Talk about an exciting week for fans of retro games, this week Capcom has decided to answer everybody's prayers by announcing a new Bionic Commando and the long awaited fourth installment to the Street Fighter franchise. I'll be honest with you, even though Street Fighter IV has been rumored for years; I had given up all hope on ever seeing this game get a release. And don't even get me started on Bionic Commando, a game that is twenty years old and was only popular in the United States. In this era of companies not taking risks, I figured that Capcom would focus all their attention towards proven titles like Resident Evil, Devil May Cry and Lost Planet. But Capcom did something no company has been able to do this year; they surprised me twice in one week.

But as I thought about these announcements I started to wonder what would happen if Bionic Commando 2 and Street Fighter IV became huge hits. Perhaps this would lead Capcom to go back to the well and resurrect a couple of their other forgotten franchises. And with that thought I started wondering what else they could possibly revive. And that's when it hit me, it might be time for somebody to suggest a few titles they should resurrect if they have the time. And who better to help Capcom out than Defunct Games? So I give you Ten More Franchises Capcom Needs to Resurrect, a list of the games I am most excited about seeing on my next generation consoles and portable game systems.
Yes, I realize that Capcom just released an Xbox Live Arcade version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo. And I'm also aware that they decided to port the game to the PSP. But I don't consider either of these ports to be resurrecting the franchise, especially when the actual game hasn't changed since its release in 1996. I appreciate that Capcom is keeping interest high with these releases, I love the idea that people who never owned a PlayStation can finally get it on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PSP, Game Boy Advance and GameTap. But isn't it about time for Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo 2? I would love to see Capcom take all of the money they've collected from the non-stop remakes and finally give us a real sequel.

Now granted, I'm not the biggest fan of puzzle game sequels; I hated the idea of Tetris 2 and feel that Lumines II was completely unnecessary. But I'm all for a sequel to Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, especially since it really isn't like all of those other puzzlers on the market. Capcom doesn't need to radically change the formula, but how cool would it be to see some brand new characters, perhaps super deformed fighters from Street Fighter III, Tech Romancer, Rival Schools United By Fate and Power Stone. And who says the characters have to be from Capcom fighting games? How cool would it be to see some of the characters from other Capcom classics, like Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Dead Rising and Lost Planet? I can only hope that by releasing the game on the PSP and Xbox Live Arcade Capcom is testing the waters for some future installment, but I hate to get my hopes up only to have them dashed by another port.

Although there was a lot of buzz for this game a decade ago, at this point I think just about everybody agrees that Dino Crisis is nothing more than Resident Evil with dinosaurs instead of zombies. Heck, even at the time people were saying that this was Jurassic Evil, a survival horror game that aped on every aspect of those top grossing Steven Spielberg films. But nobody cared if the game was just one giant rip off of Jurassic Park, it's not like there were a lot of companies making great dinosaur games at the time. The fact that we had something other than zombies to run from seemed like a welcome change at the time, and still sounds like a good concept for a video game if you ask me.

But Capcom ruined a good thing. Dino Crisis is one of those games where you do it once and then wait a few years before attempting a sequel. Even though Dino Crisis 2 was released one year after the original, it still managed to score big with the critics and hit all the right notes. But in 2003 everything fell apart. Instead of keeping what worked, Capcom decided to abandon the original concept (people trapped in a remote location under attack by dinosaurs) and take the series to ... outer space? That's right; Dino Crisis 3 was set in space. It didn't work for Friday the 13th, it didn't work for Leprechaun, and it definitely didn't work for Dino Crisis. Worse yet, the dinosaurs you fought in the third installment weren't even real dinosaurs, they were mutations created from the DNA of some dinosaur species. I'm hoping that one day Capcom will realize the error of their ways and pretend that part three didn't happen. It's time to take the Resident Evil 4 control scheme and adapt it for Dino Crisis. I don't care if the concept is played out, part of me just loves the idea of gunning dinosaurs down ... especially if the game controls right.

