Capcom is a gaming company that needs very little introduction to most. Plying their electronic trade since the late seventies, they really came to solidify themselves as gaming powerhouses in the late eighties and nineties. With the release of titles such asStreet Fighter 2,Final Fight, and thenResident Evil, Capcom revealedtheir true power levelsand became a force to be reckoned with in the world of gaming.
Some companies tried to out-perform them, and others sought to work with them, producing some of the most memorable crossovers ever made. Capcom has even blended their own franchises together, but excluding these “in-house” crossovers likeCannon Spike, Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, andStreet Fighter X Mega Man, here is a list of the times Capcom characters have hashed it out with those from different company franchises.
Updated on August 29th, 2024 by David Heath:Capcom’s crossovers have been on a lot of people’s minds lately and for a multitude of reasons. Street Fighter 6 will soon see Fatal Fury/King of Fighters' Terry Bogard join its roster in mere weeks, while his sister-in-law Mai Shiranui will turn up next summer. SNK gave SVC: SNK vs Capcom Chaos a surprise re-release, followed by Capcom bringing Capcom Vs SNK 1 & 2 back via the Capcom Fighting Collection 2. Then, biggest of all, every Marvel game Capcom made up to Marvel Vs Capcom 2 will be turning up in the Marvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collection, all with online play, rollback netcode, and other features. So, it’s a fitting time to give this list a refresh, giving some individual games their laurels alongside some lesser-known Capcom crossovers that caught on with players.
14Cross Edge
The Darkstalkers Enter the World of JRPGs
Cross Edge, a turn-based, team battle RPG, didn’t get the most glowing reception on release, though it’s one of the more curious crossovers Capcom has been involved in. They worked with Bandai-Namco, Nippon Ichi, Idea Factory, and Gust Corporation to combine characters fromDisgaea,Spectral Souls,Ar Tonelico,Blazing Souls,Atelier Marie,Mana Khemia 2andDarkstalkersas they and the heroes, York and Miko, get isekai’d to another world.
All those games are fairly popular RPGs, except forDarkstalkers, which is a fighting game. The gothic horror likes of Morrigan, Lilith, Dmitri, Felicia, and Jedah stick out next to the more typical RPG heroes. Though that might be why they were included: to shake things up more and make the game stand out in a way that theBreath of Firecharacters couldn’t. That, or Idea Factory just really liked Capcom’s series of horror fighters and wanted to give it more attention.
Street Fighter X Tekkenhas had a bit of a critical resurgence, as some fans loved the final result, and its last few updates fixed a selection of its initial problems. Even so, it never lived up to either Capcom or Bandai-Namco’s expectations because its development seemed cursed. It was supposed to capitalize onStreet Fighter 4’s success andTekken’s status as the premier 3D fighter, with some great, flashy trailers of their cast duking it out.
Instead, it had a confusing range of techniques, microtransaction-based gems, a furor surrounding its on-disc DLC, and a comeback mechanic (‘Pandora’) that could make the player lose the game if they accidentally set it off. At its heart, it still offered some strongStreet Fightergameplay with someTekkenstrings. Though if they were able to trim out its flaws, it would’ve caught on better, wouldn’t have hurtTekken Tag Tournament 2’s sales, and Bandai-Namco’s long-awaited retort,Tekken X Street Fighter, wouldn’t be vaporware.
Capcom’s collaborations with Marvel had been going well since they made a beat ‘em up based onThe Punisher, but they really took off when they put them in their fighting games.X-Men: Children of the Atomwas a step forward for the genre in 1994, andMarvel Super Heroesimproved on that in 1995. Then 1996 brought the first ripple of an iconic series to come inX-Men Vs Street Fighter.
It introduces tag-style gameplay, as Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, etc., could partner up with Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, etc., in a faster-paced fighter where they could tag in and out to keep the combos going. It’s still a fun game to play today, though players who are used to the three-way, frenetic action of later Marvel games might find it rather light compared to the full capabilities ofa Marvel crossover.
Before Capcom broadened its scope into the firstMarvel Vs Capcom, they tookX-Men Vs Street Fighterand replaced most of the X-Men with the cast ofMarvel Super Heroesto produceMarvel Super Heroes Vs Street Fighter. Cyclops, Wolverine, and the boss Apocalypse get to stay, though Storm, Sabertooth, and Gambit were traded out for Captain America, the Hulk, Spider-Man, and Omega Red.
Otherwise, it was nearly exactly the same game asX-Men Vs Street Fighter. It had the same stages with a few graphical changes (Peter Parker turns up on the TV studio stage if no one’s playing Spider-Man), and the same tag gameplay. Characters just had a few move tweaks, got more super combos, and the announcer got more hyped up if someone won a round with said supers (“HYPER CHARGING STAAAARRRR!!").
10Namco x Capcom
The First Step in Monolith Soft’s Action RPG Series
When people first heard Namco was crossing over with Capcom, they thought they’d get aMarvel-style fighting game. Instead, they got a tactical RPG that never made its way outside Japan. Western fans just had to watch its stunning intro video of Ryu andTekken’s Jin throwing hands, Chun-Li throwing kicks withWonder Momo,Mega Man Legends’Volnutt and Roll blasting withXenosaga’s KOS-MOS, and someone rememberingResident Evil: Dead AimandDino Crisisexist with Regina and Fong Ling.
