Usually Alex will send me some crappy and beaten up games to review for this column. Other times, rarely, the games are only one or the other. It’s why I’ve tried selling a few of the junky titles (they’re complete, and maybe someone out there WANTS to be the manager of a Japanese “boy” band made up of thirty-somethings), and it’s also why I have some pretty cool games in my collection that aren’t in a condition I’d normally accept them in if I were buying them. Today we’re going to do something different here at Head Off. Instead of reviewing junk in the poor-game-design sense, we’ll be looking at some junk in the beaten-up-and-missing-parts sense. All the games talked about today will be good ones.

Vampire Savior (The Lord of Vampire - yes the cover says this like it’s the subtitle) - Sega Saturn - Darkstalkers, as Capcom saw fit to rename this series in the West, is one of my favorite fighting games. In fact, I only really like two fighting game series: Darkstalkers and Tekken. That’s mostly because I suck at fighting games. While Darkstalkers isn’t the button-masher that Tekken is, I still find it much easier to pull off (and stumble across) combos and special moves. The thing that really endears me to the series, though, is the cast of characters. In what other game can you play as a homicidal, machine-gun-toting LIttle Red Riding Hood? Or an ancient Egyptian mummy complete with sarcophagus? Or a bee girl that shoots… bees… out of her… beehive? Okay that one is just plain weird. But that’s really the charm of the game. You have no idea what you’re going to experience. The backgrounds, art direction, character design… pretty much every gameplay element contributes to making this amazing fighting game come to life. The level and attention to detail that Capcom invested in this game is pretty staggering (they tend to be known for that, particularly with their fighters, but this is the only one I’ve ever been able to get into). So why did Alex give this one away? The copy he sent me was disc and manual only. This wouldn’t be too bad except that Vampire Savior requires a RAM cart. I actually had to trade for another game just to be able to play this one. (I traded for X-Men vs Street Fighter, another Capcom fighting game, and one which I played for all of ten minutes before turning off in frustration and boredom. See? I’m just not a fan of fighting games.)

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