Ten Reasons Why...I Love Capcom

So if you didn't already know, I've got a thing for Capcom. Ever since I can remember, they've been on my good side. There's just something about their name, the games they produce, and the way they handle themselves that makes them forever on my good side. So for this Monday's feature, here are Ten Reasons Why... I love Capcom

10 - Capcom on the NES
From the first system I owned, Capcom had been producing quality games. There are dozens of great Capcom titles for the NES and in addition that, Capcom also handled most of Disney Licensed games. If you were to look at my NES collection, you'd find a slew of Capcom Produced Disney games including Duck Tales, Chip N Dale's Rescue Rangers, Little Nemo, Mickey Mousecapade, and even Little Mermaid. By that was my sisters, I had to beat it for her. But in addition I didn't have Tale Spin, Darkwing Duck or any of the sequels that were produced. Also in an un-Disney tie in, I also had Yo! Noid, the Domino's Pizza game which happened because that was my family's Pizza Company of Choice. I had fond memories with each of these games and though I missed out on a lot of the Capcom Classics like Bionic Commando and Ghost N Goblins, I still have nostalgic memories of Capcom in the NES days. Maybe it's one of those things where Capcom had a bunch of younger games to associate brand image and recognition early in their consumers, like what cigarettes do.

Of course the music was a big deal too. All of the NES Capcom games featured fantastic tunes.  To this day I can still pick out NES Capcom music because they were so memorable. I can't post all of my favorites but I just wanted to make sure I mentioned Mega Man 2 and Little Nemo. The upbeat inspirational themes made the most of the situations.

Can you believe this is music from a Duck Tales game?

From the last stage of Rescue Rangers

09 - Cel Shading Support
Remember when Zelda became the first big name to take the Cel Shaded route? Everyone was up in arms about how Zelda had been ruined and initially I was in that same boat. It was a new visual style and not everyone knew how to proceed with it. But around this time Capcom announced a few new games like Killer7, Viewtiful Joe, and Auto Modellista. After seeing Wind Waker the initial shock of Cel Shading wore off and I grew to love the stylistic choice. I couldn't get enough of it. And with Capcom being a company supporting it with new IPs, what wasn't there to love?

On a side note, I know the games weren't exactly blockbusters. Maybe some of them were kinda stinkers. But you'll find a recurring theme with my preferences about trying new things and supporting the new video game markets. Capcom supported the trend early and even still later when it began to die down. Crimson Tears, Mega Man, Under the Skin, and even Okami were later releases still using Cel Shading.

08 - Years of Fighting (Games)
Capcom can be credited for popularizing fighting games with Street Fighter 2. There have been other companies who have come along and reshaped and reinvent it. But what other company can say that they've gone out and created so many different unique varieties to the 2-d formula?

What I love most about Capcom and their fighting game history is the size and scope of their library. Besides Street Fighter and the Alpha/EX spin offs, you also have Darkstalkers, Rival Schools, Capcom Fighting Jam, Power Stone, the Marvel Vs Series, Capcom Vs SNK and most recently Tatsunoko. They've had a history of supporting a dying genre and with the recent announcements of Marvel vs Capcom 3 and the Vs Tekken Franchise, it doesn't look like their changing their game plan anytime soon.

I've always wanted to get behind the fighting game scene and even more because they are in 2-d. But alas, time, skill, and patience have kept me from that.

07 - Survival Horror
And if it wasn't just enough to popularize the fighting game genre, Capcom also did it in the Survival Horror Genre in Resident Evil. I can't say that I love playing survival horror games. I'm bad with them. I can't handle the tension, the nervousness, and the dread of playing them by myself. But with other people, it's great. Some of my fondest video game moments have been from being with a group of friends, sitting down to play a "scary" game.

Another reason Capcom sits so high in my mind in terms of survival horror is their foray into the world of B tier and C tier franchises. While other companies have also made great horror games, I feel that Capcom has gone out and tried to recapture the success of Resident Evil with new and borrowed IPs. And even though Clock Tower and Haunting Ground would be considered as failures, I've always found them to be interesting. And of course, there's also Dino Crisis.

06 - The $200 Dollar Game
That's right, Steel Battalion. In a medium where pricey bulky add on peripherals fail are destined to fail, Capcom made a decision that they wanted to make a game and controller combo that cost $199.99. To call the Steel Battalion controller pricey was just the beginning. It was a massive 40 button, twin stick, three petal controller that cost as much as a system. It was just insane. In addition to having to start up your mech every time with a series of ignition switches, you also had specialty buttons like eject and widow washer. I will probably never finish the game as it deleted my save data because I didn't eject in time when my mech got destroyed, but I will always admire and respect the chances taken and the small hint of insanity in the decision to make a game experience like this. Plus it was for the original Xbox back when it was still unproven and there weren't too many Japanese companies making games for the console.

