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With the history of the series apply covered, today we are expanding into other Capcom fighters to see how Darkstalkers influenced them. We have already talked bit about a few of the mechanics that Darkstalkers introduced in a few games. Today will expand on those as well as a few others.

 

Marvel Vs. Capcom Series

As we already covered, one of the important things that both Marvel Vs. and Darkstalkers share are chain combos. Chain combos are the ability to combo normal moves into other normal moves and into a specials or supers. However, there is another important addition that Darkstalkers introduced early on in the Marvel Vs. series. In the first Capcom Marvel fighting game, X-Men: Children of the Atom, featured a secret character from Street Fighter. Akuma was a secret character, based on his Super Street Fighter II Turbo incarnation. Akuma would be the catalysis that would help start the Marvel Vs. Capcom series. However, a Darkstalkers would be next star before the two companies crossed over in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter and not the one you expect.

In the spiritual successor to XCOTA, Marvel Super Heroes, another secret Capcom character was hidden in the game, a Darkstalkers character no less... sort of...kind of... OK, technically they aren't hidden character, well at least a fully developed one. The character was Anita, the NPC character that followed Donovan around in Night Warriors. Only this time, it was just her and not Donovan. Although she does have and uses Donovan's sword, which strangely now has a bow tied around it.

Anita wasn't a finished character. She has no picture on the character select screen but shares it with the games final boss, Thanos, on her Vs. and Win screens. She also has no voice over (or voice at all) and lacks a lot of the fluid animation that much of the other characters in the game have. How she played was odd to: Anita was very similar to Donovan in which both characters use the sword as a way to extend normal attacks, plant the sword in the ground, and call it back at any where on screen. Unlike Donovan, Anita is limited to one attack without the sword. Even stranger are her special attacks and ability. She has a triple jump which is weird considering everyone in the game has a super jump. One of her special attacks, Fire Sword, has Anita's sword doing a fire slash with a Akuma from Street Fighter appearing briefly behind her. The other special attack is a Lighting Sword which a bunch of lighting fires from her sword with Mei-Ling, Hsien-Ko's sister, behind her. Her oddest attack is her sole hyper combo, super attacks in the Marvel Vs. Capcom games, Love For You. A crazy projectile attack where a hundreds of doll heads fly out towards her opponent from the doll she carries. The craziest thing about this move is that it actually does more damage on block than when you make a hit. Anita might have been a place holder for possibly Donovan as a secret character in MSH but never got developed enough. We may never know. If you are curious, you can play and unlock her in Marvel Super Heroes via Marvel Vs. Capcom Origins. The next Darkstalkers character that would come into the Marvel Vs. Capcom series would be definitely be a full character and would play a more important role in establishing the series.

  

In 1998, the first Marvel Vs. Capcom appeared at arcades. The first in the historic fighting games series allowed both Capcom and Marvel to pull from their extended library of characters more so than previous entries. It makes sense that Capcom chose a Darkstalkers character, specifically Morrigan, in the game. Darkstalkers are a perfect for the Marvel Vs. Capcom series for two reasons: not having to compromise/change and similar mechanics. In the Marvel Vs. Capcom series, things are definitely exaggerated sometimes even a bit too much. Take Ryu's iconic hadouken attack. In Street Fighter, its an average sized fire ball that isn't bigger than his head. In MVC, its a monstrous size fireball that's almost twice the size of him.

A lot of the characters on both size have over exaggerated moves like the fact that Magneto has a EMP laser attack. However, with Darkstalkers can be over exaggerated because the its literally the norm in the series. So when Morrigan's pulls out a giant laser cannon in her hyper combo, its comical but believable based on the character.

Another reasons Darkstalkers worked so well with MVC was the similar game mechanics. Beyond just chain combos, Darkstalkers also had an emphasis on aerial attacks, something that is very integral to the MVC. Morrigan is an especially good choice for MVC because she is very versatile in the air. Not only did she have attacks that work in the air from Darkstalkers but also super moves that can be done in too. Plus Morrigan was the few characters in Darkstalkers that had an air dash, something that translated very well in MVC. Another interesting Darkstalkers bit from the first MVC was the inclusion of Lilith, albeit as a pallet swap for Morrigan. Like Darkstalkers 3, Lilith was a lot similar and weaker in many areas compared to Morrigan though she does have her own hyper combos. Her ending in the game even plays off her and her sister's endings from Darkstalkers 3.

