TGS 09: Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Ultimate All Stars

For generations, fighting game fans have known Capcom to successfully blend different franchises successfully, which is more than we can say about many other developers. Though everything they include in these fighting games has a signature Capcom art style, the character's identity and signature moves are always well adapted. Which is what got me pretty excited to get my hands on Tatsunoko vs Capcom Universe.

For those not familiar with Tatsunoko, they're the guys behind the the building blocks of the neo-anime culture. I wish there was more I could tell you about the franchise, but a lot of characters in the game seemed beyond the comprehension that the otaku in me was used to. Luckily, the biggest draw of the demonstration I got was not Tatsunoko, but the inclusion of Frank West, from Dead Rising fame.

Frank is here with his camera dangling from his neck in the true photo journalist style, and he's got an arsenal of unlikely weapons borrowed from the Dead Rising game, namely a golf club, shopping cart and even the power to summon zombies to aid him during the battle. Summoning zombies can be a toughie, because if you're the closest person to your summoned zombie, it may end up attacking you instead.�

Capcom has also simplified the controls for Wii users as instead of the usual array of 6 buttons (3 punch and 3 kick), you now have only 4 buttons to worry about - Weak, Medium, Hard and Tag. The Tag button switches over to your partner on the fly, while the other 3 action buttons can punch or kick, depending on the directional move you're doing. I personally see this working well for new gamers to really enjoy this game, but tournament fighters may whine about the lack of control here.