Darkstalkers

Presenting famous monsters in one-on-one righting situations, this latest CD from Capcom is a visual and sonic treat. But compared to a gem like Street Fighter Alpha (see ProReview, March), it falls just a little short in the depth department.

Monster Mash

A direct conversion of the year-old arcade game, Dark-stalkers captures your imagination and tests your skills at once. You slug it out in two-of-three standard bouts with famous monsters like a vampire, werewolf, mummy, and zombie. Each character has special moves that emulate the Street Fighter theme of fireballs and dragon punches. The arcade original was also one of the few games where the concept of linking moves (a la Killer Instinct) originated, so you'll find plenty of multihit combos here.

Controlling your character is as easy as the control on X-Men for the Saturn-basic, effective, but just a little too simple. Frantic button-pressing will get you through the first few matches easily, and just a rudimenary knowledge of the basic moves will see you through to the end of the game. Even on the hardest setting, it took the CamePros only a couple of hours to beat this game.

Fight of the Living Dead

The visuals are the real star, just as they were in X-Men. Colorful, anime-inspired graphics and lush, well-illustrated backgrounds make the game easy on the eyes. All the special moves are flashy and clear with little slowdown anywhere in the game.

The sounds could use a boost. Although the sound effects are crystal clear and suit their purpose well, the music is sugary and not as pleasant. Tune in to your own monster rock while you play.

Fright Fight

A good concept, strengthened by great graphics and good gameplay, is what makes Dark-stalkers one of the better fighting games on the PlayStation. Not as deep as Street Fighter Alpha, but just as fun, Darkstalkers is a welcome addition to the PlayStation library. File it after MK 3 and Alpha, but in front of everything else.

Have you ever asked yourself if Frankenstein, in a fair fight, could beat Dracula? Would a grudge match between the Wolfman and the Mummy satisfy your craving for conflict amongst the greats of horror films?

Universal Pictures attempted to answer questions like these in films such as Frankenstein vs. the Wolfman and Abbot and Costello Meet Dracula, but you can answer it yourself at home with Capcom's Darkstalkers.

The long-awaited conversion of Capcom's killer coinop Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors is about to be released on the Sony PlayStation, and what we've seen so far, in the latest version to cross our PSXs, is going to make a lot of fighting game fans very happy campers. If you're not familiar with the game, Darkstalkers puts you in control of one of ten original monster characters.There's Demitri Maximoff, a deadly but suave vampire; Rikuo, an ancient merman on a quest to find others of his race; Victor Von Gerdenheim, the massive artificial man; Lord Raptor, a rock and roll zombie (that's new); Anakaris, the ancient Egyptian mummy; Jonathan Talbain, a young man cursed with lycanthropy (that means he's a werewolf, you dolts); Bishamon, a Samurai ghost; Morrigan Aenslaed, the Scottish succubus witch, Felicia, the cat-woman, and Sasquatch, a hunk of freezing fur from Canada, eh.

Darkstalkers is filled with the fluid fighting action that brawl fans have come to expect from Capcom. Not only are the animation and character design top-notch, the game controls are extremely fluid and intuitive.The game features mid-air blocking, charged special moves, and a new combo system, whatever that means.There's also a success meter for the success-minded kids out there to measure their, uh, success with. No matter what happens (barring earthquakes, world war, meteors striking the icecaps, or alien invasion), this game will be huge. Look for it at your local game store soon.