Customer Reviews

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars - Nintendo Wii

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I never thought that this game would ever be released outside of Japan, even after it was announced for U.S. release I still couldn't believe it. There are some awesome detailed reviews here already so I'll spare you the specs and just touch on the key points. If you enjoyed Marvel Vs. Capcom 1/2, Capcom Vs. SNK 1/2 then stop reading and buy this if you haven't yet. If you don't have a Wii, buy a Wii and buy this game. You probably won't recognize many/any of the Tatsunoko characters but that really doesn't matter. Those of you that grew up in the 80's might remember the characters from Gatchaman (G-Force in the states), anime freaks will recognize Karas but that's about it. The rest of the lineup haven't had much exposure over here if any...but they are all spectacular characters for the Vs. series. I love the graphics, the cell-shaded 3D is a perfect fit, makes me hopeful for MvC3 using a similar style (it could happen!). There is a ton of unlockable content, the shop system is pretty much like MvC2 was on the Dreamcast, single player is just as solid as multiplayer thanks to that. The gameplay is basically a simplified MvC2, don't worry though, plenty of depth for the hardcore. This is a 2 on 2 set up and you can freely swap your characters out to regain health, just like MvC. You have 3 attack buttons, light/medium/heavy, and a Partner/Assist button to call in your other character. I honestly don't think the strategy or depth is negatively impacted by a 4 button setup at all, once you play for a few hours you'll start to see how complex 4 buttons can be. I've played MvC2 for nearly 10 years, I have a PS3 and I love Street Fighter IV and BlazBlue but I can say without a doubt that this is the most fun I have had with a fighting game since playing Street Fighter 2 in the arcades all those years ago, only time will tell if it will stay fun for as long. Definitely buy an arcade stick too, you won't regret it. Enjoy, see you all online!

2010 is shaping up to be the year of the Wii. A number of highly anticipated titles such as The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle have already been released. Add this title to the mix and you have yet another game which should make even the PS3/XBOX360 crowd a bit jealous. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom (TvC) is a retooling of a similar title released only in Japan in 2008. There are a number of differences, most importantly online play in this current issue, but the soul of the game remains the same. The cast of 26 playable characters hail from Capcom and Tatsunoko franchises. Tatsunoko has a long history in Japan as a maker of anime television shows and movies, and some people will recall the dubs of some of their shows that wound up on the shores of North America. Tatsunoko's most popular show, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman hit American shores as Battle of the Planets - Ultimate Set and G-Force. Three characters from Gatchaman make their appearance here, as well as other characters from popular Tatsunoko franchises Tekkaman, Yatterman, and Ippatsuman amongst others. From the Capcom side, the usual list of characters can be found with Ryu, Chun-Li, and Alex from Street Fighter, Megaman Volnutt, Roll, and Zero from the Megaman franchises, as well as Frank West and Viewtiful Joe amongst others. Each character has their own moves and phrases, and some come with unlockable color schemes/outfits which can be purchased as the player advances through the game and earns enough points (Zenny's). Not all 26 characters start out unlocked. One must play through the game a number of times to unlock some of the characters (e.g., play with a Capcom character four times to unlock other Capcom characters, etc). It should be noted that nothing points out the fact that this game originated in Japan than the fact that a majority of the characters speak solely in Japanese. While the dialog isn't verbose, only Frank West speaks English as his primary language. Between stage snipets are written, and are in English, and all menus are in English as well.