05 - Mega Man
Easily one of my favorite game series and the one I spent the most time with in my NES days. Together with a childhood friend, we beat five of the six Mega Man games growing up. The games were fast paced, brutally difficult, and were cool as hell. I mean how many times have there been a game where you gain the enemies' power after defeating them? I always looked forward to trying out the new weapons and drew pictures of them in school. There was an awesome story involving Light/Dark and Protoman. The openings were fantastic. The endings were more so. I've mentioned music before but the list goes on and on. We could talk about the X Series. The Battle Network one. Or even the Mega Man Soccer game I owned for the SNES. I've enjoyed Mega Man in some form on every platform and to this day it remains one of the most long lasting brands. Sometimes I can't even understand how.

04 - The willingness to take chances
Littered along the way in Capcom's History are dozens of failures. We point. We laugh. We wonder how those decisions could be made. But with those chances taken, real progress was made. Improvements could be discovered. And new area's explored. Capcom has also made some unique choices in game development. Games like Pocket Fighter, Super Puzzle Fighter, Bombastic, and even the Marvel Vs series can be viewed as odd creations. I mentioned Steel Battalion before but I failed to talk about something like Monster Hunter which has more recently taken off. Sometimes things catch on and other times they don't. But most importantly I think it's the fact that you're constantly putting yourself out there to reach a new audience. They've been able to successfully redesign and reinvigorate some of their most beloved franchises like Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil 4. They've stayed supportive of Co-op gameplay with titles like RE5, Dead Rising 2, and Lost Planet 2. If you look at the Capcom library the variety of genres covered I think, is a perfect example of their willingness to try something new.

03 - The Faces Behind the Games
If you look at the history of Capcom, many of Japan's best and brightest development talent has played a part in the company somehow. Sure, there are also famous people with other companies. Hideo Kojima at Konami. Shigeru Miyamoto at Nintendo. But if you look at the names that have come through Capcom at one point or another, I think it's plain to see that Capcom is one of the best, if not THE best. You can start with Keji Inafune who's still there after helping create Mega Man and moving on to new titles like Dead Rising and Lost Planet. Then there's previous Capcom employees like Shinji Mikami of Resident Evil who then fed into Devil May Cry who also worked with Atsushi Inaba on Okami which trickled down into the talent like Hideki Kamiya and Viewtiful Joe. There was also SUDA-51 who Mikami worked with on Killer7. All of which who have now left Capcom but were influential in shaping the current face of the game developer.

That's a lot of talent right? Well let's not forget about Yoshinori Ono of Street Fighter, Takami Shu of Phoenix Wright, and the now rising star in Takeuchi Jun who produced the recent Co-Op Resident Evil 5. There's also Okamoto Yoshiki which I only recently discovered because of my research into Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom. Think of him as the father of Street Fighter II. I have this feeling that I'm missing a couple others but for a list that was created off the top of my head, I don't think it's too shabby.

02 - Female Capcom Characters Appeal to Me
So you could say that I have a type of girl I'm interested in. Most times I stick within that preference. But somehow Capcom has been able to create many many different varies of women, seemingly with different personalities but still within my realm of interest. I understand that I am a guy and that most anything with a skirt is going to look somewhat attractive to me. But in this case, Capcom has been able to hit a home run in each and every game they've created. I could make a top ten list just based solely on this topic. For example...

Kasugano Sakura from Rivial Schools. Roll from Mega Man. Kaede from Onimusha. Olivia from God Hand. Luka from Lost Planet. Arcia from Chaos Legion. Lady from Devil May Cry. Aida Wong from Resident Evil. Fiona from Haunting Ground. Regina from Dino Crisis. Trucy Wright from Ace Attorney. Rinne from Ghost Trick. And those are just my top picks from the series. If you want to delve into any of the rest of Capcom's IPs Street Fighter, Rival Schools, Darkstalkers, Phoenix Wright or Resident Evil then the list would easily double.

01 - New Console Support
I mentioned before that I admire taking chances and trying new things. I think more than any game developer, Capcom was an example of that. Across every system release, Capcom has throw new IPs into the mix to spark interest. GameCube has it's Resident Evil 4. Playstation 2 had Onimusha and Devil May Cry. Dreamcast had it's Power Stone among other fighting games. Xbox had it's Steel Battalion and Dino Crisis 3. Xbox 360 had it's Lost Planet and Dead Rising. Wii had it's Zak and Wiki. These were all big time console exclusives back when that sort of thing mattered. Even the portable systems had their push. Nintendo DS with Ace Attorney and PSP with their crazy Capcom Collections and remakes of Mega Man and Ghost and Goblins. Even now with Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, and Wii Ware we've seen healthy support. At every new step of a console generation, Capcom has been there helping to support console growth with new and also proven IP. It was the case back on Nintendo. Super Nintendo all the way up to last year. Even this year, there's at least four Capcom games that will possibly be in my Games of the Year.

So there are ten reason why I love Capcom. This by no means implies that Capcom is perfect. Like I said they had plenty of failures but that wouldn't be what I would focus on. There's quite of few things Capcom did to erk their fans. And who better to talk about them than me, someone who been through a lot of it. So tune in next week for my tentatively titled "Ten Reasons Why Capcom is Messed Up."

See you next week,
David