A very popular developer and publisher of
videogames, originating from
Japan. Here are some of their major works.
Capcom are best known for their huge stable of
sprite-based fighting games, the most famous of which is
Street Fighter 2. Prior to this they created several successful arcade fighting games, including
Street Fighter,
Final Fight,
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs,
Captain Commando,
Knights of The Round, and
Saturday Night Slam Masters.
Since Street Fighter 2 became an arcade phenomenon, they have mainly concentrated on revising the same formula, resulting in the Super Street Fighter 2, Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter III, Vampire Saviour (Darkstalkers), Rival Schools, Street Fighter EX (3D!), and "Vs." (Marvel Vs. Capcom, Capcom vs. SNK, X-Men Vs. Streetfighter) families of games. These generally appear first as a coin-op and then get ported to various console formats. Capcom's most recent foray into 3D fighting is the Power Stone series.
Capcom's
Resident Evil series ("inspired" by
Alone In The Dark) showed that they could create games in new genres with new technology. The games incorporated
cinematic techniques to heighten the atmosphere. The
Dino Crisis series followed. (And now
Devil May Cry.)
Shinji Mikami is the mastermind of this department.
Capcom's other great legacy, ported with great success to the
NES and practically all subsequent consoles, is of course
Megaman (or
Rockman in
Japan). The little android boy has featured in dozens of games and compilations over the years, including two recentish coin-ops (
Rockman The Power Battle and
Rockman The Fighters) that transposed boss battles from previous games into a
Streetfighter-esque format.
Capcom's other classic platformers include Bionic Commando, Strider, Ghost 'n' Goblins and Ghouls 'n' Ghosts - the last of which is possibly the high water mark of arcade platformer design. The overarching theme of these games is ridiculously high level of difficulty, prompting the player to have "just one more go..." until broke or exhausted.
Capcom also publish some of Blizzard's games in Japan.
Additional Capcom titbits (Nov 2002)
Capcom have reportedly bowed out of the arcade market, their final arcade title being
Capcom Fighting Allstars. They are currently supporting all of the current generation of consoles. Some forthcoming attractions:-
Devil May Cry 2, Auto Modellista, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Red Dead Revolver, Chaos Legion, Breath of Fire V and several other products on Sony Playstation 2;
The Resident Evil/Biohazard series (five titles) and four new products (P.N. 03, Viewtiful Joe, Dead Phoenix and Killer 7) on Nintendo Gamecube;
Tekki (Steel Battalion) and Genma Onimusha on Microsoft Xbox.