Capcom Turns 30: Celebrating Three Decades In Gaming

Capcom turns 30 years old today, so here’s a look back on three decades in gaming.

Without Capcom, gaming just wouldn’t be what it is today. They set the bar for difficulty since the dawn of the Nintendo’s revival of the video game industry with the NES. They gave us such genre-inventing classics as Resident Evil, Street Fighter 2, Megaman, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and several more. Capcom was even the only company to successfully make a Legend of Zelda game outside of Nintendo. You simply can’t argue about Capcom being an important part of gaming history.

Capcom was the first to introduce crossover fighting games, way back with X-Men Vs Street Fighter. It gave us the opportunity to see if the World Warriors could really hold their own against Marvel’s mutants. It was so successful that Capcom made several expansions on the idea, eventually resulting in Marvel Vs Capcom. This didn’t stop them, however, as Capcom got experimental and made crossovers with the characters of SNK (Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown), and Tekken.

Of course, Capcom’s crossover fighting games spawned a similar and not so well received answer from Midway, who made Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe. The game was so poorly received that Midway was forced to reboot the Mortal Kombat franchise, proving that you have to know what you’re doing and not just throw ideas in a pot, stir, and call it a game.

Capcom was also responsible for some of the most iconic characters in gaming history, such as Megaman, Albert Wesker, Pheonix Wright, Ryu, Dante, Felicia, Firebrand, Viewtiful Joe, the Bionic Commando, Tron Bonne, Strider Hiryu, Nemesis, and Mike Haggar.

How many other game developers can claim to have so many original and well-known characters to their name?

Capcom has even spawned some of the most successful movies in video game history. Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie was one of the major gateways for feature-length anime (Japanese cartoons), and Resident Evil remains the longest running video game based movie franchise of all time.

Happy Birthday, Capcom, and we hope to do this again in 30 years!

What are your favorite memories of Capcom after three decades in gaming?