Konami vs Capcom - Platform by Platform

[excelsior]

I thought it would be interesting to look at these two companies support through ages and platforms. With the two having a comparable history with a strong starting point in arcades and action genres as well as both being prevalent third party brands through the late 80s and 90s. Of course the business model for both evolved from those origins and there's only one clear choice on later platforms, but through history which company do you think had the strongest support across various platforms? I didn't want to get into the arcades themselves since I think it's a tougher comparison to make. I'm of course ignoring MSX also since that's a given. 

Master System
Konami notable titles - none
Capcom notable titles - Forgotten Worlds, Mercs

Konami didn't support the platform so Capcom wins by default despite weak support itself.

Winner - Capcom

NES/Famicom
Konami notable titles - Castlevania series, TMNT The Arcade Game, Gradius series
Capcom notable titles - Mega Man series, Disney platformers

Capcom didn't really get going until late on for NES support. The Mega Man series is standout and I personally very much like the first three. From their Disney license I am most familiar with Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers which offered a rare nice early co-op platformer. Konami had a lot of strong support for the platform. I was a big fan of TMNT The Arcade Game growing up and later discovered the Gradius series. There was a version of Parodius for the platform too and various releases across the Castlevania and Goemon series.

Winner - Konami
 
Mega Drive/Genesis
Konami notable titles - Castlevania Bloodlines, Contra Hard Corps, Rocket Knight Adventures
Capcom notable titles - Street Fighter II series, Strider

Neither company hugely supported the platform but there are some nice efforts on each side regardless. Capcom's Street Fighter release did much of the work on their side and I'm also very pleased to see versions of their Strider and Punisher arcade releases that didn't hit SNES. Konami did better in bringing some original games to the platform that were standouts opting to bring an original entry rather than a straight port for several of their series.

Winner - Konami

Super NES/Super Famicom
Konami notable titles -  Super Castlevania IV, Turtles in Time, Goemon series, Parodius series, Contra 3
Capcom notable titles - Street Fighter II series, Mega Man X series, Final Fight series

This was the first time Capcom delivered strong support for this comparison imo. I like quite a few of their lesser sung games quite a bit such as UN Squadron, Magic Sword and X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse. They also delved into RPGs with the first Breath of Fire games though those are pretty by the numbers by modern standards. Street Fighter was far and away the best game between either company. That said, besides Mega Man X, there's a decent gap in quality between those and their other games which many of Konami's releases occupy. Again I enjoy some of their less popular games too - the two Batman releases come to mind and Sunset Riders is a personal favourite. Despite being a weak platform for Shoot-em-ups the Parodius releases were very nice. Konami attempted a Street Fighter style of game in the Turtles series with nice results. I tend to think Konami has a consistently higher standard of release on this platform.

Winner - Konami

Sega Saturn
Konami notable titles - Parodius series, Gradius series, Tokimeki Memorial series, Snatcher, Policenauts
Capcom notable titles - Street Fighter series, Mega Man series, Resident Evil, Marvel Fighting series

Capcom had a large line up of fighting games for the Saturn that were often the best way to play at home. I really liked the Marvel fighting series at this time and Cyberbots was also a very nice game. The Dungeons and Dragons Collection was also the only was to play at the time and were solid beat em ups. I really enjoyed Mega Man X4 and of course Super Puzzle Fighter II came to the platform too. On Konami's end their releases were very Japanese in nature with a good number of untranslated games. They did a good job of bringing ports of their classic arcade games and the newer version of Track and Field came to Saturn. There was also a version of Symphony of the Night although most will play elsewhere.

Winner - Capcom

N64
Konami notable titles - Castlevania series, International Superstar Soccer, Goemon series
Capcom notable titles - Mega Man 64, Resident Evil 2

Capcom had very little support here with Nintendo managing to get them on board late in the day with Resident Evil, though 0 of course moved to Gamecube meaning that only one entry released. Konami also offered reduced support but far more than Capcom brought. The Castlevania series faltered but Goemon saw more acclaim. Their ISS series grew during this period as football games would become more prominently featured on their schedule.

