A few days ago, I posed a question to the members of VGChartz: which of these two collosi in the gaming industry, Konami and Capcom, were the greatest. But I did not simply ask this as a binary question! I divided the history of the two companies into seven distinct eras, and asked people to pick their favorite in each of these eras. That way, we could determine when even the losing company was at their best.
The seven eras were as follows:
- 8 Bit
- 16 Bit
- 5th Generation
- 6th Generation
- 7th Generation
- Handhelds up until the Nintendo DS
- Handhelds starting with the DS
Without further ado, here are the winners in each category, followed by the overall winner!
8-Bit Era
Capcom
Compared to some other categories where Capcom won, Konami put up a good fight for the 8-Bit era. However, Capcom's efforts in early arcades and on the NES are too significant to be ignored. 1942 helped define the vertical flying shooter, the Mega Man series refined the art of the 2D platforming Action game, and Bionic Commando changed the way platformers could work by not including jumping. Even Capcom's licensed games during this era were remakrable. Ducktales is remembered as one of the finest games ever based on a cartoon. And that's not even covering games like Commando, Ghosts n' Goblins, and Little Nemo.
16-Bit Era
Capcom
If Capcom did well during the 8-Bit era, they dominated gaming during the 16-Bit age. If their only accomplishment had been revolutionizing thie fighting genre with the Street Fighter 2 series, they would have gone down in history. But rather than simply being a Fighting genre company, this was an era where Capcom succeeded in practically every area. Older series like Mega Man were updated to create the mind-blowing X series, and UN Squadron was the spiritual successor to earlier shooters despite flying to the right. Final Fight may not have created its respective genre like cousin Street Fighter 2 did, but it is certainly viewed as a high point. They even went into the RPG business and creating the Breath of Fire series at this time. And of course, licensed games such as Goof Troop continued to be of a high quality.
5th Generation
Konami
That's right, Konami actually makes an appearence on this list! And what better time for them to do it than the fifth generation of gaming. During "The Age of PlayStation," Konami well all out, creating new series and refurbishing older ones to become a landmark in the gaming climate. The PlayStation 1 was the focus of their efforts, naturally. Older series such as Metal Gear and Castlevania saw extreme makeovers that led to their most successful iterations yet. Meanwhile, new series like Suikoden and Silent Hill became well respected entries in their respective genres upon release, helping define the genre in the case of the latter. But of course, not all of the great projects from Konami at the time originated on the PlayStation. Dance Dance Revolution, the first wildly successful rhythm game in industry history, had its origins in the arcades.
6th Generation
Capcom
Capcom might have done well during the 8 and 16 bit eras, but even these periods were blown away by their output on 6th generation consoles. Big games from Capcom included a bevy of fighting games such as the Capcom vs. SNK series, Marvel vs. Capcom, and Power Stone. And that was on just the Dreamcast! You also had updated versions of already released Resident Evil titles for the GameCube, the revolutionary Resident Evil 4, cult classics like Viewtiful Joe and Okami, the reintrosuction of the beat em up genre via Devil May Cry, the original Monster Hunter games, Onimashu, Sengoku Basara, and even a few decent licensed games like "Oogie's Revenge."
7th Generation
Capcom
According to some people, the 7th generation was a time of decline for both Capcom and Konami. That said, it seems Capcom during its decline is still beyond what most companies are able to do at their best. Capcom helped reinvigorate the Fighting genre this generation with Street Fighter 4 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3. They created some exciting new series, such as the more open-world Dead Rising and Dragon's Dogma. Some older series, like Monster Hunter, only really hit their stride at this time. And of course, Capcom continued to push forward with older series like Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, and even downloadable sequels to retro games like Mega Man and Bionic Commando. Even with their mistakes from 2006 to 2013, Capcom still managed to push out quite a few great games.
Early Handhelds
Konami
Konami was one of the earliest supporters of Nintendo's dedicated handhelds, releasing Castlevania: The Adventure as early as 1989, the year the Game Boy launched. Even though that title was something of a dud, it started a trend of a fairly high level of support for the Game Boy series. From 1989 to 1997, Konami released an average of 4 games a year for the Game Boy. Many of these games were of surprisingly high quality, including Kid Dracula, Operation C, and Nemesis. Things only got better with the release of the Game Boy Color and Advance. This is when a large number of Yu-Gi-Oh titles were released for Nintendo's handhelds, some of which would be among the best received in franchise history. And of course, the trio of "Metroidvania" games on the Game Boy Advance, each of which is considered to be among the best handheld games of all time, can't be ignored. Oh, and Metal Gear Solid for the Game Boy Color was awesome.
Modern Handhelds
Capcom
In recent years, Capcom has become one of the big names in handheld gaming. The star of the show is of course Monster Hunter, which has replaced Final Fantasy as one of Japan's biggest gaming franchises. But this is far from all they've had to offer. The Ace Attorney series, although it began during the Game Boy era, really took off at this time, and has become a staple for the company. Original Handheld iterations os series like Okami and Resident Evil have been successful in their own right, to the extent where Revelations was eventually ported to HD consoles.
Grand Winner: Capcom
