Summary
It’s common sense to strike while the iron is hot, and Capcom’s had a pretty good record at doing that. They’ve been hammering away atResident Evilnearly non-stop since 1996.Street Fightercooled off in the early 2000s, only to get more strikes followingStreet Fighter 4. EvenMega Manhad a myriad of main games, spin-offs, and more before Capcom let it go dormant.
Some of their underrated titles, likeDino Crisis,Okami,Gargoyle’s Quest, andCyberbots, also got sequels (rememberOkamiden?) and spiritual successors (Tech Romancer,anyone?). But they’ve also made some great games that, for one reason or another, are likely to remain standalone entries without sequels.
10Forgotten Worlds
Shooting Game Tempts Fate With Its Title
Sometimes it takes more than financial success to earn a sequel. For example,Forgotten Worldswas a sidescrolling shooter made by many of the same designers who’d go on to makeFinal FightandStreet Fighter 2. Up to 2 players can control a nameless soldier each to blast their way through the Dust World to stop the evil god Bios and his minions.
It was the first game made on Capcom’s CPS1 hardware, and it was popular enough to get ported to a wide range of platforms, from the ZX Spectrum to the Sega Genesis. Even so, while it was a fun game, it didn’t stand out from the sea of shooters that flooded the arcades at the time. As such,Forgotten Worldsended up being largely forgotten itself, except by the oldest of old-school Capcom fans.
It’s easy to see whySweet Homewas a one-off, as it was a movie tie-in. Some games do act as sequels to their IP (seeThe Goonies 2), but Capcom wasn’t going to do that with a niche, gory RPG for the NES. It couldn’t even get a Western release as it wouldn’t have made it past Nintendo of America’s censorship policy, and it wouldn’t have been any more profitable on other continents.
Still, its tale of a group of documentary filmmakers getting more than they bargained for in a spooky mansion would have a lasting impact. Many of its elements would be carried over toResident Evil, like the notes and character-specific skills (lock picking, etc.). Even its character zapping mechanics resemble those seen inRE0. It’s essentially the prototype survival horror game.
8Alien Vs Predator
Sidescrolling Beat ‘Em Up Produces a Cult Classic Character, but Not a Sequel
There have been plenty ofAlien Vs Predatorgames, though Capcom’s beat ‘em up is one of the more fondly remembered titles. Players pick from either 2 Predators, Dutch from the firstPredatormovie, and Lt Linn Kurosawa to clear San Dorado of a Xenomorph infestation. It was a fun little brawler that combined fisticuffs with firepower. The game was one of the main inspirations behind Treasure’s Sega Saturn classicGuardian Heroes, and Linn would become a low-key fan favorite with keen members of the Capcom community.
But that wasn’t enough to get the gamea home release on contemporary consoles, let alone a sequel. The closest it got was prospective plans for a Sega 32X release of all machines. Instead, the only way players can get a hold of it now is to hunt down an original cabinet, import the Capcom Home Arcade plug & play system from Europe, or use emulation.
Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, despite its name, is neither a sequel nor a fighting game. It was a fun, block-breaking head-to-head puzzle game that caught on well enough to get a (pretty bad) HD remake. But it did get a fighting game spin-off that, despite being full of charm, remained a one-off title:Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix(orPocket Fighterfor short). It saw chibi renditions ofStreet FighterandDarkstalkerscharacters beat the gems out of each other with cutesy, funny attacks.
The more gems they collected, the more they could soup up their special moves. It’s simple to play, as players can chain punches and kicks into combos easily, but tricky to master as there are plenty of items and special attacks to help turn things on a dime. The game was intended to appeal particularly toSPF2T’s female audience, though judging by its quiet reception, they still preferred chaining block combos together over punch-based ones. As such, it ended up becoming a hidden gem in Capcom’s fighting game library.
One of the reasonsAvP’s Linn is stuck in Capcom fans’ minds was because the company plonked her in games as a background cameo (see Ken’s stage inStreet Fighter Alpha 2). But thanks toAvP’s awkward legal conditions, they were never able to reuse her in a game. They had planned to bring her back forCannon Spikebut reworked her into a similar cyborg ninja character called Simone. The game was a neat multi-directional shooter where various Capcom characters fromStreet Fighter’s Cammy to Mega Man fought off terrorists in the future year of 20XX.
