Fighting Games Friday: Capcom vs. Cancellation

Capcom has a lengthy history with crossover games. The mere mention of their existence is all it takes for many fighting game fans to think of the Marvel vs. Capcom series, which spanned numerous titles starting with X-Men vs. Street Fighter in the mid-90s. Of course, the most memorable installments are Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (including the Ultimate version); both were popular enough that Marvel heard the requests from a loud fanbase to work with Capcom for a sequel in the form of Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite, due for release this fall. The title was announced at Sony’s PlayStation Experience in December, and more info should be forthcoming.

There’s also the line of Capcom vs. SNK games, with Capcom vs. SNK 2 being the most popular crossover fighter that doesn’t involve Marvel. SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos, Capcom Fighting Evolution, and Street Fighter x Tekken also count, despite each being the most poorly-received efforts.

Additionally, there were others whose developments were messy enough that they couldn’t be released, and some may not have even started development. For this feature, I decided to examine three such titles Capcom announced that never made it to the public in a complete form.

Capcom Fighting All-Stars: Code Holder

Capcom Fighting All-Stars: Code Holder was planned to be another one of Capcom’s attempts to adapt their traditional 2D fighting gameplay into the polygonal world, after the Arika-developed Street Fighter EX games and Rival Schools/Project Justice titles were successful enough. As its name implied, it was to include characters from a variety of Capcom fighting and side-scrolling brawler games, like Ryu, Chun-Li, Akuma, Alex, and Charlie/Nash from the Street Fighter series, Haggar and Poison from Final Fight, Batsu and Akira from Rival Schools/Project Justice, Dimitri from Darkstalkers, and Strider Hiryu. New characters were also planned to debut, including D.D., Rook, Ingrid, and Death. The game looked nice enough from the low-quality videos still online, and character designer Senri Kita (of several Fire Emblem games) provided refined designs that transferred to 3D well.

Unfortunately, Capcom decided to cancel the game after it received a bitter reception while in the arcade location-testing phase, despite it looking at least serviceable in footage. The company took many ideas from All-Stars to make the aforementioned Capcom Fighting Evolution, which included new character Ingrid. That game didn’t turn out well either, but given how much sprite asset reuse it contained, it was clearly cheap to develop.

Interestingly, unused promotional materials were added to the Street Fighter V Encyclopedia last year. Don’t take this as a hint that they’re giving the concept another attempt, though.

Sammy vs. Capcom

Capcom and Sammy jointly announced a new crossover title called Sammy vs. Capcom mere weeks after Capcom Fighting All-Stars was cancelled in 2003. The game was to pit Capcom characters against Sammy Corporation’s, with the most popular of the latter group being Arc System Works’ Guilty Gear cast. Anyone who hoped to see the likes of Sol Badguy and Ky Kiske go up against Street Fighter and Darkstalkers characters (particularly the latter, given that both have equally bizarre characters) was going to get their wish.

It’s a pity that wasn’t destined to happen. Not only did Sammy vs. Capcom never release, it was never shown in any form, nor were there any indications from either company that it was ever in serious development. But it’s easy to piece together why it ended up this way. Sammy had grown considerably around the mid-00s thanks to their profits from the pachinko industry, enough to purchase a battered post-Dreamcast Sega for a merger. They subsequently dropped Arc System Works, but kept the Guilty Gear property, leaving the developer without a franchise until other experiments like Battle Fantasia and Blazblue came along. Though it was never officially cancelled, there was no point in continuing the project without the key component that would have made it appealing. That this also happened during a time where Capcom was drifting away from developing fighting games didn’t help matters.

Since Capcom is back to making fighters again, and Arc System Works has acquired the GG franchise and has plenty of other characters, perhaps a Capcom vs. Arc title could be made. The chances aren’t high, but if it happened, it would at least have to wait until after MvC Infinite releases.

Tekken x Street Fighter

Tekken x Street Fighter is perhaps the most well-known unreleased Capcom-involved crossover. It was announced in tandem with Street Fighter x Tekken in 2010, with both Capcom and Bandai Namco developing their own individual takes on what this crossover should be. Unfortunately, this idea ran into a few hitches when Capcom’s SFxTk released to underwhelming critical and commercial receptions. The game itself felt unrefined, like it needed at least another six months of development, and it was loaded with over $100 in paid DLC between its special gems (some game-breaking until they were patched) and extra characters. After its reputation, it’s no surprise Bandai Namco didn’t want to go through with their take after finishing up Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

Similar to Sammy vs. Capcom, gameplay footage of TkxSF was never shown, but there were indications that some development was done before it was put on-hold. Concept art for the Tekken-style renditions of Ryu and Chun-Li exist, and it’s clear Akuma made it into Tekken 7 as a way for fans of both franchises to see how an SF character would adapt to Tekken’s gameplay style. Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada mentions it every now and then, but it would be a surprise if it ever resumed development, especially with how Capcom wants to forget their crossover ever happened.

With how conservative Capcom is these days, they’re careful enough to not even consider projects that would be remotely risky. Look forward to MvC Infinite when it releases, and hope they’ll consider other crossovers that could be at least moderately profitable. But don’t do anything crazy, like expect them to happen.