Gameplay is broken up into multiple options. There is "Arcade" where you pick two characters and play through a number of stages fighting opposing tag-team duos. There is a "Training" mode where you can practice your attacks, and set up your opponent to take up defensive or offensive positions to challenge you. There is, of course, the highly anticipated "Online" mode where you can fight opponents either in your locale or from across the world. You do not need a friend code to have random fights, and if you wish to keep an anonymous randomly assigned challenger on your list after the fight, you can do so. There are also "Time Attack" and "Survival" modes, and a Local Multiplay option as well. Capcom has given players multiple options for controllers. You can use the WiiMote, WiiMote+Nunchuck, Classic Controller, or Gamecube Controller. MadCatz has also put out a Wii Tatsunoko VS Capcom Arcade FightStick which takes the place of a Classic Controller. It appears that Capcom intentionally made the effort to initiate people to this genre, as learning all of the moves for a particular character can be daunting. To this effect, they made the WiiMote and WiiMote+Nunchuck much easier in terms of executing special moves/attacks with a minimum of waggle (i.e., shaking the WiiMote). This should allow the novice to come to a fuller appreciation of the game without having to spend as much time in training to learn the most basic of moves. In addition, players have the option of having at the top of the screen the keystroke maps of several special attacks for quick reference during combat. In case the game still proves too difficult to master, there are difficulty adjustments (up to 8 star difficulty) to make the game easier or harder as the player sees fit. In addition to all of the combat modes, there is a mini-game as well, a top-down shooter reminiscent of the old 16-bit days for nostalgia purposes. However it is done in true Capcom style, and could easily be a solid hit on Nintendo's online WiiWare.

Graphically, this is one of the prettiest games to show up on the Wii to date. The colors are vibrant, the action is unparalleled. In addition to watching your characters jump across the screen, hitting your opponent in bright colored bursts, you have the option of seeing how many hits in succession you've landed and the amount of damage you've done to them ... often in the billions of points (yes, the game is a bit over the top in that aspect). The frame rate never stutters or staggers, the action is smooth and free flowing, and the voices blend perfectly with the action (even if they're in Japanese ... which only seems to heighten the atmosphere). It is non-stop eye candy. Even the backgrounds are taken from various Tatsunoko and Capcom series. To say that a lot of detail was put into this title would be an understatement.

Conclusion: Overall, this game easily earns 9.5 out of 10 stars. It has everything that one would expect in an Arcade-style combat game. The action is awesome, the characters are fully-fleshed out with their own strengths and weaknesses (depending upon their opponents), graphically the game is gorgeous, you are given multiple ways to approach the game in terms of controller support and gameplay options, and it plays as if you were in the arcade. For anyone even remotely interested in the genre, this is a must buy. For those who were thinking of giving it a go, you will be well rewarded in making the decision to get this title. There is a reason that PS3 and XBOX360 fans are begging for this title to be moved from a Wii-only release to being offered on their systems as well ... it's that good!

Story: 7/10
Graphics: 8/10
Controls: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Fun Factor: 10/10

...I'll just stick to citing the major differences between Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom and previous Vs. Series titles:

-All-new characters! The Tatsunoko cast, though largely unfamiliar to American fans, offers its very own style and flow to the arena, headlined by anime titans such as Gatchaman and Tekkaman Blade. Tried and true Capcom favorites return with welcome new additions to the Vs. series, including Zero of the Megaman X fame.

-Deeper Partner Crossover system! Though the battles have been reduced to 2-on-2 matchups, players can now do more than just switch out partners and trigger Team Hyper Combos. Now you can call in Partner assists to mix up your offense, use your partner to strategically absorb attacks, and even switch partners in mid-combo to lengthen your attack strings and stack up insane damage.

-Huge playable fighters like Gold Lightan add a whole new dimension to the experience, allowing you to utterly crush your smaller rivals! Or you can topple one of these giants with your more traditionally-sized fighting team.

-The wall bounce! Grizzled fighting veterans will quickly learn to incorporate this brutal knockdown technique to string together even longer combos and mount an unprecidented offense. Truly a technique for the swift-minded.

-The Baroque Cancel allows you to instantly cancel your attack recovery in mid-combo, so you can further lengthen the attack string while reducing damage scaling! This allows for some truly fearsome combo setups for anyone willing to practice up.

-The Megacrash allows you to break out of an enemy's combo attack, at the cost of some Hyper Meter and a bit of your lifebar. Use this to escape a dire situation and turn the tables on your opponent!

