Tatsunoko vs CAPCOM: Ultimate All Stars

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a new VS game from CAPCOM.  So it was definitely a pleasant surprise when CAPCOM Japan announced Tatsunoko vs CAPCOM (TvC) for the Wii last year. However with that announcement brought on few questions:

1-     Why only announced in Japan?

2-     Why the Wii?

3-     What the hell is Tatsunoko?

Well thankfully CAPCOM brought over this little gem to North America this year and all of those questions….well mostly all those questions have been answered.

Presentation

I’ll start out straight by saying,  no means is this game on the same technical level of say SFIV or BlazBlue on the other big cousin consoles, however this game does look spectacular for a Wii game. It is based off the arcade game that was released in Japan that runs on hardware that isn’t exactly taxing nor expensive. Now I have no way of directly comparing the port as I’ve never seen the arcade version in person, but based on videos it seems to be pretty bang on.

The visuals take a detour from the usual sprite based VS fighters CAPCOM has released in the past. However the polygonal characters and backgrounds seem to have a bit more artistic flair to them than say SFIV. Sure the game is 3D moving on a 2D plane but the models have a cell-shaded look to them although I don’t believe that is a technique they used. Many people who have been turned off by SFIVs revamped art style and graphical path may want to check this out as it might be more for them. Whether you like the graphical style or not it sure is damn refreshing to see Morrigan in something than the same sprite we’ve seen for about the last 15 or so years.

During game play the combat moves fluidly at what looks to be 60fps. With all the kicks, punches and fireballs being thrown you’ll get the usual VS flare with particle effects going off and big flashes of light. Taking place of the old static profile pics a player would see before they unleashed a massive super, TvC introduces something similar to SFIV (I know I know…but it’s hard not to compare, I’m sorry) where a close up of your character will come into the screen and begin the super motion. This might seem like it’d be distracting at first, but for anyone playing it actually adds to the emphatic butt kicking you’re about plant on your opponent. Not to mention it frees you up for those few seconds for you to turn to your opponent and say “oh that’s going to hurt”.

The visuals overall in TvC are extremely impressive and I wouldn’t doubt that when showing friends for the first time the first thing out of their mouths will be “Soooo this is a Wii game?”

On the audio side of things you’re getting the typical CAPCOM service. Familiar voices such as Ryu, Chun Li and Morrigan will sound like you’ve played the game before while the characters from Tatsunoko sound like they were born to be in a CAPCOM fighter. Even the soundtrack is typical CAPCOM fighter, extremely bad J-Pop. Now we all know how bad “I’m gunna take you for a ride” was in MvC2 but it was catchy and SFIV extremely N’Sync friendly “Indestructible” was so incredibly bad it was awesome! It’s too bad TvC has no such song, as the introduction tune is definitely cheesy but easily forgettable.

Game Play

For those unfamiliar with CAPCOMs VS series, they play similar to their other games just with a little extra…say maybe….crack.  This along with that they tend to pair up CAPCOM characters with some other sort of license, X-Men vs Street Fighter being the first in the series. A player begins by picking their teammate in which can be “tagged” into play many ways. In comes Tatsunoko. They are an anime company which is extremely popular in Japan. I will admit, when it comes to anime I can be extremely ignorant as I’m not a huge fan, so when I saw these characters I had no idea who they were and for the early hours of the game I stayed primarily with CAPCOM characters. That however changed in the end.

The game is based on chaining together combos both on the ground and in the air. 20+ hit combos that do little damage are not uncommon in this game and more like the norm. Whereas other fighters tend to focus more on exquisite timing and precision TvC focuses more on making everything look totally badass.

Throughout the many the many iterations of the VS games, they became more complex and brought into the game many different variables that can affect the match. From a noob standpoint this can come off as extremely daunting. What started off as an easy pick up and play series turned into a series really only hardcore fighting game fans could really understand. TvC takes that complication, scales it back and makes what I think has been the best balance of casual friendly to hardcore satisfaction to date.

The first thing CAPCOM did was restrict the player to picking 2 characters as opposed to 3 that was in MvC2. This kind of brings back the “rock, paper, scissors” game play that we gamers love so much. It’s like a breath of fresh air when compared to the “rock, paper, scissors, elephant, gun, grenade, squirrel…Cable beats all”, template MvC2 had.

CAPCOM have also scaled back other features as well, or generally just changed things up to make the game easier to play. Charge characters from other popular CAPCOM fighters are now surprisingly motion characters. Meaning instead of having to hold back for a second then pushing forward and an attack button to say throw a fireball with Chun-Li, it’s simply replaced by a typical fireball motion. This might come off as weird at first but it totally makes sense as TvC moves at a much faster pace than those other games and charge characters really had no place in VS games as they were all at a disadvantage from the beginning. So chances are, when you invite a certain Bitch Pig over you’ll have no problem handling their Chun-Li the first match ;)

Instead of using the standard 6 button layout of other CAPCOM fighters, TvC  cuts it down to simply 4. Only 3 of those are attack buttons. You have low, medium and heavy attack and then a button to tag your partner or call them in for an assist. Not only does this make things a lot easier in regard to combos, but easier to play on a control pad if you don’t want to shell out money for a Wii arcade stick.

