Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors

Forget street brawlers in jeans – here vampires, werewolves, mummies and monsters from horror B-movies square off against one another. Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors brought something to the fighting genre that had not been there before: a gothic, comic-book-exaggerated atmosphere full of supernatural creatures and wildly fluid animation.

The game was created by Capcom on the more powerful CP System II board and bet on a visual style that stood on sharply stylised, lavishly animated characters. In the base roster you find the charismatic vampire Demitri, the succubus Morrigan, the werewolf Jon Talbain or an ice spirit. Each character has their own horror archetype and a distinctive moveset, which made choosing a fighter an experience in itself.

Mechanically Darkstalkers built on the foundations of Street Fighter but added new elements: a faster pace, air blocks and systems that foreshadowed Capcom's later fighting games. Special moves and super attacks were spectacular and the combat system rewarded an aggressive, offensive style. The character animations were among the best that 2D fighters offered at the time.

The cultural significance of the series lies in how it broadened the notion of what a fighting game can look like. Morrigan Aensland became one of Capcom's most iconic characters ever and to this day ranks among the company's favourite representatives in crossover games. You can feel the visual DNA of Darkstalkers even in Capcom's later projects, especially in the emphasis on expressive animation.

The series continued with instalments like Night Warriors and Vampire Savior, and its characters repeatedly appear in the Marvel vs. Capcom crossovers. Although the main series has long awaited a new instalment, the cult around Darkstalkers has never faded and fans keep returning to it. It is a jewel of the golden era of 2D fighters.

Why play it: For an unmistakable horror atmosphere and superbly animated characters that turn a fighting game into a little comic-book theatre.