-Simplified button layout. Instead of the classic 6-button attack system of the past, TvC features 4 basic buttons: Light attack, Medium attack, Heavy attack, and the Partner button. But don't let it fool you; these commands combine with the direction keys to activate varible attacks that greatly expand each character's arsenal and offer a huge range of ways to pummel your enemies.

-Breakaway stages! Mostly an aesthetic novelty, but still welcome eye candy after you've slammed your opponent into the floor. ;)

Compared to the Japanese release, TvC: Ultimate All-Stars has made drastic changes and additions to re-balance and revamp the entire experience. Nevertheless, this one is most certainly worth the buy, offering hours of high-flying, fast-paced combat and a truckload of unlockable features. An excellent title worthy of Capcom's legendary pantheon of excellent fighters.

On the floor of my bedroom lies an old copy of Game Informer. Yoshi, about to star in his N64 platformer, is smiling on the cover, and the corner sports a blurb about Resident Evil 2. Turn the crinkled and worn pages past both these articles, and you'll come to a colorful full-page article about a game I've never played: X-Men vs. Street Fighter for the Sega Saturn. The game was never released outside of Japan - the arcade-perfect Saturn version, that is - and, as a young boy (ten, eleven maybe), it became my unattainable object, my "official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model BB rifle with a compass in the stock". If you know what I mean.

Fast-forward twelve or so years. I've got my Wii Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Arcade FightStick wired up to my Wii remote (with the stock blue buttons switched to Seimitsu PS 14-KNs - not the white buttons yet, I'll swap them when I can afford it) and everything's flashing purple and red.

Good God, Capcom, you've learned to localize.

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is not as complex as 2009's Street Fighter IV - which is not to say that there's no depth underneath all of the flashy Hyper Combos and dizzying air juggles. To the contrary, I predict this game will provide as much mileage as its 11 year old brother, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, due largely to its combat system's complexity. Button mashers will have little trouble tearing through the game's Arcade Mode, but, like Street Fighter, tactic is the name of the game once you begin squaring off against players online. As for the roster, the Tatsunoko combatants are significantly less recognizable than their Marvel counterparts, and yet fewer of them come off as low-tier. But, most importantly, this game feels at home in Capcom's legendary "vs." franchise. And that is perhaps most vital to its success - which, supposedly, will grant us a sequel if enough copies sell. It's a great game, and there's no better way for you, reader, to thank Capcom for bringing it to our shores than by buying it and enjoying it.

See y'all online -- just after I clean my room. That magazine has been there for far too long.

If you want a Game thats worth the money you can not go wrong with TVC.

* Great Online Gameplay that's Lag Free.

* Awesome Cast of over 20 Characters from the Capcom side (Street Fighter MegaMan DeadRising and more.) Including Tatsunko characters even if you never heard of them you will grow to love them for being not only crazy but, just plain awesome.

* Alot of unlockables including a Shooting game using the characters from the game to shoot and earn Points. (only can be achieved by getting all the yellow letters in the credits portion of the game spelling Thank you For Playing.)

*Insane Special and Ultimate Special Moves for each Character depending on your Hyper Bar Level.

* Graphics are almost like they were taken from Street Fighter IV that Blend in very well with the music and background.

* 3 Button Control System over 4 different controllers. The Wii Remote, Remote & Nunchuck, Classic Controller, or Gamecube Controller As well as other 3rd Party Arcade sticks and Controllers. (In my opinion Wii remote feels better if you want to try using that first but thats my opinion.)

Well worth $49.99 get this game 10/10!

Any honest review would have to ackowledge the awesome graphics, excellent character choices, on-line play, game mode choices and unique big-time signature moves each character brings to the fight. Any review that gives this game a 1 star rating should not seriously be considered, these reviewers have probably not even played this game and probably don't even own a Wii. If you want the best tag team fighting game on any platform right now then you'd be wise to buy this game.

