tatsunoko vs. capcom first impressions

I currently own 46 different fighting games. At one point or another, I've probably owned over 60, and I've played at least 100 different fighters. Today I picked up Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars for the Wii and can already say that it's a possible top 5 for me. Capcom fucking nailed it, plain and simple. Brian R. didn't think I'd be able to pull myself away from the game long enough to write anything about it, and he's kind of right. This game is way too much fun. While nothing can touch Capcom vs. SNK 2 for me (fact: best fighting game of all time), TvC is already blowing away even it's own competition.

First of all, this game looks great. If you have component cables, the first thing you'll probably notice when you start playing is that the graphics are all very bright, clean, and crisp. Capcom has a knack for taking advantage of the best aspects of the Wii (RE4, Okami, Zack & Wiki, etc.) and TvC is by far their best effort. If you don't have component cables, you can grab some from Amazon for 6 dollars shipped. The music has all been enjoyable and is definitely a step up from the weak Street Fighter 4 soundtrack. Animation is extremely fluid, as you would expect from a Capcom fighter. The presentation is superb, and shows yet again that developers can definitely get a lot out of the Wii if they actually try.

I've only played using the classic controller, but control is spot on with it. You'll quickly get used to the layout, which is stripped down and designed very simplistically. There are only 3 attack buttons, which may sound limited, but the simplified control scheme is definitely welcome considering you've got enough madness to worry about on screen without having to deal with the silly control options you have with the Wii (I know Brian R. and I aren't the only ones excited for these). Since this game was designed from the ground up for the Wii, this is one of the few Capcom fighters that doesn't make you feel like you're at a disadvantage if you aren't playing with an arcade stick, though they are available for purists. The remote/nunchuck option doesn't even look like it's worth trying, and I honestly feel that the Gamecube controller is the most poorly designed controller I've ever used, especially for fighters. Get a classic controller if you don't already have one.

Brian R. and I played at least 15 or 20 matches online tonight. As with every Wii game, the online is way more complicated then it should be, but it gets the job done. Matches were relatively lag-free and overall I'm really happy that the online isn't broken. I still cannot fathom how Nintendo could screw up the online for Super Smash Bros. Brawl so badly, but you finally wipe that memory clean because Capcom pulled through and has given us the best online experience we could hope for on the Wii. I hopped on for a few random ranked matches and was destroyed immediately by some dudes showing off their newly unlocked hidden characters. I guess I still have quite a bit of practicing to do. As a side note, there are some nice touches from SF4 like icons for online play.

Oh yeah, and I guess I should probably mention that this game is unbelievably FUN. I feel that in terms of gameplay, it blows Marvel vs. Capcom 2 out of the water. Trust me, it won't matter that you're probably not familiar with a huge portion of the cast; you won't be complaining about the lack of recognizable characters once you actually start playing as some of them. In fact, I honestly think that I prefer the overall selection of Tatsunoko fighters over the Capcom characters. Keep in mind that I have yet to unlock any of the hidden characters, but I'm really enjoying the interesting new cast. I played the original Japanese release last year, and this update is an improvement is every way, especially with the addition of 5 new characters and the subtraction of that fat fuck, Hakushon Daimao:


I also played through the arcade mode once and was very pleased. The post-match character dialogue is interesting, and if all the endings are anywhere near the quality that Ippatsuman's ending was, I'm literally excited to beat the game with every character. There is also a fun mini-game during the credits sequence which actually unlocks ANOTHER mini-game in the form of an old, arcade-style top down shooter.

But hey, guess what? Writing about this game is way less fun than actually playing it. And I'm assuming that reading about me playing it is even less fun. So go buy it and we can play together. My TvC friend code is: 2751-2516-5019.

-Brian T.