Remember The Game #36 - Resident Evil

When you think of platformers, Super Mario Bros jumps to mind as the most influential to the genre. First Person Shooters, that nod might go to Wolfenstein or Doom. And when you get into the world of horror video games, the undisputed king is the Playstation classic, Resident Evil. 

 

Admittedly, I'm a wuss when it comes to horror and scary things. I don't watch a lot of the movies, and I haven't played many of the video games. My first experience with the Resident Evil franchise was Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube. I adored it. And it made me want to go back and try some of it's predecessors. When I finally got a chance to play the game that started it all, I was....underwhelmed. 

 

However, in retrospect, Resident Evil deserves a lot of credit. You can certainly criticize the control scheme and the God awful voice acting (although I think the cheesy voice acting adds to the game, like a bad 80's horror movie), but what you can't deny is that this game defined a genre. Capcom did something new with Resident Evil. They tried to take a horror movie that you'd see in a theatre, and make it into a video game. The Playstation had the technical capabilities to do what the 16-bit era consoles couldn't, and the end result is a game that may be laughable today, but was revolutionary and down-right scary in it's prime. The franchise has gone on to become one of the most famous in gaming, spawning countless video games and several films, and horror games like Outlast, The Evil Within, and (my personal favourite) Dead Space, owe a great debt to Resident Evil. 

 

Like I said, the horror genre in gaming isn't my forte. But my buddy Tyler knows this game like the back of his hand. He's my guest this week, and we had a blast remembering the crazy, campy, crappy controlling world of Resident Evil.