While Capcom is currently enjoying an almost unprecedented level of success with their current franchises, like Monster Hunter, Street Fighter and Resident Evil as the main pillars, there’s always room for more bangers in the Capcom portfolio. With that in mind, we’ve stumbled our way through the Capcom vaults to recommend some games that deserve to be given another chance.
1. Dino Crisis
Do we really have to talk about the reasons why Dino Crisis needs a remake? We’ve spoken many times before about the reasons why Capcom should revisit this classic series, and I guess we’ll carry on talking about it until either Capcom decides to acquiesce to our demands, or until Google finally kills us off. Speaking of “endangered species approaching extinction” though, Dino Crisis has become a cult favorite horror shooter these days, and while the original game is available via PlayStation Plus, it’d be nice to get a full-fat remake one of these days.
While Dino Crisis doesn’t exactly boast a 100% success rate when it comes to its games, thanks to the bizarre, futuristic nonsense that is Dino Crisis 3, the first two games are still considered fantastic. Side note: you know a sequel is terrible when it’s considered weird and silly in a franchise about dinosaurs traveling through time. Anyway, a remake of the first game, where you’re forced to survive on an island where dinosaurs have begun to run amok, would make for a perfect remake in the RE Engine. Maybe they could also give a T-Rex the same AI that Mr X had in the Resident Evil 2 remake, just for that extra bit of spice.
2. Viewtiful Joe
History will remember Capcom shutting down Clover Studio as perhaps one of their biggest goofs in the company’s history, considering the in-house team were responsible for some of the best reviewed games of the sixth generation of consoles. Even now, Capcom don’t seem to appreciate the quality of Clover’s library, as aside from Okami, none of Clover’s old games seem to get any additional love from Capcom. While you might think that God Hand would be a prime remake candidate, the lunacy God Hand offers deserves to be preserved in some kind of HD port, so let’s focus instead on Viewtiful Joe.
The platforming beat ‘em up that’s designed entirely around B-movie culture and abilities, Viewtiful Joe sees the titular slouch teleported into the world of movies in order to rescue his girlfriend. Given a super sentai outfit and the ability to control the film’s playback in order to beat up hordes of goons, Viewtiful Joe is brutally hard but oozes with style and charm. Some would say that the game doesn’t need a remake, mostly due to the ageless cel-shaded graphics, but maybe some upgraded textures, a stable framerate and some tutorials to make those brick wall bosses less daunting wouldn’t go amiss.
3. Darkstalkers
Modern day Capcom would almost have you believe that they’re a two fighting game company: Street Fighter and Marvel Vs Capcom, with that second one only coming around whenever Marvel deems fit to let Capcom out of crossover jail. However, one look at Capcom’s Wikipedia history showcases a wealth of fighting games from across the 90s and early 2000s that deserve to be revisited, and yeah, we’ll mention the other two later on, but for now, let’s focus on the silly horror bollocks that is Darkstalkers. The world needs more video games about vampires, monks, werewolves and that fish guy from The Shape of Water beating the snot out of each other.
Following on from the incredible success of Street Fighter 2, Darkstalkers (or Vampire Savior depending on your region) was a darker yet altogether sillier take on the fighting game genre. All the fundamentals and character archetypes you’d expect from a fighting game were on display, but it was wrapped in this eye-catching and imaginative world that blended myth, legend, fairy tale and gothic horror into one ludicrous package. Many asset flippers have tried to pull the “horror fighting game” schtick since, but none have nailed it like Darkstalkers.
4. Onimusha
A stalwart of the PS2-era, Onimusha felt like it was the Capcom golden goose during the early to mid-2000s, especially as Street Fighter releases had dried up and mainline Resident Evil games weren’t as common. Sure, there was also the Devil May Cry series, but Capcom managed to churn out four mainline Onimusha games and two spin-offs in about the same amount of time as it took to release Devil May Cry 1-3. We’ve fudged the timeline slightly there, considering Onimusha 4 came out a year after DMC 3, but you get the point.
For about five years there, it felt like Capcom were all in on the idea of samurais (and occasionally a French dude played by Jean Reno) slicing the hell out of demons across feudal Japan (or modern-day Paris, because Onimusha 3 was wild). After the release of the fourth mainline game, Onimusha: Dawn Of Dreams, which flopped in terms of sales, the series just fell into relative obscurity and now exists in the same space as Dino Crisis, with Capcom exploring similar themes through another, completely unrelated game. Dino Crisis has Exoprimal, and Onimusha has Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess.
We’d rather have an Onimusha remake, thanks.
5. Final Fight
Beat ‘em ups seem to be having a true renaissance period at the moment, thanks largely to the release of Streets Of Rage 4 back in 2020. The critical and commercial success of that high profile revival has definitely helped other beat ‘em ups since, such as the recent wave of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games, or even Double Dragon Gaiden. Still, we’re waiting for Final Fight to get its time in the sun, considering it’s never been revived by Capcom before. Nope. Streetwise isn’t a thing, and you definitely didn’t fight a drug-addled mutant Cody as the final boss. Absolutely not.
Weird body horror twists aside, Final Fight is considered by many gamers of a certain vintage to be a truly formative experience. Playing as either Cody, Guy or Haggar and smacking goons in the streets of Metro City was a first time gaming moment for a lot of people. Personally, it’s one of my earliest memories when it comes to gaming, so the fact that there’s no new Final Fight on the horizon is truly saddening. Give the license to the Streets of Rage 4 teams, let them work their magic, and you’ll have the most successful Final Fight game of all time.
