Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Almost, but not quite"

I've only played the arcade version of DS TNW and since it isn't listed on Gamespot's database I thought I'd submit my review of it here since I'm assuming the Playstation version oF DS TNW plays very similary to the arcade version.

The game was developed by Capcom and many of the fighting moves and the way the mechanics work give the game somewhat of a Street Fighter feel,but with characters who are influenced by darker or supernatural themes such as vampires,a mummy,skeleton who carries a chainsaw,werewolf,hairy snow creature,woman who is part cat,Frankenstein look-alike,Reptilian creature etc.

As you would expect,each character's theme affects the type of moves they can do as well as other attributes.For example,the Frankenstein look-alike has powerful strength and can generate electricity into his attacks to do extra damage.Demitri the vampire is like the game's version of Ryu/Ken because his in the middle range of body size,attack power,speed,agility etc. and he has demonic powers and can shoot fire and he can use his demonic wings to fly straight up in the air and counter an aerial attack or close-ranged attack from an opponent(kinda like the Shoryuken).

The Mummy Anakaris likes to seperate his soul from his body which allows him to float in the air and to stretch his limbs and attack enemies from afar but it makes him slow and vulenerable too.He can counter enemies easily using his great reach and powerful strength and he can grab enemies from across the screen and wrap them up in bandages and spin them around for a lot of damage.

I could explain more about the character themes and how it influences their fighting styles,but I think you get the picture.

As for whether the gameplay is fun for not,well I found it fun but I found the AI opponents to be a bit cheap and they punish you nearly everytime you mistime an attack or move in a way you shouldn't and the bosses are extremely cheap.Then again,the arcade version doesn't let you reduce the difficulty level but I'm assuming the Playstation version does and if the difficulty of the game could be reduced so the opponents are challenging without being cheap,this would have been a very enjoyable game,I still enjoyed it a bit but not as much as I thought I would,which is a shame because it's one of those games you want to enjoy because of it's theme,artstyle and because it has gameplay mechanics that work well but don't live up to their full potential because of the punishing CPU AI.

I've noticed AI opponents quite often detect what move you've done right after you do it and react with a counterattack and sometimes it's unfair and frustrating when the AI opponents do this because sometimes defeating AI opponents relies heavily on waiting for them to make bad decisions when they attack you and then countering and sometimes the gameplay feels far too defensive for my liking.For example,an effective way to win is to use Demitiri and shoot fire from afar because for some reason despite the fact the AI is good at detecting your moves and countering it often doesn't block or jump over projectile attacks very well.Or you can just stay in a crouched position and block every attack the AI does and wait for them to do a jump attack and counter it but it makes the gameplay feel a bit boring at times but it's often the best way of winning since the AI will detect and counter most of your attacks.

The gameplay is fun,but it could be a lot better and a lot more fun.The gameplay does feel smooth and flowing which is typical of 2D Japanese fighting games.

Another thing you'll noticed about the game is it's nice visual style because it looks colorful but matches the gothic style of the characters at the same time and the character designs look nice.You'll see busty female characters whom are not wearing much clothing and you'll see anime influence such as characters with blue hair etc.

The music and sound effects go well with the character themes and gameplay,remember it's an arcade game so they're supposed to be over the top.

Overall,I found the game a bit fun and it has a nice unique style and charm but it's not a great fighting game,it's worth experiencing but there's many much,much better fighting games out there.