When you talk about Capcom's one-on-one fighting game franchises, sooner or later, Darkstalkers is going to enter the conversation.
Despite not having the same fame as Street Fighter, the gothic series has plenty of fans, and at one point in the '90s was one of the company's most popular fighting game brands.
However, while Street Fighter has enjoyed a period of revival since the launch of its fourth entry, Darkstalkers has faded into history somewhat. 2013's Darkstalkers: Resurrection was seen as an attempt to resurrect the franchise, but apparently didn't perform as well as Capcom had hoped.
New comments on social media from Street Fighter 6 director Takayuki Nakayama have caused quite a stir recently, though, as he initially appears to suggest that a Darkstalkers game was planned before backtracking slightly.
In a tweet posted on October 15th, Nakayama talks about his involvement with Otoranger, a Japan-only mobile game which was shut down 10 years ago.
In the tweet (which has been translated by Event Hubs), Nakayama appears to reference Darkstalkers, which, in Japan, is known as the "Vampire" series:
I came back because I was able to work on fighting games (not SF *bat emoji*) but development was stopped and we were reformed to become the Otoranger team.
Fans immediately leapt on this comment as confirmation that a new Darkstalkers game had been in development and then cancelled, only for Nakayama to walk back the revelation with a reply which, if anything, only added fuel to the fire:
That's a bit of a different story. Maybe someday I'll be able to talk about it.
What could he mean by that? Was the bat emoji a reference to a different project entirely? Or perhaps this was still Darkstalkers, but a game based in a different genre?
Let your own minds run riot by telling us what you make of all this in the comment section below.