Darkstalkers has been in existence for well over a decade now, first appearing to much critical acclaim back in the heady days of 1994, when Street Fighter II was King. It spawned two sequels in the West, with both tweaked Vampire Saviour 2 and a PS1 “EX” edition of the third title appearing in Japan. The excellent Vampire Chronicle (For Matching Service) also popped up, as previously alluded to, on the mighty ‘Cast.

Rather than the vivid, mostly in-house designed World Warriors, Darkstalkers took its characters from mythology, horror, fairy tales and folklore – with brilliantly realised creations like the smoking hot succubi, gashapon faves Morrigan and Lilith, gun-toting Little Red Riding Hood clone Bulleta and nails vampire hardcase Demetri. With a typically ludicrous series of plots about hell, monsters, zombie heavy metal guitarists, ghosts, destroying things and demons made of fire, the franchise is charming, brash and infinitely likeable. It also features universally competent fighting engines, and remains one of the most fondly remembered of Capcom’s many accomplishments.

To the best of our knowledge, there has not been a bad title in the franchise, per se – each new instalment managed to evolve sufficiently from its predecessor, and solid ports of the arcade games were available for PlayStation and Saturn. The recent PlayStation 2 Vampire Darkstalkers Collection was perhaps more focused and appealing in that it provided all three games for our delectation. The emulation at play, however, was poor. The Chaos Tower rather oddly decides to return to the Hyper SFII Anniversary-style megamix encountered in Vampire Chronicle, rather than spoil us with a compilation of the previous games on one UMD.

The first thing that strikes you when you fire the game up is how gorgeous it looks. Best-looking ‘Stalkers evar? Probably. With a choice between full screen and a compressed version in the centre (with borders), the action is incredibly smooth, wonderfully animated and with a rich, lavish colour scheme. Unfortunately, in engineering these impressive 2D visuals, the developers obviously struggled with the hardware, as chronic, PS1-shaming loading times mar the experience horribly. This can be ignored when running through the arcade mode, yet rears its ugly head most noticeably in the survival-style Tower of Chaos mode, with gaps of several seconds between short, one-rounded bouts. The screen stretching will not appeal to all either; one suspects that most fanboys are going to stick with the 4:3 and would have been wishing for a bit of 16:9 (nudge nudge, wink wink).

If you can overcome the waiting times, there is the ubiquity of the PSP’s own control limitations to hurdle. The control pad can make diagonal movements incredibly difficult, and only those with the patience (and forgiveness) of a saint will ignore the myriad split-second command inputs that fail miserably leading to defeat. With the analogue nub offering little respite, once again we find ourselves recommending the D-pad add-on, something that Capcom themselves began to provide with the advent of their superior Zero 3 package. Criticism must also be levelled at the lack of an in-game move list. Whilst many of the consumers picking up Darkstalkers will be familiar with what is on offer, the uneducated are forced to trawl the internet if they need to know how to input some of the more spectacular EX finishers. To their credit, Capcom do allow some complex commands to be saved and assigned to a button, however this kind of behaviour is shunned by most gamers and is in fact punishable by death in some circles.

Arcade mode is a straight slog through your standard opposition before facing big cheese Jedah in the disturbing Cradle Of Life fighting arena. The Tower mode provides a mixture of survival and Soul Calibur-style questing, as you attempt to scale the 100-floor building, each floor providing a different challenge. These range from simply toeing someone in to doing so without using punches. Even with the player able to select three playable characters with which to take on the challenge, The Tower is suitably difficult and very compulsive. Progress is rewarded by unlocking numerous pieces of artwork and tidbits such as ending sequences from previous games to have a look at in the gallery mode.The unlockables are generally excellent and are not in short supply.

With a controller add-on in place and perhaps a copy of the Exchange & Mart to flick languidly through between the action, Darkstalkers: TCT plays a good game of Darkstalkers. Being a dream marriage of each of the fighting styles seen in the earlier games, there are many different combinations available to the player. With movesets having varied slightly with each incarnation of the series, the discerning fan is able to pick, for example, the specific Morrigan of his or her choosing, be it from the original Darkstalkers or the later Vampire Saviour. Similarly, the fighting style chosen alters the type of special move bars available – varying from the single bar in the first game, to Saviour’s multiple bar, monster-destroying salvo. It is a nice touch, stolen unashamedly from Capcom’s own, aforementioned Hyper SFII. Although there is no game sharing, wireless battles are possible and very fun - just don't expect online bouts as sadly these are not possible.

It is a shame that what is a very solid launch title was marred by a few technical niggles. The control method and loading times must have deterred a number of gamers at the time, and thankfully Capcom and other developers such as Namco and Sammy are now able to work wonders with the hardware, even providing their own sticky D-pad thingies with releases. As it can now be picked up for bargain prices, The Chaos Tower is a fine addition to your collection, yet serves as the historic first step in the evolutionary process of 2D fighting on the PSP.