Tatsunoko (タツノコ) Vs. Capcom (Wii)

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is a continuation of the X vs. Capcom games (where X = Marvel, X-men or SNK) a series of Street Fighter variants on acid. It takes the core elements of SF and super charges the jumps and special moves to the point of ludicrousness. Jumps can span three screens; super moves make the screen explode in a sea of colour and bosses dwarf the player characters. It takes a game which is familiar to many, removes much of strategy and skill replacing it with the silly (oh and mini-games).

The other element to know about in understanding the game is Tatsunoko. A Japanese comic and cartoon brand most famous in the west for Battle of the Planets. Beyond that they are pretty much unknown outside the otaku fan community (side note – interestingly otaku is in the Microsoft Word dictionary, update – so is sayonara). This doesn’t stop the game being fun, but does mean you gravitate towards the familiar Capcom characters.

That is really what the game is about; character and personality. It isn’t balanced. It doesn’t pretend to be. You pick the two characters you like or are familiar with and hope that the designers deemed to make the one of the stronger characters. For two players it’s great you jump in with who ever you fancy, fight and then argue about why you lost. It is a party game Street Fighter game.

Its fun (most of the time) assuming you have some knowledge of the characters beyond Ryu and Chun-Li. Unfortunately the single player becomes infuriating towards the end. Remember my complaints that Seth was cheap? Well this puts everything in perspective. Seth is easy, reasonable and huggable compared to this piece of shit. Yes I said shit. The majority of single player is actually quite easy, and then you meet the final boss (as seen in Okami). Supposedly the ultimate evil, it has three forms. The first is reasonable enough. The second provides reasonable challenge. The final form however takes the form of unreasonable frustration, which I am near positive on normal difficulty is impossible without two of the stronger characters to make up you team.

That said apart from this frustration of the final boss it is the perfect fighting game for the Wii, far more suited to the majority of the Wii audience than SF4. It requires very little experience to enjoy, and it looks better than the majority of titles available for Wii. It is less complex than the traditional Capcom fighters making it easier for inexperienced player to pick up. The classic punch and kick buttons are replaced with context dependent light, mid and heavy strikes as well as adding a partner button. Counters, parries and reversals are all replaced with partner moves and baroques which while retaining the depth are more easily executable by novice players. Any time you do anything even mildly note worthy you are rewarded with rainbow colours and screen shattering effects. Its Street Fighter Smash Bros. taking the most enjoyable and accessible elements of each and making a fighter experienced players and casual gamers can enjoy on near equalled footing.