Capcom was established over forty years ago in 1979. That’s a long time to run any business, let alone one based on video games. The market is always changing the closure of studios is a fairly common occurrence, no matter how great their legacy may have been.
Capcom has stuck it through hard times and is steadily climbing back up as a dominant name in the gaming industry after a few successive flubs during the last generation. Since the new one is about to begin, let’s take a look back at the games Capcom never brought to light. All info and assets can be found on Unseen64 unless otherwise noted.
10 Crossover Fighting Games
Tekken X Street Fighter and Street Fighter X Tekken were announced at the same time in 2010. The latter of the two launched in 2012. The former game has never actually been canceled, but as of right now things are looking slim. Another crossover fighting game, Sammy vs. Capcom, was revealed in 2003. A year later Sammy merged with Sega, which may be why it was quietly let go. Both games have no available assets.
9 Capcom Super League Online
This was another crossover experience, but one much different than the previous entry. This was a strategy RPG which was being developed by Kakao Games for South Korea. A beta went out in October 2018, but it was canceled a few months later, in March 2019. While this was let go, fans looking for a similar game can find solace in Project X Zone on 3DS. Also of note, there are quite a few videos online of Capcom Super League Online.
8 Game Boy Color Ports
One of the more famously failed ports to the Game Boy Color was the original Resident Evil. A rom was eventually leaked online so players could experience it. A lesser-known project was a port of Dino Crisis. However, this one doesn't have a rom floating around for intrepid gamers to dig up and play around with. All that's left of this particular project now is a few blurry screenshots.
7 Mega Man Projects
Mega Man had a tough year in 2010. Mega Man Legends 3 for the 3DS, a long-awaited sequel, and Mega Man Universe, a Super Mario Maker-like game but with Mega Man, were announced somewhat close together. Both games, of course, were canceled. Another project, Maverick Hunter, was never officially announced. This dark reboot of the franchise seemingly converted the Mega Man X spinoff series into a shooter akin to Metroid Prime. It was discovered in 2013 by Polygon.
6 Ghosts ‘n Goblins 64
There are no assets of this game to be had, unfortunately. The only proof that this existed was a small blurb in Edge magazine in 1996. They, along with other members of the press, played a demo of the game with Nintendo for the N64.
It hasn’t happened yet, but like all canceled games, eventually more data will turn up. That’s the hope for historical video game fans at least.
5 The Legend Of Zelda: Mystical Seed of Courage
It’s hard to remember, but Capcom once developed quite a few games in The Legend of Zelda franchise. Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons were their first two attempts for the Game Boy Color. They were received well, but it may come as a shock to know that there was a third game planned. One guess as to why the Mystical Seed of Courage never happened could be related to insurmountable time constraints. At least the entirety of this project wasn’t canceled.
4 Strider Reboot
Grin first worked with Capcom on Bionic Commando Rearmed in 2008, which was a remake of the NES game. They also handled the series’ reboot in 2009. The former game got great buzz, but the other was a flop. On top of that their next game, not with Capcom, Terminator Salvation, was also reviewed poorly. Because of this, and many other issues concerning money problems, the company went bankrupt in 2009. Slipping into the cracks with their closure was a Strider pitch. There are some art assets along with a concept trailer left online. As a side note, they were also working on Fortress, a game based in the Ivalice universe of Final Fantasy.
3 Dead Phoenix
Dead Phoenix was announced as part of the Capcom Five in 2002. The other four games also included in the pack were Viewtiful Joe, PNO3, Resident Evil 4, and Killer 7. All of them were meant to be GameCube exclusives. Dead Phoenix, a shooter in the vein of Star Fox, was canceled in 2003 and the only title in the Capcom Five that never released. A few art assets and videos can be tracked down online.
2 DeVargas
One of Capcom’s internal studios made Maximo, which was a reboot of Ghosts ‘n Goblins. After the team wrapped up work on the sequel, they presented pitches for a few new games. DeVargas was one of them, along with yet another Maximo game.
All that exists of DeVargas is a screenshot of a drawing. It looks like Devil May Cry artistically, and would apparently play similarly to a stealth game like Assassin’s Creed.
1 USS Antarctica
USS Antarctica was in development by Darkworks Studio. Capcom was just the publisher. It was being made for the PS2 and original Xbox. The initial trailer of the game made it look aesthetically similar to Metal Gear Solid 2, particularly with the soldiers and naval ship setting. However, some art assets that also exist show off some weird aliens and alien-like landscapes. The game was announced in 2001 and canceled in 2003. Right after this Darkwood would partner up with Ubisoft to release Cold Fear in 2005, which seemingly took some ideas from USS Antarctica like the ship motif. The studio would eventually close in 2011.