Capcom versus Konami historically. Who would you pick?

Well, Capcom has a future so they win by default. To me, it was a tie between these two companies from the NES era through the PS3 era.

For me it's easy: Konami. Not surprised to see Capcom winning because of recent years though, but historically, Konami has a crazy library imo moreso than Capcom. Castlevania, Contra, Bucky o' Hare, Batman Returns, Gradius, Axelay, Turtles, Metal Gear, Silent Hill, Suikoden, Sunset Riders, Goemon. That's absolutely crazy, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Capcom has many many top-tier ones as well, but they can't match Konami for me. I like select Mega Man games, Demon's Crest, Dead Rising 1 and 2, Dragon's Dogma, Resident Evil, their Disney games and some others, but I find myself loving more Konami games.

SecretCharacter said:

Nobody here remembers or cares about a good portion of Konami's catalog. To be honest, this is a lot closer than I'd like to admit.

Among countless others, but Konami game me:
- their beat em ups

It's generally closer than I'd like to admit.

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As hot take-y as this probably sounds, there's kind of a reason we don't really remember Konami's brawlers outside of the licenced ones, while Capcom had an entire beloved brawler franchise that was entirely their own, plus a few other non licensed ones.

How this is even a choice...

Capcom, not even close.

Konami easily, Metal Gear, Silent freaking Hill, Castlevania, Prime PES, Shadow of Memories, Suikoden

Ugh why Konami why??

I couldn't pick, love both.

Bad time to ask this, Konami is god awful at the moment & Capcom is going through a second golden age.
I would say overall Capcom has the consistency, but they never reached Konami's high's, MGS, MGS2, Silent Hill 2 & SOTN are better than any Capcom game imo.

Konami mainly for MGS, Castlevania and Silent Hill.

Also I always sucked at Street Fighter and there's more bad Resi Evil games than good Resi Evil games.

Nairume said:

As hot take-y as this probably sounds, there's kind of a reason we don't really remember Konami's brawlers outside of the licenced ones, while Capcom had an entire beloved brawler franchise that was entirely their own, plus a few other non licensed ones.

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I'd argue Capcom's best brawlers were licensed too (D&D, AVP).

It could be argued who was better between Capcom and Konami as far as we only consider 2D games in the '80s and '90s (and in that case Konami is my favorite) but for 3D games Capcom almost always had the upper hand and this especially obvious since 2005.

It's a one sided contest. Capgod all the way

When I casually think of either company's titles.....

Capcom: Mega Man, Duck Tales, SFII, DarkStalkers, RE

Konami: Castlevania + SOTN/Metroidvania titles, Gradius, WaiWaiWorld, Suikoden, Metal Gear (+Solid), Simpson's arcade, TMNT arcade/N(SNES)

I'll go with Konami for the number of titles that came to mind. Though, they've not put out anything of interest for me in a very long time except MGS. Capcom has stuck to their quality much, much better even though again, not much interests me from them anymore. Draw?

Castlevania wins.

Ehh.. this is not close. It's Capcom.

Konami has MGS and Silent Hill, and as much as i like the depth of Silent Hill's narrative, I always found Resident Evil to be better games.

Besides that Capcom has so many franchises that are great, and they're mostly all kind of jolly

Capcom by a landslide.

It's a tough call, but if you pretend Castlevania doesn't exist - as Konami has - it's a much easier call.

Note that the following rankings do not include Hudson's output (as Konami did not own them until 2006), but do include Clover Studios (as they were founded as a subsidiary of Capcom during their short life - before they split off and became Platinum Games).

Gen 3: Konami
Gen 4: Konami
Gen 5: Konami
Gen 6: Capcom
Gen 7: Capcom (Landslide victory)
Gen 8: Capcom (Landslide victory)

Overall winner: Capcom

Both are incredibly strong forces, but Konami steadily declined from Gen 5 onwards as they struggled to adapt to 3D and their output began to consolidate purely into just a few key breadwinners.

Capcom didn't start out as strong as Konami, but just grew by leaps and bounds; really coming into their own from Gen 6 onwards as they really mastered 3D gameplay.

While Capcom focused primarily on the arcades, Konami focused more on home console platforms. Capcom's arcade output was generally stronger than Konami's, but even here, Konami were no slouch, pretty much owning the beat en up genre outside of Final Fight and owning the shmup genre almost entirely in the late 80s and early 90s.

Overall though, Capcom have had higher highs than Konami and were just able to better adapt to the market. Both are legends though and it's a pretty close contest overall.

Capcom, easily. They're my favorite third-party developer for a reason. RE, Mega Man, Street Fighter, DMC. And they've had so many other excellent one-offs. In particular, their run during the PS2/GC/Xbox years is unmatched.

When it comes to Konami, it's all about Metal Gear, Silent Hill and Castlevania for me. But Silent Hill is a series that couldn't hold a candle to RE even when it was at its best, which was a very long time ago (it's dead now). Castlevania's heyday was ages ago (it's dead now). And then there's Metal Gear, which was awesome at its height, but it's also a series that only has three great games - MGS2, 3 and V (it's also dead now).

fiendcode said:

I'd argue Capcom's best brawlers were licensed too (D&D, AVP).

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They were, but my point is that Final Fight was still a beloved and well known brawler franchise.

Nobody cares about the Crime Fighters.

Nairume said:

They were, but my point is that Final Fight was still a beloved and well known brawler franchise.

Nobody cares about the Crime Fighters.

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Sure and I love Final Fight too. The first one at least. Crime Fighters 2 was also solid though.