6. Bionic Commando
Remaking a game like Bionic Commando is a contentious subject at the best of times, considering the last remake for the series didn’t exactly set the world on fire. His arm was his wife, for Christ’s sake. That’s the kind of bonkers, gonzo twist that’ll either play well, or crash and burn, and oh boy did the Bionic Commando reboot flop. It’s a real shame though, as despite the weird robot arm spouse stuff, the core gameplay of Bionic Commando 2009 is actually rock solid, playing like Spider-Man having a Shadow The Hedgehog moment and using guns instead of web shooters.
Of course, a new Bionic Commando game doesn’t need to be a 3D adventure, as the 2D Re-Armed titles proved that there’s plenty of room for great platformers with interesting mechanics. Admittedly, Bionic Commando might be a bit of a tougher sell these days, considering the fact that the game’s core mechanic, the main character’s grapple hook, is a core feature of pretty much any game these days. Still, if any can find a way to bring Bionic Commando back from the dead, it’s Capcom.
7. Power Stone
It seems like these days, party fighters aren’t worth greenlighting if they’re not completely cribbing from the Super Smash Bros. cheatsheet. Like, developers have forgotten how to make casual fighting games that aren’t platform fighters. That’s why games like Power Stone are so sorely missed, as even though they offer the same chaotic energy as the Smash games, they’re completely unique too, and deserve to make a comeback. Even if it’s just a re-release of the PSP Power Stone Collection, we’d be happy.
The Power Stone games were arena fighters that saw a cast of unique characters brawling over the titular stones. Each level offered its own hazards and threats, with arenas pulling from areas across the globe, while if a player was able to grab all three stones in a match, they’d transform into a more powerful form, effectively ending the round not long afterwards. The fight to keep hold of all those stones, especially in Power Stone 2 when up to three other players are gunning for you, is utterly thrilling, and it’d be great if Capcom revisited the Power Stone series in the future.
8. Resident Evil Outbreak
We’ve said this multiple times now, and god damn it, we’ll keep saying it until Capcom realizes that they’re leaving a ridiculous amount of money on the table by not reviving the Resident Evil Outbreak series. A pair of online co-op RE games back during the PS2 era, the Outbreak games saw up to four players join together online in an attempt to escape the chaos that was the Raccoon City outbreak. Huh, maybe that’s how they came up with the name. The more you know. Anyway, across two games and 10 scenarios, these 8 characters have to deal with zombie elephants, the usual array of RE monsters and their own T-Virus infection.
You thought Leon had it rough. At least he got to hang around with Ada.
Capcom haven’t been strangers when trying to turn Resident Evil into some kind of multiplayer series, with a multiplayer spin-off of Mercenaries, the Raid modes in Revelations, Project Resistance and the weird RE:Verse to name just a few. The less said about the Umbrella Corps game, the better. The point is, these weird and experimental RE multiplayer games would pale in comparison to an Outbreak revival. Sure, Raccoon City might be well trodden ground at this point, but we’d love a chance to try and survive with friends.
9. Rival Schools
Honestly, it’s hard to talk about old Capcom franchises without mentioning a couple of fighting games, and aside from Darkstalkers, which always gets the love whenever a Marvel Vs Capcom game comes around, the only other fighting game that Capcom seems to give occasional lip service to is Rival Schools. Main character Batsu has appeared in multiple crossover Capcom games, like Tatsunoko Vs Capcom and Project X Zone, while Akira was featured as a DLC character in Street Fighter 5. We’re starting the agenda to get Daigo Kazama into Street Fighter 6 right now, but also, a full-blown Rival Schools revival would be wonderful.
Despite owning the Darkstalkers franchise, Rival Schools and Project Justice might just be two of Capcom’s most ridiculous fighting games, considering the antagonists in this series come across as way more evil than even Shadaloo is. Basically, some evil force is trying to pit the various schools of Tokyo against each other, and they’re brainwashing powerful fighters to do it. With unique tag fighting mechanics, combined with the fact that it’s a rare case of Capcom making a traditional 3D fighting game, it would definitely be interesting to see Rival Schools make a comeback.
10. Lost Planet
Look, is Lost Planet ever going to get remade? Probably not considering the series has never really been one of Capcom’s most popular franchises, but the fan base it does have is incredibly loyal. People are still playing Lost Planet 1 to this day, in fact. For those uninitiated in Lost Planet, the first game was known for its huge monster fights against the aliens known as Akrid, while the second game’s focus on co-op play makes it an absolute wonder to play with friends, even despite the Lost Planet franchise’s idiosyncrasies. Then Capcom decided to loan off the franchise to Spark Unlimited, who farted out a Dead Space clone in Lost Planet 3 and the series has been dead ever since.
Still, it would be great to revisit the sometimes frozen, sometimes jungle, all times infested with aliens planet of E.D.N. III. Monster Hunter might have the monopoly on hunting giant monsters, but Lost Planet lets you fight monsters in giant mechs, which is infinitely cooler. We don’t make the rules, sorry. Worst case scenario, Lost Planet’s multiplayer tilt could be used to convince some Capcom exec to make Lost Planet their next live service title. We’re not exactly thrilled by the idea, but sometimes you’ve got to get your hands dirty to get what you want.
READ NEXT: 10 Best PSP RPGs Of All Time
Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site.