All the above may have people calling DUMBED DOWN, but by no means has the game left the hardcore people out. The game still consists of techniques veterans know and love as well as the addition of others. Super cancels are still here as well as assist counters and such. Some new additions are baroque combos that let you continue a combo that would normally end into another brand new combo and the new Mega Burst which lets you break out of any offensive barrage you may be absorbing. For BlazBlue fans it’s a lot like the barrier bursts except instead of having one per round it’s used at the expense of 2 super bars. These new techniques will take practice to master and it’s something that will separate the casual players from the extreme. In the end to do the most incredible combos and entertaining “WOW” moments you’ll need to have skill in regard to timing.

In the end the game play is very solid and can definitely stand up to the more popular fighters out there. Look at the scaled back techniques as more of a better focus then omissions from previous games. Also look at it as a game that is incredibly easy to pick up and play, but if you want to you can learn things that are incredibly robust and rewarding if you choose to do so.

Multiplayer

Ok, this is where it all comes down. You can have the best playing single player fighter in the world but if that doesn’t translate to multiplayer, what good is it?

This is where TvC is kind of hard to judge. Simply put, if you have people to play this with locally, it’s fantastic. Great balance, great pick up and play mechanics and of course that “just one more match” mentality. However, with the advancement of fighters and gaming as a whole, a competitive game needs a ship to connect people that may not be close enough to enjoy a good couch beating and TvCs ship can seem more like a tug boat at times.

My experience with online has been anywhere from enjoyable to MUTHER FU*&%$ LAGGY PIECE OF SH*%!! Let’s put it this way. My first experience online involved 5 chances at connecting and when I did it took 5 minutes of playtime before a character was knocked out because the lag was that bad. Ok, this kind of stuff happens; lets play someone I know. Saw a friend of mine on XBL and asked him if he could play a few matches. He agreed and we proceeded to the menus. Ahhh crap, that’s right Wii game codes. Back to XBL we go. Hook up the party chat and get everything in motion.

Ok, friend codes in place, I set up a game. “Why can’t I see you online?” he says “I don’t effing know” I quickly reply. After about 5 minutes we figured out both players not only have to be in the online menus but have to be logged into friend match as well. This might seem to make sense but because the Wii has no friends list to check at anytime, the only way you’d be able to set up matches with friends would be to do so ahead of time. Unless of course you both happen to be in that same menu at the same time.

We get started. Lag is much better here. It’s still there but really only affected inputting commands rather than laggyness of game play itself. We were able to adjust accordingly and continued to play the game for a couple hours with little problems. Oh wait there was one more. After each match it’ll ask both fighters if they want to rematch. Problem is this defaults to “NO” so there was a few times one of us would hit a button too quick and we’d have to start up a new game.

After this day it’s been the same. Very hit or miss. Sometimes it’s unplayable, sometimes it runs fine, but there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it which is frustrating.

Online for me is of such huge importance. At my age the days of “come on over and we’ll play SF for hours” simply don’t exist anymore. Now I know a lot of those issues aren’t the faults of CAPCOM but rather more like Nintendo making us jump through hoops if we want to play online with our friends. Either way the fact that online isn’t consistent and the system itself is pretty bare will likely lead to me abandoning the game much sooner than I have other fighters.

Overall

Overall I think TvC for the Wii is a must have for any fighting game fan or even anyone thinking of picking up their first fighter. It’s extremely easy to get into and new players will be pulling off multi-hit combos in no time. Fighting game fanatics can have something that not only has to be a break from their game of choice, but possibly a top contender for their gaming time wallet.

I think it’s a tremendous step in the right direction for the franchise and I’m so happy CAPCOM decided to make it more streamlined and focused. It seems the game is more balanced because of this. Being a huge fan of the previous VS games I can easily say that technically this is the best one yet. Sure I didn’t know the Tatsunoko universe before this but in my many hours I’ve spent with the game a few of them have quickly became my go to characters.

The only question I have left….Why the Wii? Seriously. I could see TvC being much more successful on a platform with a better suited online community (or structure for that matter). Let’s just hope if CAPCOM isn’t considering a port to PS3 or 360, they’re at least considering a sequel or another VS game being released, because if they’ll be of the same quality as TvC, people would be all over it like a Honda Ass-point would be all over your face.

PRO-TIP FROM A NOT SO PRO: For beginners out there, here’s a nice starter. Every characters Launcher is Down/Forward+Heavy Follow that by every characters bread and butter Air Combo: Jump, Low,Low,Med, Med, Heavy.  Master those simple things and the world of TvC (and pretty much any CAPCOM vs game) will open up for you.