The world of fighting games has been growing at an exponential rate ever since the release of Street Fighter IV back in 2008. In just five short years we’ve seen four versions of that game, a new Marvel vs. Capcom title (along with one revision), and a new installment in nearly every fighting game franchise ever conceived: Tekken Tag 2, Dead or Alive 5, King of Fighters XIII, BlazBlue: Chronophantasma, Mortal Kombat… you get the idea.
On top of the sequels, we have a few completely new franchises that have made their way into the fighting game market, such as Street Fighter X Tekken, Skullgirls, Persona 4: Arena, and Injustice: Gods Among Us. And now we hear that the old arcade classic Killer Instinct is being revived. So, yeah, on the 12th day of Christmas, the industry gave to me: twelve new fighting games and a partridge in a pear tree. Amongst all of this hype, it’s hard to believe that any fighting game genre could actually be experiencing problems, but unfortunately for Darkstalkers fans, that appears to be just the case.
Things certainly seemed to be looking promising for the franchise with popular Darkstalkers characters receiving a bit of exposure in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Morrigan, Felicia, and Hsien Ko each managed to snag one of the coveted spots in the Capcom half of the game’s 36 roster spots. There seemed to be enough excitement surrounding the game and its characters to cause Capcom to take a hard look at the series, and fans were excited when Capcom announced Darkstalkers Resurrection, which was a compilation of two previous Darkstalkers titles. The goal was both to generate hype for the franchise and to test the waters for future prospects, but according to Matt Dahlgren, Capcom’s Fighting Game Manager, the game did not perform well enough to earn Capcom’s devoted attention.
Speaking to Siliconera, Dahlgren stated, “There is nothing Darkstalkers on the immediate horizon for sure.”