These andeven more classic Capcom and Namco charactersall turn up in a tale where original characters Reiji and Xiaomu have to figure out why all these different universes are colliding together. It was a popular game, though reviewers at the time felt Monolith was more concerned with fanservice than game balance. That is, they really wanted all these different characters to have fun exchanges with each other, though they couldn’t nail how to make the gameplay more in-depth than ‘Use Ability Points to Combo Foes’.
The West never gotNamco x Capcomofficially, but they got the next best thing inProject X Zoneon the Nintendo 3DS. It had the same positives and negatives, in that it had a wide range of characters exchanging comic dialogue with each other, and the gameplay wasn’t any deeper than a beat ‘em up. Still, by allowing more freeform movement and timing-based Critical Hits, the combat was more fun.
This time, Namco and Capcom’s eclectic cast are joined by Sega characterslikeVirtua Fighter’s Akira and Pai, Sakura fromSakura Wars, Ulala fromSpace Channel 5, and Bruno Delinger fromDynamite Cop(akaDie Hard Arcade). As fun as they are, the roster focuses more on characters from other RPGs instead of eyebrow-raising selections likeNamco x Capcomdid. Fans ofTales of Vesperia,Super Robot Wars,God Eater,Valkyria Chronicles 3, etc., will be happy. Those expecting Sonic the Hedgehog to meet Klonoa and Blanka won’t.
Those dimensional rifts keep happening. Only this time, it’s pulled in some Nintendo characters too! Or rather, it pulled in characters from one Nintendo franchise. Chrom and Lucina fromFire Emblem Awakeningjoin in the tactical fun, where the gameplay isn’t all that different. Paired units exchange combos and Critical Hits with Support Units providing additional hits.
Again, its character interactions are more appealing, particularly as the roster has more character variety this time. RPG fans might lament the reduction of their favorite franchises, though if they ever wanted to see howYakuza’s Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima would react to Phoenix Wright fromAce Attorney, hear Chun-Li, Xiaoyu, and Pai realize they’re all kung fu girl tropes or fight against Segata Sanshiro himself,Project X Zone 2will scratch that itch.
7Tatsunoko Vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars
Perhaps the Most Underrated Crossover Fighter
In an ironic twist,Namco x Capcom, a series with characters East and West are familiar with, never left Japan, butTatsunoko Vs Capcom, a game filled largely with characters only Japanese people and old-school otaku would know, did get a global release. Kind of. Likely based onStreet Fighter 4’s success at the time, Nintendo wanted an equivalent fighter for their console and helped Capcom clear the licenses for their crossover to escape Japan’s shores. It worked for everyone on the Tatsunoko side except Hakushon Daimaoh fromThe Genie Family.
So, they replaced him with 4 new characters:Mega Man X’s Zero,Dead Rising’s Frank West,Gatchaman’s Joe the Condor, and Tekkaman Blade (akaTeknoman). It was basically a preview of whatMarvel Vs Capcom 3would offer, from the simplified controls to some shared moves betweenCapcom’s heroes and heroines. Only instead of 3-on-3 combat, it went back to tag teams. It was popular enough to create a fan base who’d love to see a sequel, though without a big company handling the licenses, it seems unlikely.
Street Fighter X Tekken’s messy reception made Bandai-Namco’sTekken X Street Fighter, a crossover that would’ve given theSFcastTekken-style move lists, a less appealing prospect. Particularly whenTekken Tag Tournament 2ended up selling so poorly that Bandai-Namco thought about chucking it into the vault next to theSoulCaliburseries. Instead, they gaveTekken 7a shot, and it ended up becoming the best-selling entry in the series.
Especially when they decided to give players a taste of whatTxSFmight’ve been like by addingStreet Fighter’s Akuma to the roster. Not only that, he’d play a key part in the story as someone tasked by Heihachi’s late wife Kazumi to finish off her husband and her demonic son Kazuya. Instead, his 2D-style jumps, bounding combos, Demon Flips, EX moves, and super combos saw him torment everyone else on the roster. Even with his high skill level, he became top tier, leavingTekkenfans dreading the unlikely possibility of him coming back forTekken 8.
In the West,Street Fighter’s biggest rival isMortal Kombat. In the East, it’sKing of Fighters. Capcom and SNK have been butting heads in front of and behind the scenes since the 1980s. However, by the late 1990s,Street Fighter 2producer Yoshiki Okamoto and his former colleague-turned-King of Fightersproducer Takashi Nishiyama (also the co-creator ofStreet Fighter 1) worked out a deal where the two would make a series of crossover games.
SNK actually made the most entries, though many of them were on the obscure Neo Geo Pocket Color handheld. Capcom’s results were much more popular, and they began withCapcom Vs SNK: Millennium Fight 2000. Unlike theMarvelgames, the action was more like a mix ofStreet Fighter(combos, Capcom groove, etc.) andKing of Fighters(4-button layout, SNK groove, etc.). Still, the first entry feels rougher than its sequel thanks to its fixed Ratio system and limited groove options.
