Tatsunoko VS. Capcom Ultimate All-Stars (Wii) - Review by Chris

Introduction

The Vs Capcom series of games have become one of the most recognisable and successful brands within the fighting genre on consoles over the years, with the likes of Marvel Vs Capcom 2 still being highly regarded for its gameplay. While that title skipped any of Nintendo's consoles, Capcom doesn't want to leave the Nintendo audience out in the cold and after a year of difficult licensing and localisation issues, they've finally brought Tatsunoko Vs Capcom: Ultimate All Stars to Wiis in the West. Can this one go toe to toe with its predecessors? The short answer is yes.

Gameplay

Tatsunoko Vs Capcom: Ultimate All Stars takes after the many iterations in to the 'Versus' series bringing in a roster of characters that spans two different production houses and pits them together in a duel of 2 against 2. It's very unlikely that many will have even heard of the Tatsunoko brand before now but those who remember the Samurai Pizza Cats cartoon will already have had an experience of what Tatsunoko Productions has to offer. With this brand taking over half of the game's roster, it might give rise to potential reasons to stay away because you haven't heard of the characters. If you are going through these motions, cast them aside because whether you know the characters or not will not matter one bit when you dive into the plethora of content bursting the seams of the disc the game is written on.

As stated, this game continues with the basics which have already been set out in the prior entries into the 'Versus' series of games. Players will pick two characters to make up their team from the initial roster of 21 characters, with 10 from Tatsunoko Productions and 11 from Capcom, before taking part in bouts against another pairing. On the face of it, it would sound like your typical fighting game, just done in a tag team form. But it's much more complex than this initial ideal suggests. The key to winning bouts will not only be in the mastering of the techniques for each of your chosen characters, with each housing 4 main methods of attack from weak to medium to strong to assist, but also in utilising your partner to deal greater levels of damage. Through the fights, you can bring in your partner to assist in the bout for single attack entry before they retreat. It may initially seem that this makes the game slightly lop sided but using this means you'll have to wait a period of time before you can use it again and so an element of strategy is built into using this technique. Likewise, the utilising of the assist can be incorporated into your special attacks, generated in a numbered bar positioned at the bottom of the screen, and whereas before your range of special attacks were already powerful, adding in the assistance of your partner can make for an unstoppable combination move.

As well as making use of the assist element of the game, those wanting to go far will also have to learn the ropes for the new gameplay mechanics making an appearance in the 'Versus' series for the first time. Firstly, there is the Mega Crash technique which will allow you to ability to break out of a combo or special attack that your opponent is hitting you with at the cost of your regenerated health as well as some of your special attack bars. It's not an imperative use because of how costly its use can be but when playing on higher difficulties or online against pros, it's a technique that will be invaluable in saving you from an early defeat. The second and final new mechanic is the Baroque mechanic. Here, the character spares the section of their health which is capable of being regenerated and becomes cloaked in a rainbow of colours and through this, your combo attacks are extended and the damage you do to your opponent is multiplied by the amount of regenerated health that has been sacrificed. This, like the Mega Crash technique, can be a Godsend at times and mastering both of these will benefit you in the long run.

In terms of modes on offer, the game offers the standard Arcade, Survival and Time Attack modes where you'll work your way through a series of stages leading up to a three part boss battle featuring one of Capcom's more recent boss characters from one of their more artistic game, see how long you can last with your team before being defeated or see how quickly you can get through a succession of 8 increasingly difficult stages. Alongside these offerings, there is a 4 player co-operative game played like a top down shooter set within the Lost Planet universe, which is great fun, as well as offline versus modes. There are also a huge number of unlockables, from movies to artwork to alternate costumes for characters as well as 5 hidden characters which will require multiple run throughs of the Arcade mode to unlock. Put simply, there is a vast amount of content on the disc facilitating to offline gameplay and it really will have you coming back for months to come.

Controls

The game supports of multitude of control options, with just about every setup imaginable supported. All setups provide you with 4 main attacking methods and while the basics of these are certainly easily obtainable, mastering the controls will certainly take time for any gamer due to the depth of abilities and movements needed to pull off some of the more advanced attacks. While it's in there, the use of the Wii-mote on its own doesn't lend itself well to the gameplay, feeling more neutered in relation to the other setups. Attaching a Nunchuk means that the setup fares better but it still lacks the resilience needed to play the game. Third party fight sticks are supported and true patrons of the genre will no doubt want to make use of these as they do make the experience at times more manageable and they do provide the best setup but in the absence of one of these, both the Classic and Gamecube controller are supported and both of these should be your setup of choice for playing, providing the best layouts for movement, manoeuvrability and attacking out of all of the setups.

Graphics

Capcom continue their foray into the 2.5D fighting game here with Tatsunoko Vs Capcom taking on a similar visual style to that seen in the likes of Street Fighter 4. Characters models and environments are all wrapped in a beautiful cel-shaded style and while it may lack the detail that the aforementioned title contains, it still looks very colourful and vibrant and easily stands its own ground. The animation of all characters is superbly fluid through each and every attack and the cel-shaded look, especially on the Tatsunoko side of things, really brings home the anime nature of these characters. There are some characters, such as the PTX-40A from Lost Planet, which don't quite look as good as they could do as a result of the change from a more realistic visual stand point to an anime one but all in all, the characters look great. The game makes great use of lighting, most noticeably in one of the stages where cherry blossom is hanging on the trees. It really makes things glow with a vibrancy that makes the game appealing and the use of lighting through the special attacks is mind-blowingly colourful that at times your eyes will be aghast at what it is seeing. The opening movie as well as the outro stills for the various characters are all hand drawn and look superb but the omission of animated outros which were present in the original Japanese version is a slight let down. It really is a pretty package and although it doesn't match the likes of Smash Bros. Brawl on a technical level, it more than matches it in terms of style and vibrancy.

Sound

Aside from the game's title piece of music, which plays during the opening movie and before you hit the main menu, the game's sound track is made up of a nice selection of music covering genres such as rock, pop and techno with each track tied to a specific stage. Your enjoyment of these will vary depending on your personal musical tastes but there are some very catchy pieces of music in there that will have you hoping for a specific stage to be selected. English and the original Japanese voice work for the characters is included on the disc for you to switch between at your choice but regardless of which setting you use, like the music it's all done to an incredibly high standard.

Special features

Gamers asked and Capcom delivered, with online now having been included for this Western release. Like the majority of titles on the service, it again relies on the distribution of friend codes which is slightly annoying but manageable. Once connected to the Wi-Fi Connection, you have the option of taking part in unranked and ranked matches, with an extensive leader board and ranking system in place to chart your progress online. The matchmaking system allows for some tuning to specific regions to alleviate the potential for large amounts of lag but even when playing with players on the other side of the world, the connection and service runs pretty smoothly. Lag can be an issue at times though and given the genre and gameplay, it isn't particularly helpful but it is entirely manageable and never becomes extensively bad.

Final comments

Even with half of the roster being made up of obscure characters that many won't know about, Tatsunoko Vs Capcom: Ultimate All Stars is such a good fighting game that this level of unknown doesn't even resonate once the game has been loaded up. The fighting and modes on offer are superb as is the entire roster, the controls are incredibly tight and the presentation is among the highest for a game on the console. The problems with the game are so minimal that they bear little to no effect on the game whatsoever. Fighting fans looking for some over the top fighting that doesn't star Mario can now happily look here for perhaps the finest and most packed fighting game on the Wii.

Pro: New gameplay mechanics are great, plenty of modes on offer, controls are tight and very responsive, presentation is superb
Con: Online doesn't always maintain a steady connect
Final score: 9.2

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