When I was in college Street Fight II gobbled up more quarters than I want to admit given my tight budget and at the time it was the cutting edge of fighting games. Heck, I can even remember seeing the first Street Fighter game in the arcades back when it was relatively new. I played Street Fight II Turbo quite a bit less and as money became even tighter I was satisfied peaking over shoulders as others played the latest Street Fighter games including the Alpha series. Years later when the Dreamcast was winding down I picked up Street Fighter III and Street Fighter Alpha for cheap and discovered something interesting. After only a few days I was quite bored. Somehow the games managed to be both overly complicated (with multiple fighting styles) and overly shallow (button mashing) at the same time. My revelation was that I loved the concept of Street Fighter, including the spectacular art, more than I loved actually playing it. What hooked me into buying Tatsunoko vs Capcom the day it came out can be answered with one word, Gatchaman, or as I knew the series growing up, Battle of the Planets. Here was a match made in Heaven and the game was getting excellent reviews. So is it really a dream come true for all Street Fighter and Anime fans?

Let me start by saying that the art is absolutely spectacular from the box cover art to the opening movie to the character art. Udon's artwork may have as much to do with the continuing success of the series as anything else. What didn't impress me as much was the in game graphics which I felt did not look nearly impressive as they did in videos you might see online. Capcom uses 3D rendered background and character models and I just don't find them as appealing as the old 2D rendered characters that I feel gave the designers more of a chance to flex their artistry. The backgrounds in particular are rather bland and lifeless and I was surprised to see them repeated even in a single run through Arcade Mode but it was a hoot fighting in Galactor's base. In the case of the 3D vs 2D it might be just a matter of taste and by and large most of the characters look excellent but when I compare 2D Ryu to 3D there just is no comparison as to which I prefer. I will say that when blown up on 42" plasma TV the jaggies start showing quite a bit. The music is pleasant but nothing to write home about and the song for the finale is a really odd choice.

Like previous Street Fighter games TvsC is a button masher. I figure most people will settle on a few favorite moves and stick with them ad infinitum. The super moves are now a breeze to pull off and even the lesser moves are massively simplfied. Ryu's Hadoken, for instance, no longer requires a sweeping motion on the directional pad. Instead it's just a press of button 2 on the Wiimote. The training stage shows the various button configurations for each character but some seemed rather odd. Ken the Eagle has one move that's shown as a Z like motion on the directional pad but the final arrow isn't even on the pad. I have no idea how the move is supposed to be performed and unfortunately the tutorial doesn't say whether you actually performed the move while practicing. I've played Mortal Kombat games where the training forced you to master each move and I found that much better than the training here.

I don't tend to have super high expectations for Street Fighter games. They are what they are, a very shiny package with not a ton of depth. What sets this one apart and encourages continued play is the amount of unlockables. I was a bit surprised that almost all of the characters are unlocked from the get go but there are plenty of other treats. What I can't fault the game for is the roster which is absolutely huge and awesome including three members of Gatchaman. I have to admit that although I was completely ignorant about most of the Tatsunoko characters they were intriguing enough that I was interested in learning more. A search of YouTube will find all sorts of videos and I watched a few subbed Yatterman cartoons that were pretty entertaining. Along with Gatchaman, Yatterman is well represented with three characters making it into TvsC.

I don't regret getting the game but it definitely didn't exceed my expectations. The ending boss in particular is a total dud. The game has high quality production values and compared to other Street Fighter games it holds up well. I can't compare it to Street Fighter IV since I've never played the game but it'll entertain if for nothing else than the sheer joy of fighting as Ken the Eagle.