I can think of more obscure beat 'em ups from both Capcom and Konami that can stand toe to toe with FF1 though: Metamorphic Force, Violent Storm, Battle Circuit, Armored Warriors, etc. And both had a ton of great licensed stuff.

Beat 'em ups might actually be the most competitive genre between Capcom & Konami actually. Maybe platformers too though.

I love metal gear series and Castlevania, but I still prefer Capcom over Konami. Megaman series is what define my entire childhood.

Capcom by a mile.

Konami's 8 and 16-bit output is still magnificent, though.

Konami by far for me, despite my username. Silent Hill, MGS, Castlevania, and Bemani are all closer to my heart than SF or Megaman. Those are "pretty good" to me rather than all time favorites.

Konami for Winning Eleven, Castlevania and Silent Hill. Capcom for Ace Attorney, Dragons Dogma, Mega Man and Okami. Not much more from them i enjoyed tbh. Both with quality series no question.

I love the Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania and Silent Hill franchises, by Capcom has way more meaningful IP overall so I have to give it to them.

Capcom easily. I wonder what the poll would be like if we picked between Capcom and Nintendo - both have fantastic IP's and are doing well right now. Capcom would probably edge them out slightly.

Capcom has more games that I consider to be good, but Konami has two game franchises that are in my top 5, Metal Gear and Castlevania. For that I give Konami the edge.

Konami.

Capcom. They where unbeatable during their prime.

Monster Hunter, Devil May Cry, Breath of Fire, Mega Man, Street Fighter, Ace Attorney, Dragon's Dogma, Okami, Viewtiful Joe
vs
Metal Gear, Castlevania, Suikoden

Tough choice really.

LOL at the question. Konami has some good stuff for sure but Capcom runs circles around them forever and always.

Konami may have the greatest hits in terms of creative substance—I mean, c'mon—Metal Gear, Silent Hill, Castlevania—all pinnacles. But Capcom has made so many bangers, and they continue to bring it even if their all-time classics aren't as powerful. I don't really think it's very fair to compare the two in the modern day.

Even when they were stuck in a rut, Capcom was delivering hitters like the original Dead Rising and Lost Planet 1 - 2.

Capcom, free. Starting with Ghosts n Goblins in '85 they have arguably the most robust catalogue of any developer ever.

Capcom for me. Their library of games almost rivals that of Nintendo's. No brainer for me.

Now, if we got a Konami vs Capcom game though, I'm all for that.

• Snake
• Raiden
• Simon Belmont
• Alucard (or Dracula) vs Demitri
• James Sunderland vs Chris Redfield
• Pyramid Head vs Nemesis
• Bomber Man vs Mega Man
• Bill Rizer
• Lance Bean
• Leo Stenbeck (and Jehuty) vs Jin (and Blodia)
• Frogger
• Vic Viper (transforming mech)
• Riou
• Sparkster vs Arthur

List goes on and on.

Konami for the Gradius/Nemesis/Salamander series.

Konami has made so many of my favorite games that I can't deny they are my favorite developer. So many great shmups, contra, MGS, Castlevania, the Goemon games, pretty much the entire music game industry from 1998-2005 (and they still make amazing music games now). However, from the PS3 on forward they really started dropping the ball and releasing a lot of disappointing titles.

Capcom, who I once hated on a lot for just milking Street Fighter and Mega Man, has come back stronger than ever in the past 5-6 years. They've started innovating again. They listen to input from their fans, they are breathing new life into old franchises in ways that make them feel fresh again. Combine that with all the things they did for fighting games and survival horror games, and I think they win out over Konami.

Capcom for sure. It's actually crazy how much of my NES and SNES game collections were comprised of either Nintendo, Capcom, or Konami games. Those three companies easily made up two thirds of each. Amazing output by all three back then.

Back in the 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit and PS2 days. It's close. Real close. Since the PS3, Capcom by a country mile.

On the NES/MSX - Konami.

MrCarter said:

Capcom easily. I wonder what the poll would be like if we picked between Capcom and Nintendo - both have fantastic IP's and are doing well right now. Capcom would probably edge them out slightly.

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That's easy, Nintendo would destroy them. Sega would too probably.

Easily Capcom for me. Overwhelmingly more time devoted to those games than Konami games.

Capcom and it's not even close. I grew up on Capcom's arcade games in the 80s and 90s and they will forever have a place in my heart.

That's not to say Konami isn't special to me too, with some classic arcade games of their own, alongside their major console games like Silent Hill, Castlevania and MGS. But they're no Capcom.

Capcom for sure. Although Konami had a pretty decent late 90's/early 2000's trackrecord with IGAvania, Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill.

Dragons Dogma every damn, time.

It's hard to vote against Metal Gear and Castlevania, but it's impossible to vote against Mega Man. Not to mention the far greater breadth Capcom has.

Capcom for me. As much as I love MGS and Castlevania I couldn't imagine videogames without Street Fighter and the VS series.

Konami will always lose these polls because Konami have been downscaling gaming for almost 2 decades and many gamers are simply too young to appreciate their older works. they have been bad with rereleases too so you can't blame them.

Konami has Gradius, Castlevania, Contra, Suikoden, Metal Gear, Silent Hill, Winning Eleven, Bemani and tons of arcade games, beat 'em up releases, platformers. things started to get weird with 3D, so they went on to focus on less games and give them their full attention. they had all the talent in the world. i think they were better than Capcom until they got corrupted from the inside.

Edit: Ugh accidentally hit Quote instead of Edit...