From The Disney Afternoon Collection to the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, Capcom has been releasing of collections of its older games While the Mega Man series has already been getting special treatment with its four existing Legacy Collections, the announcement of the Mega Man Zero / ZX Legacy Collection is about to bring another set of classic Mega Man games to a new generation.
Since Capcom can only rerelease so many Mega Man and Street Fighter games, there are plenty of other Capcom franchises that deserve the Legacy Collection treatment. While those two franchises might be Capcom's standard bearers, here are five more Capcom franchises that could benefit from being rereleased as Legacy Collections.
Final Fight
The Final Fight games are something of a no-brainer, since some Final Fight characters were recently introduced in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition. There are six games in the Final Fight series: Final Fight, Final Fight 2, Mighty Final Fight, Final Fight 3, Final Fight Revenge, and Final Fight Streetwise. Three of the games are relatively well-known, two are not as well-known, and one is mildly infamous. The original trilogy are some of the best beat-em-ups from the 1990s and still stand as easy pick-up-and-play games that anyone will be able to enjoy.
Mighty Final Fight is a retelling of the first game but made exclusively for the NES. All three characters from the original are playable but the game has you earn special moves via an experience system. It also recreates the characters into a "chibi" art style. Final Fight Revenge is an odd game as its a 3D fighting game with a weapon system and bizarre super moves that was one of the final games released on the Sega Saturn.
Final Fight Streetwise was Capcom's attempt to restart the series. It's widely regarded as a notoriously terrible game that could've been great had the proper development time and care had been put into it. However, it still needs to be included in any Legacy Collection for the sake of completion.
Ghosts 'n' Goblins
The Ghosts n' Goblins series has two spin-off franchises so there should be enough games in the franchise for two collections. The original Ghosts n' Goblins is a notoriously hard, classic arcade platformer that rewards skill and repeated plays. Ghouls n' Ghosts is not that different and it continues the difficult of the series. Super Ghosts n' Goblins eases up on the difficulty and adds a double jump that really helps with the platforming.
Makaimura for Wonderswan is a game that exclusively came out for the Bandai Wonderswan, a handheld made by the creator of the Game Boy that was never released in America. This could be the first time that it receives a worldwide release. Ultimate Ghosts n' Ghouls brings the series to 3D and adds more lives and hits to Arthur's armor to make his adventure more bearavle. Finally, there were two mobile games, Ghosts n' Goblins: Gold Knights I & II, that played just like the original, despite the touch controls and would be enjoyable to play with traditional controls.
The second Legacy Collection should collect the three Gargoyle's Quest games and the two Maximo titles. Gargoyle's Quest is a platformer with RPG elements. It has much more emphasis on platforming than the main series and also takes a lot of influence from Dragon Warrior. Gargoyle's Quest II move the game to the NES for more colorful graphics. Demon's Crest is more of a platformer but there are still ways to upgrade. Maximo: Ghosts to Glory reshapes the series into a 3D hack 'n slash for a more exploration-heavy title and Maximo: Army of Zin continues that direction.
19xx
Starting with the arcade classic 1942, Capcom's World War II shoot-em-up that gave the company one of itsfirst big franchises. However, all seven games int the series could still fit on one Legacy Collection. These include 1942, 1943: The Battle of Midway, 1943 Kai, 1941: Counter Attack, 19XX: The War Against Destiny, 1944: The Loop Master, and 1942: Joint Strike.
These games are all vertical scrolling and add and sometimes remove features such as life bars, chargeable shots and rank increases. The big change is typically the graphical fidelity, since most of these games were built on different arcade systems. The Legacy Collection could actually reflect how each of these games--except 1943 Kai and 1944: The Loop Master--were built on different hardware.
Darkstalkers
While the three games that make up the bulk of the Darkstalkers franchise have been collected before, the updated versions of those games are rarely given any love. The Legacy Collection would be perfect for this kind of nuance in a collection that satisfies even the most die-hard fighting game fan. A collection could comprise of Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors, Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge, Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers' Revenge, Darkstalkers 3, Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire, and Vampire Savior: EX Edition.
In many ways, the series is really only two games. Darkstalkers and Darkstalkers' Revenge have the same story, stages, and graphics, since the main differences between the titles are a few extra characters and an updated super move system. The Vampire titles are Japan-only updates that the series got. The first made Darkstalkers 3 more like the previous game and the second added content. Vampire Savior: EX Edition is a combination of these updates that was released as the home PlayStation version of the game. It may seem overly precise, but if the Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 can include titles as specific as the German version of Mega Man X7, this shouldn't be a problem.
This is a series that hasn't gotten a lot of love recently, but this RPG series is widely loved, especially the third and fourth titles. This Legacy Collection could possibly collect them all, although maybe the recent sixth mobile-exclusive entry in the series could be left out. Each of the games are traditional turn-based JRPG with engrossing stories and memorable characters. The third and fourth games also have beautiful sprite work and shows how attractive 2D graphics could be during the 32-bit era.
If Capcom wanted to be really generous, it could include not only the original versions of each game but the GBA and 3DS versions of Breath of Fire 1 and 2, the PSP version of Breath of Fire III, and the PC version of Breath of Fire IV. Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is a departure from the series that changed a lot of what the series was known for. It didn't really work out, it killed the series in fact, but like Final Fight Streetwise, it's important to include.