While not as widely known as other Capcom games, Code Name: Viper was an exceptional 2D action game for the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System. You played an undercover agent who was under the command of the United States Army on a mission to single handedly destroy a South American Army. While the concept is nothing spectacular, the game itself featured solid action and one of the most politically incorrect game twists of all time. Of course, the game's real claim to fame was that it resembled Namco's arcade game, Rolling Thunder. In fact, every gameplay element was lifted directly from that 1986 game, including finding weapons in large doors and being able to jump up to the second story to dodge enemy fire. But who cares that Code Name: Viper was essentially a rip-off of Rolling Thunder? After all, Rolling Thunder was an amazing game, and outside of tracking down the unlicensed Tengen port, this Capcom version was about the only way to actually play that kind of game at home.

But what I love about Code Name: Viper is the storytelling. If you go back to the game now you'll find a lot of wooden dialog and some terrible "Engrish" translations, but what you can make out is pure gold. I would love to see Capcom come back with another politically incorrect action game like this, especially in this world of hypersensitive flag waving patriotism. The characters themselves weren't all that interesting, but the locations were pretty cool and I would love to be able to jump really high through floors in 3D. If Capcom doesn't want bring us Code Name: Viper 2, then perhaps they can go ahead and pass the word over to Namco so that somebody can get the ball rolling on a fourth (yes, fourth) Rolling Thunder game.

Who cares that the series hasn't been on TV since 1990, I think it's about time we have another excellent Duck Tales game from Capcom! To a certain generation Duck Tales is the best example of a quality video game based on a licensed movie or TV show. Many others have tried, but no matter what name was on the box (Transformers, G.I. Joe, Tail Spin, etc.), the games always ended up to be total let downs. But not Duck Tales. Duck Tales managed to take the characters we loved and put them in the kind of action game that only Capcom was able to deliver.

But imagine, if you will, what it would be like to suddenly be told that Scrooge, Duckworth, Mrs. Beakley, Launchpad McQuack, Huey, Dewey and Louie were all coming back for another 2D outing? If you ask me this kind of title sounds like the perfect fit for the Nintendo DS, that way you can use the touch screen to dig up gold, smack enemies out of your way, locate hidden items and navigate intricately detailed worlds. Better yet, Capcom has had almost two decades to learn how to make bigger and more interesting levels to search through. Duck Tales 3 will never happen, but just the possibility of it takes me back to a time when all I cared about was Saturday morning cartoons and 2D action games.

Apparently there's a lot of hate out in the world for the Rival Schools franchise. When talking about my collection of the worst video games of all time (which includes such classics as Mortal Kombat Advance, Fight 4 Life and Rise of the Robots) I've had a few people ask me if Capcom's school-based 3D fighter was included in the list. Color me shocked, because I for one really enjoyed this quirky fighter. Released around the same time as Tekken, Virtua Fighter and Soul Calibur, Rival Schools United By Fate (or simply Rival Schools, if all you've ever experienced was the PlayStation port) was a 3D action game with weird characters and even weirder mini-games. It may not be perfect, but looking back at the game now I think that it stands up rather well when compared to Namco and Sega's arcade fighters.

The gimmick in Rival Schools was that you selected two characters and battled it out in a series of tag-team matches. And that's not all; you also got to play as a series of teenagers ... from rival schools. While that concept may not sound all that appealing (especially to those of us who have been out of school for more than a decade), there's just something inherently cool about taking on jocks, freshmen, fat kids and even mindless teachers. Better still; the home ports featured a ton of weird mini-games that were almost as addictive as the main game. Now that Capcom knows a thing or two about developing a 3D game, I would love to see a modern Rival Schools released on one of the next generation consoles. How cool would it be to see the jocks get their butts kicked by the Goths, Nerds, Emo kids, and sluts? As far as I'm concerned you can never get enough of slutty teenage school girls in video games.