We got three systems in our house; Wii, Xbox 360, and PS2. Wii is mainly for the wife and kid, and the Xbox 360 and PS2 for me. This is one of the few games that has gotten me to play the Wii a bit more often than before. I can't think of a better 2D fighter for the Wii; the graphics and onscreen presentation are close to something you'd find on the 360 or PS3... I'm impressed! Character animations are silky smooth and the artwork and character design are fantastic (and I'm not even a Tatsunoko anime fan). Combos are easily executed and special moves get blasted out one after another. I also like the tag team concept. There's not too much story, but a game like this has little time for a story. The action is fast and furious. The more you play and the more times you finish the arcade mode, the more credits you get to unlock new features such as artwork, music, outfit colors, etc. I gave it 4/5 stars only because, for me, it's still not on the same level as fighters such as SSF4.
One thing that bothers me about this game is the button-attack set-up. I'm not a big fan of having a 3 button set-up where the same buttons are used for both punches and kicks. It takes away precision and brings the game that much closer to being a simple button-masher. As it is, there is a light, medium, and strong attack, each one producing either a punch or a kick depending on which way you press the directional pad. They should've had an option for a six-button system for seperate punches and kicks to appease Street Fighter vets like me. It's the only thing that prevented me from giving this game five stars.

Graphics 8.5/10

Sound/ Music 7.5/10

Gameplay 9/10

Control 8/10

Replay 9/10*

**Update 6/4/10**

I recently purchased a PS2 -> GC/ Wii controller adapter and it has made a big difference on this game's control, gameplay, and ultimate playability. I recommend to anyone getting this game to also pick up the adapter and either the PS2 SFII fight pad or Logitech wireless controller.

I got the game on the release date and I must say it has plenty of characters and most of them will be unfamiliar to us westerners who didnt watch 70s and 80s anime. The bulk of the capcom characters that are included are usually not used in fighters and that was neat. It has some characters that are so big they touch the life bars at the top the screen! The pace of the game can get pretty fast. The online play works but you may experience lag if you or the opponent has a weak connection. It can be annoying to fight people online that have mastered the game which has been the case for me. Maybe when more people get online that issue will be solved. There are plenty artworks, level designs, character outfit colors, 2-D character models, and secret characters to unlock.

The only problem with this game is that I was unfamiliar with 85 percent of the character roster which takes away from the nostalgia of the capcom vs. games. Its exactly what the wii needs more of; high quality, games for gamers.

I wouldn't even think about playing with a wii remote and nun-chuck. I played with a gamecube controller for a few days which worked okay but this games plays best with a quality fightstick. Many wii owners probably will need one which means more money. If you have the cash a fightstick makes this game a 10 out of 10. I got the new madcatz stick which is great btw.

I haven't played with 2 players (other than online) but I am sure that would be crazy excitement.
Once you get used the "new challengers" you will appreciate them as apart of the capcom vs. family. I also got the Limited edition tekken 6 bundle at the same time and I haven't even touched it yet. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is that fun (when playing with a fightstick).

Tatsunoko vs Capcom is not your average Capcom fighter. First off, Tatsunoko, a Japanese animation company, will be unrecognizable to all but the most diehard anime fans. Tatsunoko is huge in Japan, having created such franchises as Gatchaman and Yatterman, but over here, they're best known for Speed Racer, who is not in the game. Second off, there are four different control schemes to choose from, including 2 very simple control interfaces that make the game much more accessable to newer players, eliminating the ridiculous controls from past Capcom fighters, meaning you no longer have to move the control stick a quarter-circle forward, while pressing a ridiculous amount of buttons just to activate the simplest special attack, although you can still choose to play that way if you wish. As mentioned before, the Tatsunoko characters are going to be virtually unknown to casual gamers, but they are all fun to use and worth getting to know. After playing as some of them, you may find yourself looking up some old anime. Capcom's roster has some pretty obscure characters as well this time around. I mean you've got your staple fighters like Ryu, Chun-li, Morrigan and Megaman, but some you probably haven't heard of, like Saki. The graphics are very clean and crisp (and Morrigan's no longer 2d either), and the game sounds great. Music in the stages is top notch, but, unfortunately, Capcom had to remove the charcter themes present in the Japanese original due to licensing issues. However the American release includes about 5 or 6 more characters than the original. All in all, this is a great game, and if you're a fighting fan or just a gamer in general, you should be very grateful to play this Japanese gem, considering it was never supposed to hit these shores anyway.