Morrigan showed that Darkstalkers could work in the open constraints of the Marvel Vs. Capcom world. So when Capcom made a sequel to the game a little over a year later, more Darkstalkers were included plus a little extra.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes was released in 2000 for arcades. The sequel added 3 Vs. 3 tag team action as well as a 50+ character roster. Part of the new roster on the Capcom side featured three new characters from Darkstalkers besides Morrigan: B.B. Hood, Felicia, and Anakaris. All of them fit perfectly into the non-stop craziness that MVC 2 had to offer. There was also a bit of strange addition to the Capcom roster as well. Capcom made two new characters for specifically MVC 2: The pirate captain Ruby Heart and the humanoid cactus man Amingo. There wasn't much info given about these two characters other than Ruby Heart's story which serves at the story in MVC 2. Ruby Heart, a pirate, sensed a great energy that could possibly destroy both the Marvel and Capcom universes. Thus, she called on heroes from both worlds to stop it. Eventually, the evil power was discovered to be a monstrous gollem by the name of Abyss. After defeating Abyss' three forms, the players leaves Abyss behind, and Ruby Heart toss the sphere overboard ending all we really know about her. Right? Not really.

 

A few years ago, shortly after the release of Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom Ultimate All Stars and after the announcement of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, Ryota Niitsuma said that Ruby Heart was a failed Darkstalkers character. Unfortunately, I could not find the exact interview or stream where he said it when researching this fact, although its has been noted on Event Hubs, so take that trivia with a grain of salt. However, if it is true and Ruby Heart was a failed Darkstalkers character, does that also apply with Amingo? Amingo reasonably could fit with the cast of Darkstalkers. Plant monsters have been a done in films before, most notably the film Little Shop of Horrors (the original Roger Corman one, not the 80's musical remake which actually based on a stage musical) which could be where inspiration for him came from. Another Capcom character introduced in MVC 2 could have also been a possible Darkstalkers, Son Son. Son Son is the granddaughter of the original Son Son, one of Capcom's earliest arcade games and based on Son Gokuu from Chinese fable Journey to The West. She was a monkey who fought with an extendable bow staff and could also turn into a giant ape. While based on an existing property in Capcom universe, she could have fit into the game. Even the games' final boss, Abyss could be seen as a boss in the Darkstalkers universe, especially in his last two forms. Was Ruby Heart as well as a few of the new Capcom characters in MVC 2 a testing ground for a possible Darkstalkers 4? We will never know but their legacy help shaped chaotic fun that surrounded MVC 2.

  

With the announcement of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds in 2010, it didn't take long to get an answer if any Darkstalkers would be in the game. Literally the second trailer for MVC 3, revealed Morrigan as a character. It was strange that Morrigan actually got announced before Street Fighter's (and possibly Capcom's) leading lady Chun-Li. Morrigan was soon joined by Felicia, making her second appearance from MVC 2. Making her first appearance in the MVC series though was, Hsien-Ko from Night Warriors. All three Darkstalkers (or I guess Dark Women?) played closer to their Darkstalkers 3/ Vampire Savior versions with one of their hyper combos being their Dark Force ability. Morrigan's Astral Vision ability (where Morrigan creates a shadow of herself behind her opponent) should be noted for being extremely effective in this game, especially in the update version of MVC 3, Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. Some players all call her move cheap, but when your the leading lady of Darkstalkers, I guess cheap shots are the norm.

 

Street Fighter

In the Night Warrior post, we briefly went over some of the some things that the Street Fighter Alpha fighter would use from Darkstalkers. The main branch of Street Fighter also use a few mechanics from Darkstalkers. In the Street Fighter 3 series, there was an reenforced emphasis on aerial attacks. Nothing like what was found in Street Fighter Alpha, the Marvel Vs. Capcom Series, or Darkstalkers but more so than anything seen in Street Fighter 2. So air blocking, something first started in Darkstalkers and XCOTA, was introduced. Later updates in the Street Fighter 3 series would incorporate the iconic parrying system with this as well. Another thing Street Fighter 3 incorporated was a small bit of chain combos. While the game as a whole still was primarily a link based combo system, certain characters could chain a specific set of their normals together for unique attacks. These were called target combos. Characters like Yun and Yang had multiple chain combos which coupled with their already fast rush down style, made them very valued characters. Street Fighter 3 also included a multiple meter system used that could be used to power up special attacks like Darkstalkers ES attacks. In Street Fighter, they were ironically called EX attacks and were visually characterized by a glowing yellow flash on characters.

