15 YEARS OF RESIDENT EVIL
Ichii adds: “In other words, the main franchise gets to be what it is, as an amalgamated result of research and innovation of other Resident Eviltitles.”
REDEFINING HORROR… AGAIN Following the release of Resident Evil 3, the franchise left PlayStation and ventured onto new platforms. Code Veronicastarted life as a Dreamcast exclusive and then there was an agreement with Nintendo that saw several Resident Evils appear only on GameCube. It certainly made life expensive for loyal fans, but it opened Resident Evilup to a broader audience. “Creating games for a variety of hardware is not always the most efficient way to produce games,” admits Kawata-san. “But Resident Evilis so well-known because we have been created the games for different platforms.”
SPIN-OFFS
Resident Evil Survivor series Released: 2000 (Survivor), 2001 (Survivor 2: Code Veronica), 2003 (Dead Aim)
Formats: PSone (Survivor), PS3 (Survivor 2/Dead Aim) The first Resident Evil spin-offs were light-gun games.
Resident Evil Gaiden Released: 2001 Formats: GBC This handheld game mixed a top down view with first person combat.
Resident Evil Outbreak series Released: 2004 (Outbreak), 2005 (File #2) Formats: PS2 The first of these multiplayer shooters is the most
successful spin-off with 1.45m sold.
Resident Evil Chronicles series Released: 2007 (Umbrella Chronicles), 2009 (Darkside Chronicles) Formats: Wii These on-rails Wii
shooters acted as recaps to the Resident Evil story. Umbrella Chronicleshas sold 1.3m units globally.
Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D Released: 2011 Formats 3DS This 3DS title featured the Mercenaries mini-games from RE4and 5has already sold 400,000 units.
Resident Evil mobile series
There has been a string of Resident Evil games
released for
mobile devices Nokia devices have received titles such as Missions,
Genesis and Uprising. Meanwhile, iPhone gamers received a port of Resident Evil 4and an entirely new game, Degeneration.
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City Released: Winter 2011 Formats: PC, Xbox 360, PS3 The upcoming co-op action shooter is set during Resident Evil 2and 3and lets gamers play as the bad guys, they can even kill series hero Leon Kennedy.
Resident Evil: Degeneration Released: 2008 Formats: DVD, Blu-ray Unlike the live- action
Hollywood movies, this
CGI flick is based on the narrative of the video games (set between Resident Evil 4and 5). A sequel – Damnation– is due next year.
With a Hollywood movie doing wonders at the Box Office, Resident Evilhad reached new heights. Yet Capcom was worried for its future. The games hadn’t progressed much since 1996, and review scores and retail sales began to reflect this. Capcom had to freshen things up. “There was a feeling that the genre was stagnating,” explains Turner. “Then came Resident Evil 4which shook up the world and brought in a new audience.”
Mikami and his team had done it
again. Resident Evil 4was a multi- million selling masterpiece. But its development process proved arduous, with the studio scrapping and re- starting the project over and over. “The quality did not match our expectations,” explains Kawata. “We almost believed the day of its release would never come. However, the know-how we gained through the struggle has now been passed
“
on to make Devil May Cry and other Resident Eviltitles.” So what comes next for Resident
We now stand in a competitive field. We cannot bask in past glorious moments. Masachika Kawata, Capcom
Evil? The fifth game – plus the Wii titles – saw the franchise experiment with motion control. Recent iterations have taken the series into 3D, while the upcoming Operation Raccoon Cityis a squad shooter. Resident Evil 6 could well feature a mixture of these innovations. But the biggest challenge facing the next game is keeping pace with rivals like Dead Spaceand Gears of War. Ichii concludes: “We now stand in an extremely competitive field, and we simply cannot bask in past glorious moments. We need to thrive and make the next survivor’s list in the industry – and no one is seeded. I am sure, looking at our short and long term plans as well as the roster of our talented members of Capcom, that we will step up to become the true powerhouse of quality games.”
KILLED BEFORE THE END
Resident Evil 1.5 Resident Evil 2was originally due in 1997, but with the game almost 80 per cent done Capcom scrapped it and started again. The lost game is called Resident Evil 1.5by fans.
Resident Evil 3.5 Development on Resident Evil 4 was re-started several times. One version of
the game became Devil May Cry. Another, featuring a ghost-like man with a hook, was never released.
Resident Evil GBC HotGen Studios was tasked with the impossible – squeezing the first Resionto Game
Boy Color. Could they do it? No. Resident Evil Portable
It was announced at E3 2009 as a game built with ‘PSPgo in mind’. Never officially cancelled, it could still be coming, just not for PSPgo.
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