Capcom’s only venture into a 3D plane wasn’t always with the Street Fighter EX series. At one point, they attempted to blend their traditional 2D fighting with 3D engine on their own, as well as release some new characters. Before they finally found that middle ground between Street Fighter III (one of the most definitive 2D fighters ever) and the Street Fighter EX series (which had set the tone for the 3D engine) with 2008’s Street Fighter IV, there was Capcom Fighting All Stars: Code Holder.
What Happened: Negative feedback in the arcades
Why We Wanted It: Would mark the re-appearance of several classic Capcom characters from Final Fight and Rival Schools
The game is set in Metro City. With a terrorist organization threatening to blow up the city, Mike Haggar calls for help from various fighters to beat this organization and diffuse the bomb. To stop them, they would need to acquire codes that three people in the organization held. To get those codes, you would have to defeat them in battle.
Some of the characters included in this series spanned several different Capcom franchises. From the announced bunch in the beta test, Ryu, Chun-Li, Alex, and Charlie would represent the Street Fighter cast, Mike Haggar and Poison would represent Final Fight, Batsu and Akira would represent Rival Schools, and Strider Hiryu would also make an appearance as well.
New characters introduced into this series would include the three Code Holders: D.D., Rook and a character that would later appear in several Street Fighter games: Ingrid. Death, the leader of the organization, would be included as well, but images of him never surfaced during its time alive.
After receiving negative feedback from a limited arcade beta test and several months of development, the game was canceled in August 2003. The details of why the game received such negativity were never brought to light, and that would mark the end of D.D., Rook and Death.
However, Ingrid would live on in Capcom Fighting Evolution (released in 2004), the successor to Capcom Fighting All Stars. She would also make another appearance in the PSP port of Street Fighter Alpha 3.
Oddly enough, the year after this game would see cancelation, another iconic fighting series would give its franchise a similar makeover in 3D: SNK Playmore’s King of Fighters: Maximum Impact.