Winner - Konami


Playstation
Konami notable titles - Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Gradius Gaiden, Suikoden series, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill
Capcom notable titles - Mega Man series, Resident Evil series, Marvel vs series

This platform saw the strongest support from both publishers from the time. Capcom created the Resident Evil series which allowed them to diversify as a publisher. Beyond the several releases in the series they also brought the two Dino Crisis games to push this kind of release further. I really liked their Strider 2 release and have recently enjoyed Mega Man Legends which saw several releases on the platform also. The Mega Man series and arcade releases seen on Saturn also came here. The Breath of Fire series continued and was at least good enough to play now. Personally my favourite releases from them were Resident Evil, Mega Man X4 and Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. 
Konami also pushed larger adventure games more including the RPG series Suikoden, no doubt outdoing Capcom's own attempt at the genre. Metal Gear Solid and Symphony of the Night were hugely acclaimed games for them, though didn't receive follow ups here. Again Konami released many of their classic shooters and also added a new Gradius - Gaiden to nice results. There were also a large number of rhythm and sports releases from them. Personally Capcom's games had more impact on me but I think this one could go very much either way.

Winner - Capcom

Dreamcast
Konami notable titles - Dance Dance Revolution series, Pop 'n Music series
Capcom notable titles - Street Fighter series, Resident Evil series, Marvel vs Capcom 2

From Capcom we continued to see them support Sega's platforms with various fighting games. Two of their most acclaimed fighters saw release here in Street Fighter 3 Third Strike and Marvel vs Capcom 2. There were also once more smaller fighting releases such as Plasma Sword and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Capcom further focused on Sega's arcade in the home messaging with games like Canon Spike, Gigawing and Gunbird. They did though bring more home focused games over with ports of various Resident Evil games and Dino Crisis. 
Konami's support was once more very much targeted at the Japanese market focusing on their success in rhythm games within the arcades. A Castlevania game was canned and it's clear that Konami didn't put their best efforts here missing even the Winning Eleven series.

Winner - Capcom

Gamecube
Konami notable titles - Metal Gear The Twin Snakes
Capcom notable titles - Resident Evil series, Viewtiful Joe series

Capcom formed a deal with Nintendo here to bring various original games to the Gamecube with strong Resident Evil support being at the forefront. The remake of the original game was spectacular and 4 was excellent too, though 0 was a weaker entry and 2/3 were criticised because they no doubt set expectations too high. The then Clover's Viewtiful Joe was complimentary to the kinds of games Nintendo fans often liked though too many entries were rushed out in my opinion. There were a few nice quirky games from Capcom also such as Gotcha Force, PN03 and Killer 7.
Konami pushed out a lot of sports titles here and of course Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution Soccer continues in it's popularity being considered a legitimate competitor to FIFA. They also reacquired the TMNT license though the best efforts are reflected elsewhere. Twin Snakes is really the only notable release as Konami put further effort into the Playstation 2.

Winner - Capcom

Playstation 2
Konami notable titles - Gradius V, Silent Hill series, Pro Evolution Soccer series, Metal Gear series
Capcom notable titles - Resident Evil series, Onimusha series, Devil May Cry series, Okami

At this point interest in fighting games was waning though Capcom did put out the Capcom vs SNK 2 which I thought was a good entry. Capcom did put out a good number of collections here making much of their back catalogue available on the platform. Much effort was put into creating new franchises with Devil May Cry successfully combining their action-arcade routes with more fleshed out adventure style games popular at the time. Monster Hunter also saw it's beginnings at this time. Breath of Fire finally saw a not only worthwhile, but spectacular entry with Dragon Quarter. Okami was also hailed as a great adventure and contested Zelda at the time even though I don't consider it to be a particularly good game. Other ports across from other platforms would enrich the line up such as Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Resident Evil 4.
Konami also saw a lot of releases but mostly focused on the rhythm and sports genres. The Metal Gear series would continue strong and Silent Hill 2 was a standout in the horror genre. In my opinion Gradius V is the best of either company's offerings on the platform but at this point we are starting to see that Konami isn't keeping with popular trends in the west.

Winner - Capcom




I don't see the need to go further at this point. Of course if anybody wants to fill in the blanks by adding handhelds etc please feel free. Otherwise I look forward to hearing your opinions.

[spanky]

Cool thread. This is a question I've thought about in my head frequently. I mostly agree with your conclusions but I think I'd put Capcom ahead of Konami during the NES era. Once they get away from the Micronics ports, their games are top notch and IMO a bit more consistent than Konami's output. It's still very close.

