Completion time: 19:15

This isn’t the first time we have seen Darkstalkers on our challenges here, but this is the first and only appearance on the Sega Dreamcast, thus marking the final time we’ll get to play through this wonderful brawler in the challenges. Vampire Chronicle for Matching Service is a Japanese release that you were supposed to be able to play online in Japan, although I didn’t come across any menu notifications about this.

This is basically *the* ultimate Darkstalkers collection. You have just about every frame of animation from the arcade, multiple versions to play wit every character intact. The challenge has always been very fair in these games, and this is no different. Those backgrounds are some of the most visually pleasing in a Capcom 2D fighter. The end credits theme blew me away. I didn’t expect this kind of auditory goodness to close out our final Darkstalkers playthrough:

On ebay, copies of Vampire Chronicle for Matching Service hover around the price of a new PS5 game (or rather, a new PS5 game priced by a greedy publisher since most other prices are still $60). For someone collecting Dreamcast games and playing them as well, if your system is chipped, I highly recommend picking this up. Even though the PSP version has an exclusive tower-like mode, I still consider this the end-all-be-all version. It’s one of the greatest fighting games in its near immaculate form. I cannot sing enough praises to this magnificent franchise.

Rating: 10