Dear Capcom,
The reason for this letter is to tell you how much I hearts you. We have spent so many hours together and I wanted to take some time to look back on the fond memories that we have shared together. I can still remember when we first met. The year was 1989 and I had just opened up my Nintendo Entertainment System. Super Mario Bros was getting kind of old so I went down to the local video store and rented Mega Man. It was love at first sight. Even though you made Mega Man nearly impossible to complete (and I still haven’t to this day), I loved the challenge and variety of levels that you gave to me. Of course soon after you gave me the first Mega Man game, I discovered that you had actually already released Mega Man II and a third installment was on the way. I remember talking with my friends about how if we had Mega Man I, II, and III here, you must have just launched Mega Man XIII in Japan. Oh, those were the days…
It didn’t stop with Mega Man on the NES though. You also had Bionic Commando, Commando, and 1942 to help me waste away the hours between getting out of school and dinner time. You got away from your own IPs for a little while there with developing games for Disney but hey, Chip ‘N Dale Rescue Rangers was awesome. If anyone tells you otherwise, you send them my way.
We did part ways for a little while there as I moved on from my NES over to the Sega Genesis. You didn’t have much to offer on the Genesis but when I got my Super Nintendo, we reconnected in a big way. It was there that you gave me my introduction to fighting games with Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. This is when I knew that we were back together for good. Sure there were other fighting games out at the time. I could have gone with Killer Instinct and their new combo system or I could have gone with the Mortal Kombat series and their gruesome fatalities, but I stuck with you, Capcom. I loved the pure speed of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo and the characters were so much more memorable. You skipped over the gimmicks and hype and made a solid fighting game that has stood the test of time and is still played heavily today. Sadly, my fondness for your fighting games only lasted for one more game after SSF2T. I picked up on the original Marvel vs. Capcom for the original Playstation but I quickly found that my skill for fighting games was not enough to keep up with my competition.
The launch of the Playstation was when things really took off. I had missed out on all of the Mega Man games since Mega Man 3 for the NES but I came back when you released Mega Man X4. Mega Man had changed so much and I was very impressed. The PS1 also marked the launch for one of your most successful franchises: Resident Evil. We stayed together through the other prerendered backgrounds and then into 3D with Resident Evil 4 which was good enough for two consoles. The prerendered backgrounds continued to the Playstation 2 with Onimusha Warlords at the launch of the console. This was the first and only game that I had at launch and there was nothing wrong with that.
The new generation of console brought out another one of my favorite series: Devil May Cry. All the other kids were rushing to pick up Grand Theft Auto 3 but I knew where I wanted to be. I took my hard earned dollars down to the store and preordered the first game in the series and you even gave me a Devil May Cry T-shirt! I skipped over the 2nd game in the DMC series but you got me back when the 3rd and 4th games was launched a couple of years later. While all of these console games were great, it was the remake of an old favorite for the GameBoy Advance that really opened some new doors.
Nintendo tapped you on the shoulder to take The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past from the SNES and get it over to the GBA. Then they gave you the reigns to make an original Zelda title, The Minish Cap. I believe this was a good learning experience for you with adventure games and that experience really showed through with the release of Okami for the PS2 and the Nintendo Wii. This original adventure game was in the same vein as Zelda but you proved that you could do it better than they could. You proved that you could make a solid adventure game not only on a console but on a handheld as well with the release of Okamiden for the DS.
And that is where we stand today. We have a tremendous amount of history and a lot of great memories. I am still wearing that Devil May Cry T-shirt that you game me 10 years ago. I am also still enjoying the Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, and Okami series. While I haven’t picked up any of your recent fighting games and I am the absolute worst Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 player on the entire Golgotron roster, I still enjoy the tremendous amount of fan service that you delivered in this game. I am looking forward to many more years of enjoyable games from you. Even if you didn’t release any more games, we will always have Dino Crisis. But not Phoenix Wright. Phoenix Wright sucks.
Always Yours,
The Worst Fanboy Ever