Tatsunoko vs Capcom for the Wii review

So yeah, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was announced. You know, it’s no big deal. Just a sequel to one of the most critically acclaimed fighting games of all time. You know, a little over 50 characters and so many super moves to try out. It’s definitely not one of the most important things in the news of 2010. OH MY GOD! This is going to be the greatest fighting game of all time! I mean, I am so freaking happy that it has gotten announced. I am so flying off the wall excited since I LOVED playing Marvel vs. Capcom 2 in the arcades with my friends, and I plan on downloading and reviewing it on my PS3 from the PSN. Sadly, I have to wait till Spring 2011, which is stupid. I say that since it’s one of my favorite games of all time right next to Final Fantasy 9, Rival Schools, and Super Mario Galaxy. I guess for the time being, I can review another Capcom fighting game. I know there was a fighting game released this year. I know it’s a new entry to a franchise they like to do. It’s very popular and I know a lot of people love the game. Hmm, what was it? If I can just put my finger on it. Oh yeah! Tatsunoko vs. Capcom! Seen as the second best fighting game on the Wii next to Super Smash Brothers Brawl, this was an interesting case since it wasn’t originally supposed to come here, like Namco vs. Capcom. America would have to deal with the whole licensing issues for the entire Tatsunoko side of the game. However, in the sacrifice of one Tatsunoko character and animated endings, we get new characters for each side, a multi-player 2D shooter, and the fighting system got fixed so it won’t be as cheap as the Japanese version. Let’s get our fighting spirit up and running. and blast through Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.

While there is no need to explain a story for a fighting game that is just crazy like Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, I am going to give my own thought of the story. The dark lord Yami just got so tired from waiting for the next Okami game not counting the one coming out for the DS, he decided to screw around with dimensions. He decided to mess around with the Capcom universe, thrusting it into the Tatsunoko universe. Now the two universes must stop whoever decided to screw with them and get back to their dimensions. I know it’s a stupid sounding story, but hey, it’s a fighting game. Do we actually care? No, we don’t. Just a quick thought, I find it funny how both universes want to stop Yami and they just beat each other up to get to him, instead of just joining up together. That is just my thought.

The game play featured in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is a two-on-two team fighting game, kind of like the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise. You basically choose two characters from the two respective universes, unless you’re using either of the two large characters where you can only choose to be one character. The game play is classic vs. Capcom fighting, where you don’t need to be strategic with your moves like Samurai Shodown or the Street Fighter series. You do have your assortment of super moves and crazy ultra super moves that are pretty fun to watch. Some of my favorite finishers are Frank West and Tekkaman Blade’s finisher since it just looks painful to get hit by some of them. There are some new additions, like a move called the “crossover Air Raid” where you can summon your second character during a mid-air combo, which becomes useful for characters that are best with mid-air combos. The second new move is the “Baroque Cancel” where you can sacrifice the red part of your recovering health bar to extend your combos and increase your damage from your moves. They can also do a “Mega Crash” move where it takes away a bit of your health and energy bar to defect the lengthy super combos. I actually fell victim to some of these, and it gets annoying when you have very little health. When you read the credits, you can play a mini-game, where you play as Doronjo and her henchmen to get special letters to spell out “Thank You For Playing” to get a special top-down shooter mini-game. You can even play online with different people, which the Japanese version doesn’t have. In a way, the Americans got the better game.

The graphics, while not as good looking as Super Street Fighter 4, are pretty impressive-looking graphics. All the Tatsunoko characters have great designs and are really fun to play as. Some of my favorite characters are Yataman-1, Casshan, Tekkaman Blade, Tekkaman, and Hurricane Polimar. Some of my favorite characters to play as in the Capcom side are Frank West, Zero, Batsu, Ryu, and the robot from Lost Planet. Overall, they have a great cast of characters, and I hope some of the Capcom characters appear in the newly announced Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The music is standard fighting fare. It’s mostly pop music where it’s very hyper and energetic. Overall, it’s a great fighting package for the Wii.

Now it’s time to punch our way through the bad parts of the game. While playing this game, I never once played online, knowing that people are going to resort to using the baroque thing over and over, and I heard it gets annoying since that’s what a lot of players online do. I also think the final boss, Yami is very cheap in his third form. It just seems like he can pull off much more tedious and stronger moves that you can’t do a single thing about it. It’s even worse if you are playing as one of the two giant fighters since they are just big walking punching bags. While playing as Gold Lightan from the Tatsunoko side, I had to go through multiple continues right before, by some pure luck, got out alive during the final part. Coming back to Gold Lightan, I wish he had more moves. I can understand that he is using moves he used in the show, but they are more tedious to use against fighters like Yami. It just makes the last boss fight more annoying than a good fight. I also find the mini-game in the credit sequence overly irritating. It just seems more annoying since if you miss ONE letter you don’t get the mini-game. Why can’t I just get it after unlocking all the characters? It would make it easier, but I still haven’t been able to get it and it makes me mad since it always seems like there is that one letter that you need, but for some reason, you can’t get it. Man, is it ever so annoying.

Overall though, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is probably the second best fighting game next to Super Smash Brothers Brawl on the Wii. If you can get this game for a good price, I say pick it up. I would pick Super Smash Brothers Brawl since you can play with four people and not just two people and have to worry about Internet connections for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. And before you guys email me, I know that Super Smash Brothers Brawl has bad connections also. Hopefully, in the future, Capcom can make another Tatsunoko vs. Capcom game. Go get it and have a blast.

This game gets a 9.5 out of 10