Street Fighter 4 and all of its updates would bring many of those Darkstalkers-like qualities into its game play. Many of the characters had target combos and EX moves. However, Street Fighter's visual flare seemed to be biggest thing that echoed Darkstalkers. This relationship can be seen in the Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition character Oni.

Oni is Street Fighter 4's take on Shin Akuma. Shin Akuma (Shin Gouki) is alternate form of Akuma who surpassed his own strength and humanity and become much more demonic-like. First appearing in Street Fighter Alpha, Shin Akuma has been a regularly appearing in Street Fighter and a few crossovers like Capcom Vs. SNK 2. His Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition appearance is much different. Where older versions of Shin Akuma had Akuma only surpassing his own limits, Oni has surpassed that and has Akuma literally becoming a demon. In fact, the literal translation of Oni's Japanese name is mad demon to which is a look Oni personifies.

Oni's look is very similar to Demitri from Darkstalkers especially with the aura that sounds him. His demonic look definitely makes him stand out from the rest of the cast and his over emphasized animations are reminiscence of how animations were done in Darkstalkers. On top of that he even plays similar to Darkstalkers characters. Oni is only character who has an air dash, which also functions as an attack. While can't shoot any fireballs in the air, he can shoot out his fireball ultra in the air much in the same way characters like Morrigan can do. Speaking of Morrigan, Oni can do Akuma's famous super combo the Shun Goku Satsu (Raging Demon) both on the ground an in the air much in the same way Morrigan can do her Darkness Illusion on both ground and air. Fun fact: the commands for Morrigan's Darkness Illusion is the same for Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu and she had the command before Akuma did. Oni is the probably one of the best glimpses at what Darkstalkers 4 could possibly look like and uploads a long standing rumor that the game would be runing off of a modified Street Fighter 4 engine. There is another game that might offer a better possiblity of what Darkstalkers 4 look and play like. We'll talk about that game on Thursday. Right now, we have one more Capcom game that takes many ques from Darkstalkers.

Red Earth/ Warzard

As stated in the second blog, the Darkstalkers series ran off of the CPS 2 arcade board. CPS 2 was Capcom most used arcade board and ran many arcade classics. However, Capcom did make one more arcade board, the CPS 3. The board is best known for its use for the Street Fighter 3 series and the fluid animations it allowed. The first game that used the board, though wasn't Street Fighter but a new IP by Capcom called Red Earth in 1996 (Warzard in Japan). Wazard was a hybrid fighting/ RPG game. Players selected from four playable characters (Leo, Tessa/Tabbita, Kenji, and Mai Ling) and would fight eight bosses. While the boss fights were definitely rooted in side scrolling brawler, there were definitely elements of fighting games in the game like meters and even super attacks. Characters could level up and gain new armor and abilities to improve their attacks. The game also featured a two player VS. mode where the game's fighting roots really shine.

Its not very hard to see the Darkstalkers roots in Red Earth. Most of the monsters you fought were inspired by some of the oldest lore devoted to monsters. Dragons, sea monsters, harpies, and even chimera were some of the monsters you faced. The playable characters could definitely and have some character parallels in the Darkstalkers universe. Leo is a warrior king cursed with the exterior of a lion man and tries desperately cure himself. Tessa is a deviously curious witch who is curious about the world though does not wish to conquer it. Both of these characters have parallels in the Darkstalkers universe (Leo= Talbain, Donovan and Tessa= Morrigan). It almost seems natural for these two franchises to meet some how but they haven't. Though characters from each franchise have appeared together a few crossover fighting games: Pocket Fighter, Capcom Fighting Evolution, and SNK Vs. Capcom. What has always intrigue me about Red Earth is whether or not this was suppose to be the next Darkstalkers or some spin-off. There many elements that connect both franchises, but Capcom has not re-released game on home consoles. The arcade version actually never made it to the states. Its one of Capcom rarer arcade games, although has been emulated via MAME.

There are many other games that Darkstalkers left some what of imprint on at Capcom, probably many other ones I have over looked. Tomorrow, we will be looking a non-Capcom game series that so much influenced by Darkstalkers, for a brief time I was suppose be the first crossover fighting game that didn't involve Street Fighter. See you then.