Yep, Capcom's unrelenting wave of beat-'em-up releases continues. And whereas in most situations like this, we'd be slamming the company for knocking out the same old game in a different guise, we simply can't do it with Capcom.

Each of their fighting conversions - X-Men, Street Fighter Alpha and most recently Night Warriors on the Saturn - have each proved exceptional in their own right, scoring nothing less than fantastical marks. And each has been a welcome 2D change, both visually and gameplay-wise, from many of the lacklustre 3D offerings we've had to ensure. So now Darkstalkers, the predecessor to Night Warriors, has finally arrived on PlayStation. Can Capcom hit the jugular again?

Well, yesterday actually. You see, this is the original Darkstalkers line-up from the original game. Eight classic horror characters, transformed by the warped minds of the Capcom Art Department into their own freaky vision.

So much so, that at first glance you wonder what they're supposed to be! On top of this, there are the two bosses - A shape-changing B-movie robot, and his master, a flame-based alien!

With the advent of X-Men and Street Fighter Alpha, Darkstalkers may look like just an ordinary beat-'em-up (technically, we mean) but when originally released its graphics were phenomenal.

The definition of the fighters and backdrops was so clear, they looked like frames from a Disney cartoon. And the sheer amount of animation just emphasised the incredible, inventive movement of the characters. Visually, Capcom's previous beat-'em-up, Super Street Fighter 2, paled in comparison.

It may not be as ground-breaking any more, but Darkstalkers is still one of the most visually inventive games around.

This game has been a long time in development. And I can't help thinking the reason behind this is that Capcom have had trouble with it. Visually, this is a far more taxing game than Street Fighter Alpha and, whilst it may look graphically as impressive as the coin-op, it's clear that a number of animation frames have been lost. Definitely more so than with Night Warriors on Saturn.

This does lower the class of the game by some degree. But, to be honest, even if this game managed to replicate the coin-op perfectly, I'd still find it somewhat uninspiring. The Saturn already has the sequel, in which there are two extra characters, you can play as the bosses, perform chain combos and there's even full arcade animation selection. This seems like a rather poor substitute.

Darkstalkers is still a damn fine 2D beat-'em-up, better than any other on PlayStation save Street Fighter Alpha and maybe Mortal Kombat 3 (although the official version of that is quite poor). But that says it all. SFA is a superior choice and, rumour has it, Night Warriors is coming to PS.

It's a good beat-'em-up, but do you really want something inferior to the Saturn sequel now? Especially with Street Fighter Alpha as an alternative. Come on!