Darkstalkers (Japanese: ヴァンパイア, Vampire) is a fighting game series created by Capcom, where various mythical and fantastic monsters (as well as from horror fiction) fight each other.
Development
Darkstalkers was the first Capcom fighting game made exclusively for the CPS-2, as opposed to a port such as Super Street Fighter II. It was the largest leap of gameplay and graphic innovation that Capcom ever made in fighting games since Street Fighter II. It featured very fluid animation, hyper-exotic normal and special moves, a variety of dashes, ex-moves, and more. It never became as popular in the US as it did in Japan, however.
Games
The U.S. title is given first, with any alternate titles given second. Years shown are for original arcade release
- Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors / Vampire: The Night Warriors (1994)
- Eight player characters are available, with two unplayable bosses faced after the first eight are defeated. All characters were given countries of origin, similar to Street Fighter II.
- Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge / Vampire Hunter: Darkstalkers' Revenge (1995)
- Two new characters are introduced (Donovan and Hsien Ko) and the boss characters from the first game are now playable.
- Vampire Savior: Jedah's Damnation / Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire (1997)
- Four new characters are available including a new boss, Jedah. The two older boss characters and Donovan are removed. Also known as Vampire Savior: World of Darkness or Darkstalkers 3 (U.S. Playstation only)
- Vampire Savior 2 (1997, Japan only)
- Nearly identical to Vampire Savior, except for the character lineup. The three characters who were removed return, replacing Talbain, Sasquach and Rikuo.
- Vampire Hunter 2 (1997, Japan only)
- Released at nearly the same time as Vampire Savior 2. Features the same character lineup as Vampire Hunter did.
- Vampire Chronicle for Matching Service (2000, Japan only)
- Only released on the Sega Dreamcast. Includes every character in the series.
- Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower / Vampire Chronicle: The Chaos Tower (2005)
TV series
There is a 4 episode OVA anime series released in 1997 titled Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge (Vampire Hunter: The Animated Series in Japan). Nearly all of the characters from the first two games make an appearance in it, if only briefly. Viz publishes the anime in North America.
There was also a US Darkstalkers animated series. It spanned a season of 13 episodes in 1995, and featured an additional character, a young teenage wizard named Harry Grimoire who followed Felicia. It is considered by many as the worst of the three American Capcom cartoons.
Characters with appearances in other series
Note: Several characters from Darkstalkers appear in Pocket Fighter , in super deformed versions. Many are seen in cameo appearances, while others are playable characters.
Other characters
See also
