RETRO REBOOT | Resident Evil (Nintendo GameCube)
An incredibly good remake. But is it TRULY better than the original?
RETRO REBOOT
"ColonelFancy" Mike Lind
10/27/20264 min read
Developer: Capcom
Published by: Capcom
Release date: March 22nd, 2002
Remakes have always been a thing throughout video games, it may feel like they're done to death in modern times. And sure, the volume is certainly more paramount than the gaming field of yesteryear. If I put aside the number of times arcade classics like Space Invaders, Centipede, and Defender (I could go on) have been reimagined, it'd go on forever. In the 2000's two prominent remakes come to mind, and both were on the GameCube: Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes and Resident Evil.
Perhaps in an effort to shed the persona of being the super kid-friendly gaming platform, Nintendo entered a partnership with Capcom at the beginning of the 2000's. While the PS2 ran circles around the Cube when it came to market share, Nintendo's system was technologically superior to PlayStation's device, and ResiDaddy Shinji Mikami was weary of Sony's device and business practices. there may have been a reconciliation, as once Cube exclusive Resident Evil games like Remake and RE4 would end up on other platforms.
Resi Remake does a hell of a job of taking advantage of Nintendo's hardware to boost the lighting effects and making the atmosphere more foreboding and unsettling within the Arklay Mansion. All this while keeping the core gameplay fairly the same, with some quality of life changes to the mechanics (some I agree with, some I disagree with). There's new cinematic camera angles, which is cool.
Speaking of the cinematics, that is one change I disagree with on a massive scale, and it may be rather petty of me. But the original script and stilted delivery are a part of what made the original Resident Evil legendary. Not exclusively because it's so bad, it's good. It legitimately had a charm to it, and made many aspects of the personalities memorable. Especially Barry Burton, one of my favorite Resident Evil characters.
This isn't the only game that does things like that. It happened in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. That's not to say the delivery and revamped script in REmake is terrible. It's more streamlined and takes itself seriously, which conveys the plot more. Yeah, the Jill Sandwich line is altered, and Richard Aiken's silly delivery ("Owwwch!") is absent. The cadence sort of lessens the impact, in my eyes. But I digress. Even the in-game lighting and presentation, as impressive as it is the old pixels and polygons. It mostly has to do with the hand drawn backgrounds and environment, it stands out more, as I always retained an affinity for the 3D models on 2D playfield look.
As far as the gameplay, Resident Evil is quite faithful to the original. Much of the Arklay Mansion is beat for beat, with the addition of more rooms that broaden exploration. The boss fight with Yawn, the giant venomous snake, has different outcomes and is expanded upon. The snake is no longer able to poison you after the first encounter, once you receive treatment. And saving Richard in time means he will help Jill in the boss battle, so his role is fleshed out more from being a whiny corpse on the floor.
Notable Remake exclusive enemies include encounters with Lisa Trevor. Lisa was the daughter of George Trevor, a an architect who designed the mansion for Umbrella. Umbrella betrayed him (because umbrella betrays EVERYONE) and abducted Lisa. She was subjected to decades of experiments, turning her into the monster she became. She's unkillable, and her encounters sort of feel like Nemesis, but they're just three scenarios. Not too much is done with this character, as she's destroyed in the Spencer Mansion explosion. She can be a tough cookie and hits really hard, but is an easy enough opposing barrier.
The Crimson Heads are more notorious for catching players off-guard. being faster would imply they're scarier, but I feel the new defensive mechanics make them nothing more than a staggering nuisance.
While not designed to be a more combat driven design than the original, the auto-aiming also makes things rather streamlined in this game, compared to the first one, where critical headshots were rather dodgy. The addition of the 180 degree turn makes navigation more accommodating, and not a change I would complain about. And I wouldn't call this remake a cakewalk. It can be formidable, as the predictability can catch me off guard.
Remake does expand on backtracking, designing puzzles to be a touch more arduous, and the addition of the more aggressive Crimson Heads, I do find the original Resident Evil to be a more replayable game. It might seem like a weird defense, but the more archaic and overly mechanical controls gives it a more...how do I put this...GAME feel. I can feel how much crafting went into OG Resident Evil, as the limitations would require a higher degree of brainstorming to see the ideas come to fruition.
Resident Evil Remake is a very quality game. I just have a stronger attachment to the original experience, because I miss game design from that era. The enhanced tech gives game directors and game designers far more advantages to realize and streamline their visions. This might be an "old man yells at cloud" take, and this will be the last time I sorta put down RE Remake, but a simpler time provided more ingenuity within its limitations.
That said said, this remains a really cool visual upgrade of a classic. It feels enough like the OG that you can garner some nostalgia, while appreciating some of the changes implemented. If remakes were in this vein throughout the culture of video games, I would be more than happy with that.