scenario. Either they could include all the animations which resulted in bouts of horrendous slowdown, or they could cut frames of animation which kept the speed up but made the visuals janky. Darkstalkers 3 chose the latter option. The gameplay is better than in most of the Capcom fighters on the original Playstation, but it's still not ideal. While I very rarely experienced slowdown in my playtime, the missing animation frames threw off my timing, making pulling off special moves more frustrating. Also, if you don't have a fight stick, expect your thumb to be murdered by the quarter- and half-circle motions that almost all the characters require for their specials. Finally, don't come looking for bonuses. Unlike the port of Street Fighter Alpha 3 which included a whole host of bonus modes, Darkstalkers 3 is bare-bones, providing only the standard Arcade and Versus modes. No, I don't count the ability to edit the characters' color schemes as a bonus.

Darkstalkers 3 is one of the best Playstation ports of a Capcom fighting game, but I still find it hard to recommend. The visual issues and lack of extras make it a hard sell when an arcade-perfect version of the same game can be downloaded on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in the form of Darkstalkers Resurrection. If you absolutely must have a Capcom fighter on your PS1 and already have Street Fighter Alpha 3, this is the best option. Otherwise, let these monsters rest in peace.