It was shocking to hear that this game would actually be arriving on North American shores, let alone on the Wii.  A new entry in Capcom’s VS series, Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars will be released here this year.  While we’re pretty much all familiar with Capcom’s roster, I’m willing to bet that most people aren’t as familiar with Tatsunoko’s cast of characters.

Tatsunoko owns a variety of anime properties for those of you who are wondering, eleven of which will be playable on Tatsunoko’s side.  As far as Capcom is concerned, eleven of its characters will be taken from Street Fighter, Mega Man, Darkstalkers, Onimusha, Rival Schools, Lost Planet,  Viewtiful Joe, and Quiz Nanairo Dreams, a Japan-only quiz game.

Of course, the game released here will differ from its Japanese counterpart.  We all know of some name differences on Capcom’s side (changing Vega to M. Bison, Balrog to Vega, and M. Bison to Balrog just to name a few), but the changes on the Tatsunoko side will be more dramatic.  There will be some tweaks to the roster and it is possible that we could get a higher roster count out of this.  Since the goal is to keep the roster balanced for both sides, a higher roster count isn’t out of the question.

Most of the game modes from the Japanese version should make it too.  These include four main play modes: arcade, versus, survival, time attack, and training.  There is also a minigame mode in which four players can compete in a multitude of character specific unlockable minigames.  Online play could be added also, but for some reason, I don’t think it’s going to happen.  Here’s hoping I’m wrong though.

As far as the gameplay is concerned, Tatsunoko controls very similarly to the past games in the VS series, which is excellent.  There’s a two person tag team system implemented which allows you to switch partners at will or call one in to perform a single assist attack to aid you.  There’s a four button system in place; three buttons are reserved for the light, medium, and heavy attacks while the other button is used for the assist attack.  The combat is not as deep as Street Fighter IV, but it’s flashier, faster, and similar to Marvel VS Capcom 2.

The graphics are 3D although the gameplay restricts itself to the 2D plane, just the way I like it.  The only thing this game needs now is the awesome character select music from Marvel VS Capcom 2.