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Having got to spend a little time with one of my most eagerly awaited PSP games, I have a fair idea on how the consoles first beat’em’up fares. Is the console suited for the kind of timing and control required for top class fighters?
For those of you that don’t know, Vampire Chronicle is the latest instalment in Capcom’s Vampire Saviour/Dark Stalkers franchise – a 2D fighting series with an excellent pedigree. Obviously, coming from the people behind the Street Fighter series should almost guarantee quality, right? Well, the jury is still out.
Clearly, Capcom’s decision to bring out a new instalment as a Japanese PSP launch title was a move to appeal to the hardcore gamers out there, letting them know that the PSP is the portable for them. However first impressions aren’t fantastic. Problems arise from the off, with the initial load time being excruciatingly long. Load times between fights are also horrendous, with some optimisation clearly lacking. Anyone used to the near instant loads found on cartridge based handhelds will be pretty shocked if this is their first look at the PSP.
Most gamers bemoan 2D fighters being difficult to control on the home consoles. Well the PSP certainly isn’t the solution to this problem, with Vampire Chronicle being perhaps the most difficult to control beat em-up I’ve played since Capcom VS SNK on the ‘Cube. The D-pad on the PSP simply lacks the sensitivity to pull off moves. After playing through the game with Morrigan, pulling off a simple special move like a fireball was more a game of random chance that precise skill and timing. Even jumping diagonally was something of a nightmare, with the PSP’s imbedded D-pad not allowing for all the twitch control that a game of this type requires. Furthermore, you’ll end up covering the screen in fingerprints, as your thumb frequently jumps off the pad, failed fireball attempt after failed fireball attempt.
With the exception of the potentially fatal controls, the game seems to be laden with all the regular features we’ve come to expect of Capcom, making for an in depth experience. Combing the Dark Stalkers games before it, you can select your fighting style and supers and such before a match, meaning that anyone familiar with Street Fighter and the previous games in the Dark Stalkers series should be right at home here. Wireless play allows for competitive 2-player fights, but as with all the Japanese launch titles, testing this out hasn’t been possible.
The character set also seems varied enough to allow for some interesting matches with all of the old favourites like Felicia and Morrigan present as well. Visually the game looks very sharp on the PSP’s screen, with the colours almost jumping off the screen. There has certainly never before been a handheld fighter that has looked this good. Unfortunately the game has not been made to run in the PSPs proper resolution, resulting in the game being stretched when filling the whole screen. You have the option to view the game in a more standard 4:3 display mode, and while this makes the game look even crisper, you aren’t using all of the wonderful PSP screen.
With a bit of luck the sensitivity of the game will be amended for the western release, but if not there will be a lot of fighting game fans out there forced to adapt to the more sluggish controls. And as we all know, it matters not how feature packed a game is if it’s uncontrollable.
