Why Capcom Should Bring Back Darkstalkers

If there’s one video game genre that I love, it’s fighting games. So, it seemed like a no-brainer to get myself a Sega Saturn and start collecting its vast library of fighting games. After all, I had missed out on the Saturn growing up, and it was exciting to try something new. I started out with Virtua Fighter 2. It was pretty fun. I still play it occasionally. Amazing graphics for the time. I then imported Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire. This game became my all time favorite and I became obsessed with the Darkstalkers series thereafter. 

Usually, there is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to getting used to a fighting game for me. However, this game and series felt so intuitive that it was like I knew how to play it before even playing it. The gameplay was so fluid and ran at just the right speed for you to react while not being so slow that movements felt stiff or sluggish. However, I was disappointed to learn that Capcom had abandoned the franchise as its own thing after Darkstalkers Resurrection on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 back in 2013, and even that was just an HD remaster of Vampire Savior and Vampire Hunter. I believe that Darkstalkers deserves to be brought back, and here’s why.

Interesting Characters

The Darkstalkers series has some of the most interesting characters of any fighting game franchise. You have everything from vampires, werewolves, cat women, mummies, and even a representation of Little Red Riding Hood. One of my favorite characters is Felicia. She is a cat woman who was raised by nuns and just wants to dance and make the world better by making people smile. It’s a stark contrast to all the other characters in the game who are mostly dark and brooding. She happens to be my main because she’s lightning fast and I like her moveset. 

Felicia is way different than the other Darkstalkers, which makes her a favorite among fans.

All that said, it would be in Capcom’s best interests to shake things up and add more characters if the franchise were to return. They’ve done this with their other fighting game franchises with great success. The first Street Fighter is a way different game than what the franchise is today because they kept adding to the roster and even completely shook things up with Street Fighter 3: New Generation, which included a whole roster of new characters. They don’t have to take away from the characters already in Darkstalkers, but it would be nice to have some new ones to play. The franchise deserves to be developed more.

Jump To 3D

Street Fighter made the jump from 2D to 3D, but aside from having a few Darkstalkers characters available in Marvel vs. Capcom, the Darkstalkers series never got the chance. Don’t get me wrong, I love the detailed pixel art in the original Capcom games from that era. Nothing is going to replace that, but it’s 2020. It’s not the original PlayStation era anymore. You can make cartoon 3D character models look good now and Capcom as well as other video game publishers have been proving this. The Darkstalkers series deserves an upgrade. 

Darkstalkers characters have been in a number of Capcom crossovers.

There Are Still Fans

There are still plenty of Darkstalkers fans out there and the subreddit is still very active with the latest posted fan art being 15 minutes ago as of the writing of this article. The franchise might not be as big as Street Fighter, but it is still very popular within the fighting game community. I believe that this is due to how unique it really is compared to Capcom’s other offerings. The fans deserve to see it come back.