Who Can Capcom Fight Next?

You know, reading that list of “lost” Tatsunoko vs Capcom characters the other day got me thinking: there’s plenty of room out there for more Capcom vs XXXX games.

https://lastchance.cc/the-lost-characters-of-tatsunoko-vs-capcom-5454192%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E

Yes, 2D (or 2.5D, really) fighting games are – Street Fighter aside – a niche market, but get the gameplay and characters right and they’re still profitable titles, able to appeal to a fanbase that’s passion makes up for its small stature.

https://lastchance.cc/capcom-do-not-forsake-2d-fighting-games-5454377%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E

It’s why Marvel vs Capcom was so successful. Yes, it was a great fighting game, but it was also a fighting game that let you pit Ryu against Spider-Man.

While Capcom was unable to secure the rights to the Cyclone mech suits from Mospaeda, maybe they’d have better luck securing the Western rights to Robotech (held by Harmony Gold), which collected three separate Japanese animated series – Macross, Southern Cross and Mospaeda – and combined them into a single program.

That way you’d be able to include characters and weapons from the entire Robotech saga, though due to its larger following, most would obviously be from the Macross Saga.

Possible Characters: Rick Hunter, Max Sterling, Roy Fokker, Dana Sterling, Scott Bernard, Khyron, Captain Gloval, Breetai and one of the vending machine robots.

Possible Stages: Macross Island, New Portland, Fokker Airfield, Minmei’s Chinese restaurant

Capcom vs Disney

Don’t laugh. It’s worked well for Square Enix, and after all, Disney now owns Marvel, who have previous experience working with Capcom on a crossover fighter.

If anything was going to get 13 year-old girls interested in 2D fighting games, this would be it. And if not, Disney’s stables are so large, and so full of great characters, that you’d have no problem filling out a large and surprisingly capable roster.

Possible Characters: Mickey, Aladdin, Buzz Lightyear, Baloo, Kida (Atlantis), Mulan, Hercules, Peter Pan, Sulley & Rafiki.

Possible States: Pride Rock, Aladdin’s Cave, Andy’s room, The Jolly Roger, Atlantis

Capcom vs Star Wars

Would probably never happen, but then, you never thought you’d see Mario and Sonic in the same game either, and look how that turned out. Who knows, maybe Lucasarts & Capcom could work out a marketing and publishing deal whereby Capcom developed the game and Lucasarts…let Capcom develop the game. After Masters of Teräs Käsi, it’s the least Lucasarts could do.

Possible Characters: Luke Skywalker (circa Cloud City), Darth Vader, Chewbacca, IG-88, Boba Fett, Wampa, Royal Guard & Tusken Raider

Possible Stages: Tatooine desert, Cloud City, Star Destroyer bridge, Emperor’s Throne Room, Jabba’s skiff

Capcom vs Production I.G

The Capcom All-Stars duke it out with characters from anime house Production I.G. The studio is best known for the Ghost in the Shell franchise, Blood: The Last Vampire, Patlabor: The Movie and the animated sequence in Kill Bill. This would actually make sense! Production I.G has a strong gallery of characters (many adapted to anime from manga) and a large following abroad. And it could be possible. Production I.G and Capcom already have a relationship as the studio is animating a TV series based on Capcom’s Devil Kings.

One snag might be acquiring the rights for all the characters that were not created in-house or by staff. Production I.G could just have the anime rights for some manga titles, while other titles (Ghost in the Shell, for example) have already made the leap to video games with Production I.G doing in-game cutscenes.

Possible Characters: Saya, Retro and Pandy, Batou, Motoko Kusanagi, Patlabor and maybe even O-ren Ishii.

Stages: Yokota Air Base from Blood, Ghost in the Shell’s New Port City, Patlabor hanger

Capcom vs Electronic Arts

If Capcom can fight rival firm SNK in a game, then they can fight EA as well. Publish it under the “EA partners” line, just like Electronic Arts does with games like Left 4 Dead and Rock Band.

I know there have been jokes about EA’s character lineup in the past, but that was just that, the past. Take a look at the publisher’s lineup these days and there’s plenty of stars who would be right at home in two dimensions kicking someone’s ass.

Possible Characters: Isaac Clarke, “Maverick” Blair, Avatar (Ultima), Kane, Commander Shephard, Eddie Riggs, Lex (Bioforge), The Silencer (Crusader series) & Salem.

Possible Stages: Ishimura bridge, TCS Victory flight deck, tiberium field, The Citadel

Capcom vs Alan Moore

Pure fantasy, since his works are the property of a myriad of different comic book publishers, but then, a little fantasy never hurt anyone.

Capcom’s finest against the more belligerent of Moore’s comic book creations would be one hell of a fight, but it’d pale in comparison to the final battle against Moore himself, who can morph between his human form and that of Glycon the snake god.

Possible Characters: Tom Strong, The Comedian, Promethea, V, Captain Nemo, Halo Jones, Bill “The Wolfspider” Bailey & Splash Brannigan

Possible Stages: The Stronghold, Ozymandias’ lair, V’s hideout, London (under the Chinaman’s aerial attack)

That’s about it for my imagination today, but what about you guys? Any dream match-ups you can think of? Capcom vs Futurama? Capcom vs Jane Austen? Capcom vs The Rolling Stones?

Brian Ashcraft contributed to this post