TGS 2009: Hands-on: Tatsunoko vs. Capcom vs. that guy from Dead Rising
My usual delight in playing Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars was tempered by a note of skepticism at TGS. I knew that the build being offered would include Frank West. He's an admirable character, to be sure, and skilled at using retail goods to fend off hordes of zombies, but I wasn't sure his improvisational violence would translate well to the hand-to-hand, superhero-vs-superhero combat in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.
Let's face it, the cel-shaded Frank in this game doesn't look great. All the other characters look like excellent 2D sprites, but Frank looks like a weird 3D model. However, Capcom has made a respectable fighting-game character out of Frank; one that borrows from an obvious source in Capcom fighting game crossover history: Marvel vs. Capcom 2's Jill Valentine. Frank shares Jill's ability to summon a zombie from either side of the screen, which will grapple with the opponent (or Frank) upon contact.
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Frank's other abilities make sense both in terms of Dead Rising and as attacks in a wacky fighting game. He can roll out a shopping cart, attack with a bat and, of course, use a Servbot head or a Mega Man costume in special attacks.
Most importantly, Frank feels like a Capcom fighting character. His moves are all mapped to basic quarter-circle, Dragon Punch and half-circle movements like Street Fighter's Ryu and several hundred other Capcom fighting characters. But Frank also feels a bit different from the average cut-and-paste character, since he doesn't have a true projectile or jumping uppercut-type move (despite having the controls traditionally mapped to Ryu-type characters).
Overall, I must say that Frank is fitting in with the Tatsunoko vs. Capcom crowd much better than he did in the setting of his last appearance in a Wii game. Plus, he gets to use his camera again! (Albeit as a taunt.)