I honestly don't think I could make a choice between the two companies with their SNES output. I miiiight just give Capcom the edge because Street Fighter II: Turbo is still a game I play to this day. However, if you factor in Super Famicom games, the edge probably goes to Konami because I love the Goemon series so much.

[Snake]

Yeah! Totally need to think long and hard for some of these platforms.  

As arcades go, they're both heavily influential.  Konami really tore into the "arcade exclusive" experience as time went out.  Especially when you consider Stuff like Dance Dance Revolution, Silent Scope, and Beatmania.  Capcom dominates the fighting game landscape.  

By the Sega Saturn era, the machine became a lovefest of Capcom arcade ports.  

For SNES and Playstation, it's a hard, hard choice.  They're about equal in the kind of quality games released.  Capcom really got my heart with Breath of Fire and Demon's Crest.  Checking in on Konami's Japanese catalogue, and there's lot of great Super Famicom games.  

Certainly for N64, I like that Konami made some exclusives - you look at Capcom's offerings and they're more like ports and translations rather than N64 dedicated games.

Going back to NES and Famicom... yeah, I think it's about even for me. I love Castlevania and Mega Man about equally.  The early "arcade" ports for both systems both shine.  Rush 'n Attack, Jackal, Legendary Wings, Gun.Smoke --- and then Capcom really diverges with expanding Bionic Commando and Strider.  

I'll need to take more time to think it over.

[🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀]

It's usually close for platforms I associate with Capcom and Konami. The NES/FC is probably closest. I've definitely thought about Konami vs Capcom on NES/FC before, and I almost think that would have to be a tie. Capcom does have some notable games outside of the Mega Man and Disney stuff, like Bionic Commando (and regular Commando) and Gargoyle's Quest II. Konami has some cool stuff left in Japan, like the Goemon games, Gradius II and Crisis Force. Gun to my head I'd probably pick Konami even though I love the NES Mega Men. Both had very impressive games for the system.

SNES is hard too. I guess Konami edges out Capcom a bit by having a lot of great shmups and continuing Contra and Castlevania in style. Capcom on the other hand has probably the most important arcade port of the entire 90's (SFII), and though I'm more of a Mega Man & Bass guy myself, Mega Man X was a pretty big one I gotta admit. Another close victory for Konami.

PSX I wouldn't be so quick to say Capcom wins. Both Capcom and Konami had a good run of ports on the system, with Capcom having a lot of contemporary fighters and Konami having arcade-perfect ports of a lot of their shmups for the first time, along with some exlusive shmups thrown in for good measure. Now, shmups weren't as popular anymore in this era, but arguably the big fighting boom was over as well (I mean, there were more big fighting games but it was already becoming more niche and specialized as the first PSX fighting games came rolling in), and Konami simply made the best shmups. RPGs were the next big thing (at least in the west, they were big in Japan from the FC), and Konami had Suikoden, while Capcom continued Breath of Fire. Both started an influential survival horror franchise, with Resident Evil arguably overshadowing Silent Hill in the long run, but that has more to do with Konami dying out and regards events after the PSX era. So thus far, it's a tie.

But if you look at the Big Classics for the PSX, Konami has more IMO. Outside of Silent Hill, you have Metal Gear Solid and Symphony of the Night as Konami's entries for games that are on the same level for the PSX as, say, Final Fantasy VII or Crash Bandicoot. Capcom only really has Resident Evil. Mega Man also took a complete nosedive during this era (unless Legends redeems it - haven't played those and I'll admit Tron Bonne looks like an interesting spin-off). Unless you're a survival horror or fighting fan you're in trouble with Capcom, as the list is a bit sparse without those. Konami has a lot more interesting stuff IMO looking at a list of PSX titles - MSX ports, Tokimeki, rhythm games. So Konami wins PSX.

Now on the Wii U, though, Capcom obliterated Konami!

[windfisch]

I mostly agree with you, excelsior , though on PS1 and PS2 I'd lean towards Konami, but it's a tough call (for me it's the Metal Gear Solid games, Symphony of the Night and Gradius/Parodius games versus Capcom's Fighting games – SF Alpha 2, 3, Third Strike etc. essentially).

Let me fill in some early handheld systems:

Game Gear

Konami notable titles - (Junction)

Capcom notable titles - Mega Man, (Strider Returns)

On Game Gear there is just one game with Konami ties and that is a puzzler called Junction, a sequel of sorts to Konami's Loco-Motion - licensed by but not made by them. It looks okay, but nothing special.

