The Capcom Countdown → Capcom Fighting Collection and Street Fighter 6

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - One of my least favourite kind of tricks.

At the start of last week, game publisher CAPCOM put out this Capcom Countdown website, which was just a dark screen with a big days and hours countdown. We were meant to hype ourselves up silly about what'd be revealed. As soon as someone mentioned that the end of the countdown would coincide with the end of the CAPCOM Pro Tour 2021, I knew that it'd be an announcement that'd likely be Street Fighter VI. No need to delude myself into thinking it'd be the seventh mainline Ace Attorney or anything. CAPCOM is doing this all intentionally. And that became clear late last night when someone said to STOP THE COUNT and the countdown was stuck at one hour, waiting for the last match in the tour of Kawano vs. Daigo to end. And only after that did CAPCOM's stream go into announcements, and all of the commentators on the stream started flailing their arms while muted and faking physical reactions, I guess. And only a while after that did CAPCOM remember to update their countdown website with the news, too. And now it just redirects altogether. So here's what was shown:

First of all, about Street Fighter 6—the predecessor is called Street Fighter V, but this is Street Fighter 6. Arabic numeral, not Roman numeral. They really wanted you to understand that with their logo for the game, which some people believe is way too reminiscent of the number of notifications you might find on an app icon (along with looking like a stock image). If they made it a VI, that wouldn't be a thing—so perhaps it was entirely intentional. And second of all (and probably more importantly), this was an announcement of an announcement of an announcement. They announced the countdown would be a thing, and then we had to wait a week, and then at the end they said that Street Fighter 6 will formally be introduced in the summer of 2022. All we know about it is that Ryu (who appears unshaved) and Luke are in it—and Luke is a very recent addition to the franchise (from not base Street Fighter V, but only starting after Street Fighter V: Champion Edition), so I had no idea who he was.

And speaking of admitting ignorance, there's the matter of Capcom Fighting Collection (releasing on the Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and Steam). Not to be confused with the Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle, THIS collection is of fighting games and has rollback online play, featuring:

1. Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors
2. Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge
3. Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire
4. Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers’ Revenge (First official release in North America)
5. Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire (First official release in North America)
6. Red Earth (First release outside of arcades)
7. Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness
8. Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix
9. Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
10. Hyper Street Fighter II

It's not just ordinary online play... it's rollback! People love that.
And there is both ranked and casual mode matchmaking.
(I can totally see some/most of the games being totally dead online. Not a vampire pun.)

The whole first half of that list is from the Darkstalkers series. I'm aware that there is a vocal (and presumably small?) fanbase of people that continually pester CAPCOM for Darkstalkers to get attention besides Morrigan Aensland and Felicia making cameo appearances in other games (and being a favourite of cosplayers and...artists alike). Some of those other games include Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo and Super Gem fighter Mini Mix, so in a way, over 50% of the content in this collection is Darkstalkers-related. Maybe fans should see it as another chance after how... poorly Darkstalkers Resurrection did in 2013. It's an uphill battle since CAPCOM doesn't even list Darkstalkers as a franchise on their investor relations site. Comparatively, Ace Attorney is in a WAY healthier place.

OH, AND I ACCIDENTALLY FOUND OUT THAT THERE'S ANOTHER CAPCOM SALE ON THE eSHOP RIGHT NOW. I guess in any given week it's not unlikely to happen, but still. It's the Capcom Hits Sale. Doesn't have Ace Attorney or Street Fighter in it, but there's Mega Man, Resident Evil, Monster Hunter (including Stories 2), and more. Check it out, I guess.


Ludwig thinks an announcement of an announcement is the max level you should get (reserved for things like announcing when E3 will be), but he'd prefer just to have the announcement. That's why KoopaTV didn't say a word about the countdown last week. When there's something actually there, then it can be talked about. Until then, shut up. Do you agree with that philosophy? Let the staff know in the comments section—and remember, there's only one week left for the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program Round 42!


Summer 2022? Try very early June 2022 for Street Fighter 6 news and a trailer.