Up until recently, Wii owners relied on Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Brawl to get their fighting fix. That changed two weeks ago, when Capcom announced Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, slated to arrive this winter. Originally a Japan-only release, the company worked out a deal to bring this exciting fighter, which pits characters from Street Fighter against famous faces from anime studio Tatsunoko Production, to the states.
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is the seventh game in the publisher's critically acclaimed "Vs." series that includes the incredible Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Except instead of competing against characters from Marvel Comics, you'll create fantasy matches between Capcom heroes and Tatsunoko Production's anime fighters. On the Capcom side, you have icons like Ryu and Chun-Li (Street Fighter II), Morrigan (Darkstalkers), Mega Man Volnutt (Mega Man Legends), Roll (Mega Man), Viewtiful Joe and Alex (Street Fighter III). On the Tatsunoko side, you'll play as Ken the Eagle (Science Ninja Team Gatchaman), Tekkaman (Tekkaman: The Space Knight), Polymar (Hurricane Polymar), Ippatsuman (Gyakuten! Ippatsuman) and others. Capcom also plans to include additional characters not seen in the Japanese release, but hasn't officially announced who'll make the cut.
Similar to Marvel vs. Capcom 2, you play from a traditional 2-D perspective, but with fancy 3-D backgrounds. In addition, you'll create two-person teams (you cannot do this with characters Gold Lightan and PTX-40A, since they take up a hefty piece of screen real estate) and tag in/out at will; you can also combine forces to unleash more devastating moves. That said, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is anything but complex. Since developer Eighting designed the game to work with the Wii Remote, Classic and GameCube controllers, you won't need to memorize complex button combinations; the game was built using a three-button system.
That doesn't mean, however, that you can't pull off some crazy maneuvers. Each character has his/her/its unique set of moves and special attacks. Pressing the change button, for example, calls your partner into the fight for a brief attack, and you have the option of tagging in mid combo to mix things up, or sacrifice health to achieve a larger combo, something Capcom calls the Baroque Cancel. Conversely, the Mega Crash enables you to break up an enemy's combo at the expense of your character's super meter.
For the U.S. release, the game comes with a single player/arcade style mode that challenges you to defeat a series of computer controller opponents. There's also a Time Attack mode (defeat as many fighters as possible before the clock expires) and Survival, where you have less health than normal. A Vs. option is available for two players, but we're much more excited about online play via Wi-Fi Connection. It's time to bust out those friend codes.
Everything sounds enjoyable, but unfortunately, we'll have to wait several months until the game hits retail. But thus far, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom looks like another winner from Capcom and perhaps the beginning of a long list of fighting games on the Wii.
Chris Buffa is GameDaily's senior editor. He enjoys easy achievement points, first person shooters and starting trouble.
Reader Comments (1)
Looking forward to this game, winter can't come here any faster!