Even though fighters have made a small resurgence in recent years, there either aren’t many 2d sprite fighters, or at least many good ones. Longing for a new iteration of a classic series, Iron Galaxy Studios decided that they would meet the fans halfway and re-release a collection of games from Capcom’s past. Darkstalkers Resurrection is a collection of the arcade versions of Night Warriors and Darkstalkers 3 made in perhaps an attempt to gauge interest in a possible sequel to the series. This review is based on the PlayStation 3 PSN version; the game is also available on the Xbox 360 Xbox Live Arcade.

Night Warriors as a game for its time, was an evolution of the fighting engine of Super Street Fighter II Turbo as well as a refinement of Darkstalkers. Things improved from that game were having the ability to stock up on your special gauge, which would let you pull off a multi-hit combo, and they shared two types. These were ES, which took only a small portion, and EX, which took a whole bar. Some characters were also added in addition to the previous roster. Also of note is the introduction of chain combos, normal attacks that can be chained together quickly for massive damage. An auto blocking feature was also added that lets your character automatically block attacks as long as they aren’t in the middle of an attack. You only have a set number of auto blocks though, to prevent the game from being cheap. Things that were retained from Darkstalkers are air blocking, crouch walking, and ground and air dashing. Turbo mode is also back.

Darkstalkers 3 featured further evolutions, many of which would form the basis of almost all of Capcom’s future fighting games. Things like the ES and EX moves are still used today in games like Super Street Fighter IV. As for evolutions in the game itself, the game dropped the traditional round system and adopted the double life bar system where upon the defeat of you or your opponent, the life bar would fill up again, and whomever won the previous round retains there life instead of it being reset. This makes battles more strategic and intense. Also, a new system was implemented where you can regain a portion of lost heath in the white part of the life gauge, provided you avoid taking further damage. Lastly, the game has a new ‘Dark Force System’ where you can spend a portion of your special meter to be able to use unique moves for a short period.

Other enhancements include being able to stock up to 99 of your special gauge, and the ability to use the same character upon continuing the game instead of being dumped back into the character select screen. There is also a Shadow Mode where upon defeating your opponent, you will assume the form of them in the next battle. Blood effects have also been added. While three characters have been removed from the previous roster, there are four new ones. Those three characters were included in the Playstation version but since this is a port of the arcade release they aren’t present. The title selection screen does have a Playstation Store option but nothing to purchase; perhaps future DLC?

These games look great on an HDTV with filtering and screen resizing options to choose from, despite lacking a true HD visual upgrade. The audio is also very crisp and clear. The CPS2 engine never looked and sounded better. Like the previous Capcom fighter collections, this game also has an XP and VP ranking system. The XP/VP earned from performing certain actions is used to level you up in various ways. XP determines your online ranking as well as matching you up with other players online that are at your playing level. The VP however, is used to unlock art,movies and other rewards that are neat to look at. One thing to not get excited for is that Ranked matched are chances to gain or lose VP. Disconnecting from the game automatically reduces your VP, as it counts as a loss. Good way to punish rage-quitters, but bad for those whose internet connections decide to crap out. Also there is a challenge mode that seeks to teach you more advanced techniques, and indeed they are hard; completing them awards you more XP and VP though.

All in all, this is another great port of two classic fighting games from Iron Galaxy Studios, using GGPO netcode that provides a solid near lag-free online experience. I hope that these guys do the port of the upcoming Dungeon and Dragons brawlers. The animation for the sprites is also solid, and there are funny little details, like blasting an opponent with a fireball burns off their clothes, or Dmitri turning your character into a woman to suck their blood for his Midnight Pleasure attack. I hope that this game gets enough people playing it to make Capcom look into making another sequel in the series. Darkstalkers Resurrection is definitely a buy for fighting game enthusiasts.

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