This Week in Defunct Games - April 27, 2012

What Is It? After successfully launching Street Fighter II on the Sega Genesis with Special Champion Edition, Capcom decided to follow up their success with a more traditional arcade port. This is the second and final Street Fighter II game on Sega's 16-bitter, a near carbon copy of the Super NES game released at the same time. "Super" introduces four new characters (Dee Jay, Fei Long, Cammy and T. Hawk), completely redrawn graphics, impressive new backgrounds and a whole bunch of new moves for the existing World Warriors.

Much like the Super NES version uploaded to the Virtual Console four years ago, this Genesis port features a passable (but not arcade-perfect) recreation of one of Capcom's worst Street Fighter iterations. Don't expect any of the advances found in Super Street Fighter II Turbo, you're stuck with a slow fighting game that lacks the balance and refinement of future installments.

The big improvement this time around is the addition of online play. This marks two important firsts for the Wii: Not only is this a Street Fighter game playable online, but this also marks the first time you've been able to play online competitively in a Virtual Console release. That in and of itself may be enough reason for players to buy Super Street Fighter II a second time, but it goes a long way to justify Capcom milking this overexposed franchise.

Does It Still Hold Up? First the good news: Super Street Fighter II plays fine on the Sega Genesis. Unfortunately, the game doesn't look or sound as sharp as the Super NES, which was the closest to the arcade at the time. Since then we've been inundated with countless arcade-perfect ports, making this Virtual Console release slightly less exciting. The online mode is certainly welcome, even if it's barebones and not always as consistent as you would like.

Is It Worth The Money? Why has it taken Nintendo six long years to introduce online play in Virtual Console games? Just imagine how much more impressive SNK's line-up of Neo Geo games would have been with this added feature. The addition of online play calms down the rage left from Capcom releasing an inferior version of something they gave us four years ago. Why not incorporate this technology into something that hasn't come out already, instead of yet another Street Fighter II port? There's really no reason for you to buy this game if you own an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, at that point you should just spend a few dollars more and get Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Everybody else might want to weigh the pros and cons of buying this annoying cash-in.

What Is It? Darkstalkers was always the more interesting fighting game. While Ryu and Ken swapped fireballs, this trilogy allowed Capcom the chance to wow us with their creativity. The result was a chaotic mix of one-on-one fighting and monsters from classic horror movies. You have vampires, werewolves, aliens, mummies and just about any other creepy crawly you can think of. Sure the whole thing is an incoherent mess, but there's something about pitting a gun-toting Little Red Riding Hood up against merman that never gets old. Ignore the name, because this 1998 PlayStation game is more than Darkstalkers 3. This is actually a comprehensive collection of the arcade game and its two expansions (Darkstalkers' Revenge and The Lord of Vampire), adding a number of new characters and moves to the mix.

Does It Still Hold Up? Capcom had a mixed record when it came to porting their fighting games to the Sony PlayStation. Most purists prefer the Sega Saturn fighters, mostly because of the 4 mb RAM cartridge. But Darkstalkers 3 comes off looking pretty good on the PSone. The hardcore fan of the arcade original will certainly notice a drop in animation frames and some of the sounds aren't quite right, but it comes off better than most of Capcom's other beat-em-ups. The addition of the expansions make this a genuinely strong package all around.

Is It Worth The Money? You might not know it from the title, but Darkstalkers 3 is a surprisingly deep fighting game experience. The two expansion packs are a nice touch and the gameplay holds up well all these years later. The characters are big and goofy, which will certainly appeal to fans of the genre who have grown tired of Street Fighter's sameness. On the other hand, PSP owners should think about picking Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower. Still, the six dollar asking price is about right for the first PSone Classic to be released in three months.

What Is It? Forget knocking on people's doors, interviewing suspects and dealing with a mountain of paperwork, because that's not how they do things in Future Los Angeles! If Future Cop L.A.P.D. is to be believed, law enforcement will be done with giant mech suits and non-stop shooting. On the other hand, at least the traffic has cleared up a little.

In Future Cop L.A.P.D. you take control of a Mechwarrior-style suit and motor around a giant labyrinthine world fighting bad guys and picking up power-ups. There are eight different sections of Los Angeles, each requiring your special kind of justice (aka blowing everything to pieces). Although not one of the PlayStation's biggest games, Future Cop has a lot of charm and character to make this worth considering on the PSN/SEN store.

Does It Still Hold Up? The pictures make it look like an uncontrollable mess, but thankfully that's not the case. The gameplay works well and there's a surprising amount of variety between stages. The real problem is the check point system, which requires players to start all over from the start of a level when they die. This would be fine with shorter levels, but can be a real headache considering how large everything is. The graphics can also be a little hard to see on the PSP's screen, but isn't an issue on the PlayStation 3.

Is It Worth The Money? In a lot of ways Future Cop L.A.P.D. is nothing more than a mindless shooter. But I'm fine with that, considering that most of the PSone Classics released have been deep role playing games and niche fighters. The gameplay is solid and the story is long enough to warrant the six dollars. I did run into some frustrating gameplay decisions throughout the game, but it's nothing that most people can't overlook. Even if this is not one of the best PSone games on Sony's network, it's still worth checking out until something more substantial comes out.