Capcom has some of gaming’s biggest names under its umbrella, including the platforming perfection of Mega Man, the expansive worlds of Monster Hunter, the tense battles of Street Fighter, and the non-stop scares of Resident Evil. It’s the latter that has really stolen the spotlight recently, with the release of Resident Evil Requiem highlighting how the franchise is always moving forward while keeping an eye on what came before. Even beyond that game’s focus on the canon of the series, Resident Evil has literally revitalized its past glories in recent years with remakes of several of its games.
Resident Evil has gotten three remakes in the last decade, with plenty more rumored to be in the works. However, the very first remake in the series came out 25 years ago, highlighting how long the franchise has benefited from being able to update its history with more impressive visuals. Debuting in North America on April 30, 2002, Resident Evil for the GameCube set a precedent for how the franchise would approach remakes several times in the modern era.
Debuting 25 years ago today in North America, the Resident Evil remake set a precedent that the company has After years of working as a cross-platform publisher, Capcom entered a brief exclusive partnership with Nintendo, setting the stage for some big new releases – including a remake of the original Resident Evil. Having debuted just six years prior on the PlayStation, Resident Evil had already become one of the biggest horror franchises in mainstream gaming. The original game director, Shinji Mikami, was convinced that the technology of the era had already improved to the point where new consoles could better reflect the developer’s original intention for the series. The intention was to create a game that could be scarier than the original PS1 version. The team spent a year updating the graphics and script while also tweaking puzzles and changing monster encounters.
Overall, the new edition of Resident Evil felt fitting for the source material, faithful to the spirit of the original even while making some serious updates to the gameplay. The upgraded visuals were stunning, along with a more cinematic approach that benefited the material. Upon release, Resident Evil was a solid critical hit for Capcom, earning a cumulative 91/100 on MetaCritic. Fans of the series were also pleased, commending the team for delivering a game that felt fresh enough to keep veterans on their toes even while revisiting some well-worn story beats. Unfortunately, the game had trouble connecting with the broader GameCube audience. The game underperformed in the long run, prompting a shift in focus from Capcom for the future of the series. However, the company would eventually learn some important lessons from this experiment and use them to direct many of the franchise’s later successes.
Two trends were firmly established by the 2002 Resident Evil Remake. The first was felt quickly, as the somewhat disappointing sales of the remake prompted Capcom to shift back into a more overt action-horror approach that would go on to inform the development of Resident Evil 4 (and subsequently the entire action genre as a whole). Since then, Resident Evil has largely leaned more heavily into the action/horror approach, although some entries (like Resident Evil: Biohazard and Resident Evil: Requiem) balance the two fairly well. The other big shift would take over a decade to crystallize, but Capcom would eventually decide that remaking their older titles to be more in line with modern graphics and gameplay mechanics was the right way to go.
Since 2019, there have been three major Resident Evil remakes — 2019’s Resident Evil 2, 2020’s Resident Evil 3, and 2023’s Resident Evil 4. There are enduring rumors that Resident Evil: Code Veronica and Resident Evil Zero could have their own reboots soon. Even the first Resident Evil has been rumored to be in the queue for a new edition. Each of those released remakes has functioned similarly to the Resident Evil remake in 2002, with new graphics and tweaked challenges, updating an adventure that otherwise largely followed the same story. While the first Resident Evil remake didn’t have the same impact on players that the later ones would, it set the precedent for how the franchise would approach the concept in later years. In a sense, Resident Evil for the GameCube was a portent of what would become of the series in later years. A refinement of formula and an eye towards the history of the series have been key to its future ever since the early days of the franchise. While Resident Evil for the GameCube might not have been the best-selling entry in the series, the influence it’s had in the years since underscores the quietly vital place it has in the history of the franchise.
