Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower, is a rare title amongst the roster of PSP launch titles dominated by racing and sports games. Darkstalkers is a port of a series of classic fighting games by Capcom which features a motley cast of characters inspired by monsters in scary movies and horror stories. It hasn’t nearly been as popular as Street Fighter in the United States, but the characters are certainly more diverse and stylish.

Gameplay
Darkstalkers plays like a standard fighting game. It includes modes such as arcade, training, and a tournament-like mode called Tower. In Tower mode, you battle your way to the top with three of your best fighters. The trick is that your characters are not healed between rounds - thus, it is like an endurance game mode. Another special aspect of traversing the Chaos Tower is that certain matches apply restrictions on your character, such as disabling punches. This helps mix up the standard fight formula by forcing you to use moves that you might not be so keen with. Lengthy load times are an issue I was slightly annoyed with, since matches are fairly short, lasting anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds. Spending 10 to 15 seconds loading such as short game was not very acceptable in my book. My issue with the loading is not only with the length, but also the frequency. It is especially a problem since it needs to load the match and then the menu after the match. Multiply this across four matches, and you have eight load sequences, for fairly a small amount of actual game time. I feel the game was not optimized very well for the PSP as a result.

Controls
This fighting game suffers in the control department since it was originally created for arcade systems with six face-buttons, while the PSP features only four face-buttons. You may find difficulty pulling off some of the moves as a result. However, the game is accommodating and features an “easy” control scheme instead of the standard arcade-style scheme.

Graphics
The 2D sprites are a sight to behold on the PSP's generous screen. It is amazing how the graphics of a classic arcade game are reproduced with high clarity and color. The characters are beautifully illustrated and animated. However, the game is not as sharp as it could be. By default, the screen mode is set to wide, and thus it stretches the original 4:3 screen ratio to the PSP's 16:9 widescreen ratio. There is a bit of interpolation as a result - in other words, the sharp and crisp 2D sprites are blurred slightly. I preferred to play Darkstalkers as it was meant to be played - at the 4:3 screen ratio. When you are playing at a 4:3 screen ratio, it simply adds bars on the side and centers the screen. This is only a minor quibble, since it can be solved with a quick option toggle. Most gamers will be fine with the widescreen presentation.



Replay Value
There is plenty to do in Darkstalkers Chronicles since it is a compilation of three fighting games. Of course, there is also the wireless multiplay option, which allows you to battle a friend. I would have liked to see Darkstalkers Chronicles be one of the first games to support the PSP’s game sharing feature, however. The only PSP game to have that feature is Namco Meuseum which, unfortunately, is still a Japan-only release. Darkstalkers’ 2D graphics are just the perfect size to fit into the PSP’s 32 MB of system RAM. The use of this feature would demonstrate a killer feature of the PSP as well as give friends a demo copy of Darkstalkers as long as the PSP is powered.



Overall
Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower is certainly the finest fighting game to ever hit a handheld platform. However, the game left me wanting. Lengthy and frequent load times tended to take away from the action and immediacy of the game. Controls were not the best but are manageable. That said, fans of 2D fighting games, or fighting games in general will still be perfectly pleased by Capcom’s offering and should add 0.2 to my final score.