DarkStalkers

Darkstalkers
The logo used for the Darkstalkers series
Genres	Fighting
Developers	Capcom Iron Galaxy Studios (Resurrection)
Publishers	Capcom
Creators	Alex Jimenez (original idea)
Platforms	Arcade, Dreamcast, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Sega Saturn, Xbox 360
First release	Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors July 1994
Latest release	Darkstalkers Resurrection March 2013

Darkstalkers, known in Japan as Vampire (ヴァンパイア, Vanpaia^?), is a series of 2D fighting games developed and published by Capcom, beginning with Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors (Vampire: The Night Warriors) in 1994. The series is set in a pastiche Gothic horror universe and features a highly stylized, cartoonish graphic style. It features characters based on either various kinds of monsters (the titular "darkstalkers") or their hunters, who are all engaging in combat against each other. Darkstalkers introduced many of the concepts used in later Capcom fighting games, including its first use of 16-bit color animation sprites and gameplay mechanics later employed in the Street Fighter Alpha and Marvel vs. Capcom series.

Besides video games, the Darkstalkers media franchise also includes an anime miniseries, an American cartoon TV series, a Canadian comic book series, and many books of various kinds and other media released only in Japan. Some individual characters (usually the series' mascots Morrigan and Felicia) appeared in the later Capcom games, as well as in a few crossover games released by other companies.

In August 2010, Capcom Producer Yoshinori Ono stated during an interview about Street Fighter X Tekken that a new installment to the series would be his "ultimate dream"; however, only fan demand would cause it to happen. He went on to say that it would take one million requests before Keiji Inafune, then head of research and development at Capcom, would comply. At that point, Capcom had received 5,000 requests. By March 2011, Ono reported that Capcom had received over 100,000 requests. He later expressed during an interview at a Nintendo 3DS launch in London that, "One day, if it goes half a million, Capcom may raise its eyebrow a little bit and I could do what I did in London in 2007 when I announced the comeback of Street Fighter. In the near future, with your help, it may become true. It's on its way, because we're pretty much where we were with Street Fighter a few years back. So keep it up."