Capcom has once again showed its prowess with the fighting genre; this time with Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars. The VS. series has returned to its former glory and, if TvC is evidence of the what the future holds, fans are in for one thrilling ride.

Never heard of the Tatsunoko animation production company? Never fear, the characters that have been presented in TvC fit perfectly into the VS. series. From the gigantic and blocky Gold Lightan to the swift and cunning Karas, each character melts right into the background and presents a beautiful picture of fighting prominence.

One of the key features of TvC was that it was so easy to pick up and play. The concerns about how the controls would be implemented were quickly erased after 8-10 minutes of feeling out the gameplay. After 2-3 hours, the gameplay should feel effortless and exquisite in the hands of the player. To key in on this point, my girlfriend (a “non-gamer”) even picked up the title and was able to fully understand the controls in about 15 minutes or so. TvC is the cr�me de la cr�me of casual fighting games.

Providing such ease to perform special maneuvers and hyper combos assisted in the appeal of playing TvC. Players don’t have to work hard to earn themselves 30-40 maneuver combos – the flick of the control stick of the nunchuk and the combination of the A and B buttons allows players to perform Ryu’s Shinku Hadoken. This, of course, is allowed after building up the hyper-combo gauge at the bottom of the screen, but it shouldn’t take too long to fill that up as receiving damage, performing attacks and even missing attacks fills up the gauge.
The depth of TvC isn’t to the extent that hardcore fans may appreciate, but overall, Capcom was able to put forth a quality fighter that has a lot of crazy specialties to learn. Just to name a few, there’s the cross-over air raid (successfully hitting your opponent into the air and then switching places with your partner in reserve to continue the attack), Baroque combo (chain combo that is executed while performing another attack), team hyper combo (combination of hyper combos with your reserve partner), a Mega Crash (sends enemies flying if they get too close), and much more.

There’s a lot more strategy than meets the eye since button-smashing may very well send the player into a world of hurt. Performing blocks, counters and initiating in partner assists is critical to keep the opposition guessing on the next maneuver. Even though they are superb to see in action, wasting Hyper Combos isn’t a smart thing to do, as the opposition could easily store up a level five hyper combo with which to retaliate. Overall, even though it’s generally simple, especially due to the four control schemes (GameCube controller, Classic controller, Wii Remote + Nunchuk, and Wii Remote), TvC is pure bliss!

On the downside, the arcade mode was lackluster and ended with a terrible boss fight against Okami’s Yami. Having three forms is fine and dandy, but when the fights themselves aren’t entertaining, it’s clear that the arcade mode wasn’t the strong point of TvC. Eight battles in total, it’s done and over with in a breeze; which necessarily isn’t a bad thing since the beating the arcade mode several times allows players to build up Zenny (in-game currency) to buy new characters, outfits, movies, and gallery items for each character. The unlockable characters include:

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Dead Rising’s Frank West (Team Capcom)
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Mega Man X’s Zero (Team Capcom)
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Tekkaman’s Tekkaman Blade (Team Tatsunoko)
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Science Ninja Team Gatchaman’s Joe the Condor (Team Tatsunoko)
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Yatterman’s Yatterman-2 (Team Tatsunoko)

Unlocking characters and in-game items does help further the replay value, but the online multiplayer unfortunately does not. There were times that the online component would work without any complications, but that was a rarity. Too many times lag hindered the overall effectiveness of performing linked combos. It’s best that everyone switches their connection settings from worldwide to domestic so they can yield the most efficient matches.

After logging in countless hours with Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, it’s apparent that I need to make myself more familiar with the Tatsunoko’s licenses as Karas, Tekkaman and Casshan all entered in my rotation of used characters. Fans of the fighting genre definitely need to pick up TvC as soon as possible since it is an extraordinary fighter for the Nintendo Wii.