The Best Standalone Capcom Games That Never Received Sequels

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 at Resident Evil nearly non-stop since 1996. Street Fighter cooled off in the early 2000s, only to get more strikes following Street Fighter 4. Even Mega Man had a myriad of main games, spin-offs, and more before Capcom let it go dormant.

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Some of their underrated titles, like Dino Crisis, Okami, Gargoyle’s Quest, and Cyberbots, also got sequels (remember Okamiden?) 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.

10

Forgotten Worlds

Shooting Game Tempts Fate With Its Title

• Developer: Capcom.
• Platforms: Arcade, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, TurboGrafx-16 CD, Wii.
• Release: May 1988.

Sometimes it takes more than financial success to earn a sequel. For example, Forgotten Worlds was a sidescrolling shooter made by many of the same designers who’d go on to make Final Fight and Street 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 Worlds ended up being largely forgotten itself, except by the oldest of old-school Capcom fans.

9

Sweet Home

A One-Off Movie Tie-In RPG Ends Up Inspiring Survival Horror as a Genre

Sweet Home

Systems

Released

December 15, 1989

It’s easy to see why Sweet Home was a one-off, as it was a movie tie-in. Some games do act as sequels to their IP (see The 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 to Resident Evil, like the notes and character-specific skills (lock picking, etc.). Even its character zapping mechanics resemble those seen in RE0. It’s essentially the prototype survival horror game.

8

Alien Vs Predator

Sidescrolling Beat ‘Em Up Produces a Cult Classic Character, but Not a Sequel

• Developer: Capcom.
• Platform: Arcade.
• Release: May 1994.

There have been plenty of Alien Vs Predator games, though Capcom’s beat ‘em up is one of the more fondly remembered titles. Players pick from either 2 Predators, Dutch from the first Predator movie, 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 classic Guardian Heroes, and Linn would become a low-key fan favorite with keen members of the Capcom community.

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But that wasn’t enough to get the game a 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.

7

Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix

Chibi Fighter Doesn’t Quite Manage to Outdo Its Puzzle Game Roots

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 (or Pocket Fighter for short). It saw chibi renditions of Street Fighter and Darkstalkers characters 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 to SPF2T‘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.

6

Cannon Spike

Dreamcast Shooter Goes Down with Its Platform

Cannon Spike

Released

November 14, 2000

One of the reasons AvP’s Linn is stuck in Capcom fans’ minds was because the company plonked her in games as a background cameo (see Ken’s stage in Street Fighter Alpha 2). But thanks to AvP’s awkward legal conditions, they were never able to reuse her in a game. They had planned to bring her back for Cannon Spike but reworked her into a similar cyborg ninja character called Simone. The game was a neat multi-directional shooter where various Capcom characters from Street 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 of SF‘s Claw-wielding Spaniard, is a familiar face (though he’s usually called Vega outside Japan). The game hit the arcades and 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.

5

Killer7

Capcom Lets Suda 51 Go Hog Wild

Killer7

Systems

Released

July 7, 2005

OpenCritic Rating

Fair

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 (bar PN03, which stayed on the GC, and Dead Phoenix, which was canceled).

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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 in No More Heroes.

4

God Hand

Fun But Difficult Brawler Couldn’t Stop Its Studio Getting Shut Down

Systems

Released

October 10, 2006

Developer(s)

Clover Studio

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, like Viewtiful Joe 2 and Okamiden. What did God Hand get? A 3/10 from IGN. The review is almost more famous than the game itself, as God Hand would become a cult classic with brawler fans.

Its unique customizable moveset, sense of humor, and taunt mechanics (anger foes to get a bigger bonus for 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.

3

Haunting Ground

Unique Survival Horror Remains Locked in Capcom’s Dungeon

Systems

Like Devil May Cry before it, Haunting Ground was born out of one of Resident Evil 4’s many development builds. Just as Killer7 got 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) heralded HG’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 liked its unique premise and gameplay. That was enough to get Fiona and Hewie cameos in other Capcom games, but not enough to get a sequel.

2

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure

Inventive Adventure Game Gets Its Fate Cut Short by Bad Sales

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure

Systems

Released

October 23, 2007

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure being 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.

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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.

1

Tatsunoko Vs Capcom

Standout Crossover Fighter That’s Unlikely to Get a Repeat

• Developer: Fighting.
• Platforms: Arcade, Wii.
• Release: December 2008.

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 produce Tatsunoko Vs Capcom. It’s one of Capcom’s more underrated 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 the Marvel games with a fresh cast of characters, and would later become the template for Marvel 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, TvC is likely to remain as a fun one-off title.

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