Most of the terrorists are original characters like leads Shiba and Simone. But one of them, ‘Fallen Balrog’, is a Marilyn Manson-esque version ofSF’s Claw-wielding Spaniard, is a familiar face (though he’s usually called Vega outside Japan). The game hit the arcadesand the Dreamcast, but it didn’t do well enough sales-wise to earn a sequel. With Capcom’s Fighting Collections doing well, it has a chance of getting re-released someday, albeit tucked away among a bundle of more popular fighting games.
Wait,Killer7? Isn’t that a Grasshopper Manufacture game? Well, yes and no. Despite being a purestrain dose of Suda 51’s brand of weirdness (knock the tie of a headless exec askew to make his equally headless partner expose his weakpoint while straightening it), the game was made for Capcom as part of their ‘Capcom 5’- a series of Gamecube exclusives that ended up getting PS2 ports anyway (barPN03, which stayed on the GC, andDead Phoenix, which was canceled).
It’s a kind of on-rails shooter with branching pathways. Players can switch between different members of the Killer7 group of assassins to get around obstacles and use their specific brands of firepower (handgun, magnum, grenade launchers, etc.) against the Heaven Smiles terrorists. Suda 51 had hoped to make a sequel to it one day, but with its low sales and Capcom holding the rights, the task is out of his hands. The best he got was giving the Killer7 gang a mild mention inNo More Heroes.
Capcom’s Clover studio is fondly remembered for its quirky titles that were great to play but didn’t earn much in sales. If they had, its key members wouldn’t have left to form Platinum Studios. But their hottest properties did get sequels, likeViewtiful Joe 2andOkamiden. What didGod Handget? A 3/10 from IGN. The review is almost more famous than the game itself, asGod Handwould become a cult classic with brawler fans.
Its unique customizable moveset, sense of humor, and taunt mechanics (anger foes to geta bigger bonusfor beating them) helped it stand out from the crowd. Even so, it was designed to be “tough, but fair”, giving it a steep learning curve for players who just wanted to break out the Dragon Kick. Combined with its rough looks for a 2006 PS2 game, it was destined to remain a niche title.
LikeDevil May Crybefore it,Haunting Groundwas born out of one ofResident Evil 4’s many development builds. Just asKiller7got a call-out in that game via one of its weapons, its dog-based cameo (saving a pup from a bear trap so it can help Leon against El Gigante later) heraldedHG’s key mechanic. After surviving a car accident, Fiona finds herself locked in a castle. To escape from its walls, she’ll have to run and hide from its creepy denizens.
Her only means of defense is Hewie, a dog she can befriend. If players take care of the protagonist’s canine companion, the dog will take care of them back. The game wasn’t perfect, as it got mixed reviews on release over its repetitive tasks and odd approach towards Fiona. But fans of the genre likedits unique premise and gameplay. That was enough to get Fiona and Hewie cameos in other Capcom games, but not enough to get a sequel.
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasurebeing console-locked to the Wii still sticks in some fans’ craws to this day, as beyond firing up the old console, there aren’t any other, more ideal ways to play the game again nowadays. It was a neat combination of a puzzle game and a point & click adventure, as players help Zack and Wiki, his monkey buddy, collect every piece of Barbaros’ cursed pirate treasure.
By making the right motions with the Wiimote (turning it to turn keys in locks, etc.), Zack can complete puzzles and get closer to any hidden treasure chests. The more puzzles they solve and treasure they get, the better their stage ranking gets. It was a unique game that won a lot of awards for its design, but that only resulted in 126,000 units sold within 26 months in the US. In light of that, any thoughts of it getting a sequel were quickly dashed.
1Tatsunoko Vs Capcom
Standout Crossover Fighter That’s Unlikely to Get a Repeat
After pitting their classic characters up against Marvel’s superheroes and their erstwhile rivals at SNK, Capcom got to collaborate with the anime studio Tatsunoko to produceTatsunoko Vs Capcom. It’s one of Capcom’s moreunderrated crossover games, as it’s also console-locked to the Wii. That is, unless someone managed to import one of its arcade cabinets from Japan (or again, uses emulation). The game offered all the fun of theMarvelgames with a fresh cast of characters, and would later become the template forMarvel Vs Capcom 3.
It’s unlikely to get a sequel or a re-release because of its licensing. It was simple enough for Capcom to secure the Tatsunoko characters for a Japanese release since they only needed to work a deal out with one company. But their international rights were another story, as they were held by many parties. Unless Capcom had the backing of a big business like Nintendo, who helped sort the rights out the first time,TvCis likely to remain as a fun one-off title.