On the Capcom side we have a similar situation with Strider Returns - a port of a sequel that Capcom had no part in other than granting the license. It doesn't have the best reputation, to say the least. The only game that really counts then is Mega Man. Again it wasn't made by a Capcom team, but rather by one appointed by US Gold. However, it retains enough Capcom identity by directly lifting stages and bosses from Mega Man 4 and 5, with a bit of Mega Man 2 thrown in. Visually it looks quite nice and it also plays better than expected, but the added horizontal scrolling in combination with the reduced screen estate result in some frustrating blind jumps. So, it's not as good as the Game Boy games, but not too shabby either.

Winner - Capcom

Game Boy

Konami notable titles - Nemesis 1+2, Castlevania series, Kid Dracula, Parodius, Twin Bee, TMNT series, Motocross Maniacs, Quarth, Cave Noire, Probotector 1+2, Tiny Toons series, Animaniacs, Batman: The Animated Series, Goemon series, Track and Field, Blades of Steel
Capcom notable titles - Mega Man series, Gargoyle's Quest 1+2, Ducktales 1+2, Darkwing Duck, Bionic Commando, Mickey's Dangerous Chase, The Little Mermaid, Talespin, Who framed Roger Rabbit?, Street Fighter II

Konami made some excellent GB games, combining artistic and technical skill, oftentimes leading to spectacular results. Not only were games like Parodius, Nemesis 2, TMNT 2, Probetector or the Tiny Toons platformers top of their class in terms of game design, those also had the most impressive pixel-art and the most awe-inspiring musical compositions. In fact, even many of their simpler games still had that trademark Konami-sound. They mostly focused on platformers and shooters, but they did show some range by dipping into other genres: sports titles (edit: That said, I do hate the button mashing-mechanics of Track and Field), a fun racing-platformer hybrid (Motocross Maniacs), a solid block puzzle-shooter (Quarth). They even made a Metroidvania with TMNT - Radical Rescue, rough as it may be and the fantastic roguelike Cave Noire (Japan-only). Like mentioned by excelsior , most Konami games at the time were tailor-made for each respective hardware, which is also true here. Only a handful, like Animaniacs or Probotector 2 are, more or less, direct ports.

Capcom made 5 Mega Man titles for the system, not equally great, but ultimately all enjoyable. They also differ enough from the NES games to avoid redundancy. Speaking of Mega Man, if Konami games of that era had a distinct sound, almost all of Capcom's 8 Bit games used to have a signature visual style, which I’d describe as cartoony, chunky and "Mega Man-esque". That said, while the majority of their GB games look similar and most are platformers, the designers often tried to add unique elements, like Ducktales’ pogo-jumping or Bionic Commando’s grappling hook. The enjoyable Gargoyle's Quest games even went into action adventure territory. Another action adventure, the slow-paced Roger Rabbit, didn't turn out nearly as good, though. That said, most of these games are at least decent, though I’d say there are only a few actual standout tiles (the Gargoyle’s Quest and some Mega Man titles, maybe the Ducktales games). Capcom's most dissapointing GB effort would be the relatively late Street Fighter II port, which runs at a pretty poor frame rate. Konami’s sole GB fighter, Raging Fighter, bland and clunky as it may be, proved years earlier that a better technical performance was indeed possible and made SF II GB look more like an aging fighter.

Winner - Konami

[dsparil]

DS - Konami has Capcom beat by pure numbers and it isn't even close. In terms of average quality, Capcom unquestionably is above Konami. However, Konami still probably wins out by number of "high quality" games however you want to define it just because they released so many more.

3DS - This isn't as clear. They both released about 20 games with around half never being localized. Capcom has a better mix of games although it's heavy on Monster Hunter.

[excelsior]

Apr 29, 2022 12:19:44 GMT -5 windfisch said:

a fun racing-platformer hybrid (Motocross Maniacs), 

I'll come back to this thread and do a proper response later - just wanted to check you're aware of the sequels to this? There's one on GBC and a third on GBA. The last one is pretty different, but you should try the second one at least.

[windfisch]

excelsior

Yes, the second one is a beautiful game that manages to improve upon the first one! I've only tried the GBA game briefly, but I think it suffers from shoehorning Mario Kart-style combat-mechanics in.