We have some heartbreaking news for fans of Capcom’s most beleaguered series.
As reported on Eventhubs, Street Fighter producer Takayuki Nakayama seems to have confirmed that Capcom cancelled a DarkStalkers game.
Nakayama is the lead behind Street Fighter V and Street Fighter 6. He tweeted about the ten year anniversary of Capcom rhythm game Otoranger.
Nakayama said that he decided to return to Capcom because he had a chance to work on fighting games, but development of that game stopped. He was then brought over to work on Otoranger.
Now, Nakayama did not name DarkStalkers as the game he was working on. However, he described the game as “not SF”, AKA Street Fighter, and followed that up with a bat emoji.
So, Nakayama doesn’t really leave much ambiguity to that cancelled game being a DarkStalkers game. Nakayama actually replied to Eventhubs report that it is ‘a bit of a different story,’ and hinted about talking about it someday.
While Nakayama is being mostly tightlipped, fans who remember Capcom’s history with fighting games can piece together a story for themselves.
While DarkStalkers characters like Morrigan and Anakaris have appeared in multiple crossover Vs. fighting games, the franchise itself is arguably small. There are three main games in the series: DarkStalkers: The Night Warriors from 1994, Night Warriors: DarkStalkers’s Revenge from 1995, and Vampire Savior: World of Darkness from 1997.
Some fans count Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers’ Revenge and Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire as different games because of the different playable character rosters and gameplay changes. This is arguably true if you view these games from an esports or competitive play mindset. But in terms of project development, they are modified versions of Vampire Savior.
Every other DarkStalkers title after 1997 was either a port, a remaster, or a remixed version of these three games. While these games have a dedicated fanbase, Capcom didn’t really find a way to keep making new games in the franchise.
Now, Nakayama’s claim would have placed this cancelled DarkStalkers in 2013. As fans remember, Capcom released DarkStalkers Resurrection, a collection of the 2nd and 3rd games, in 2013 as a digital download on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Around this time Capcom producer Yoshinori Ono launched a DarkStalkers is not Dead marketing campaign as well. However, as we ourselves reported all those years ago, DarkStalkers Resurrection did not break even. Ono himself confirmed t fans that they could not move forward with making a new DarkStalkers game.
But what we did not know for sure at the time was that Capcom had already started work on that new DarkStalkers game. But we still don’t know how far along the project had gotten when it was cancelled.
Perhaps this is what Nakayama hopes to share with us in the future. And maybe the reason he can’t talk about it now, is because Street Fighter 6’s success, as well as the success Capcom has is releasing their fighting game collections, has opened an opportunity to make that DarkStalkers 4 today. Let’s all hope this story of an unmade game turns into the origin story of a new one.
