Long story short: It was announced the other day that Resident Evil 1 was going to be getting a re-release. Again.
This will be an HD re-release of the 2002 GameCube rendition, which was already a re-make from the original 1996 classic that was released on the Piss1, before it was also ported out to the Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64 and DS. In spite of the fact that the re-make had some modifications to the setting and execution of the story, it’s still fundamentally the same plot as the original version of the game, although it’s popularly argued that the re-makes’ slight alterations to the game justify not necessarily accepting it as RE storyline canon.
That being said, the bottom line is that the concept of Resident Evil 1 has been beaten like a dead horse, dug up and beaten some more.
When I discovered of this over social media, one remark that seemed to echo caught my attention: with the re-release of the re-make, people believed they could now definitively get rid of their GameCubes.
Obviously, there’s a degree of exaggeration behind a statement like that, because the GameCube had tons of great titles, and I still contest that Mario Kart Double Dash is still among the best of the series, but as far as Resident Evil games were concerned, I found it to be somewhat of a reckless and dismissive remark to make.
Resident Evil 1 re-make was not the only RE game to be released on the GameCube; I’d even say, with ease, that it wasn’t even the best one released on the GameCube. That distinction would undoubtedly go to Resident Evil 4, which is to this day, often considered to be the pinnacle of the series, as well as my personal favorite. But the thing is, RE4 was ported to the Wii, and had its own HD re-releases in ensuing years as well, so it’s somewhat in the same boat as RE1.
But if there was ever a reason for a RE fan to continue to hold onto their GameCube, it shouldn’t have been for RE1, but for the oft-forgotten prequel to the series, Resident Evil 0.
Everyone seems to overlook RE0 in the grand spectrum of the series storylines, and I can’t say it’s not without reason, because prequels don’t tend to draw nearly the attention as preceding releases do, and are often seen as desperate ploys to cash in on the popularity of something else. I would also point a finger at Capcom and Nintendo’s pathetic efforts to market and advertise the game, since it came out to zero fanfare as the zero in the title. But the fact is, RE0 was still a solid game that very much fits into the overall canon storyline of the RE series, and does a good job of laying down tons of groundwork and seeds, that eventually sprout and grow into some key plots that go as far as into the events of RE5.
It also does a good job of utilizing Rebecca Chambers, one of the two playable characters in the game, in somewhat of her own spotlight, taking place before Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield are even introduced.
Another re-release of RE1 doesn’t excite me, nor would it give me any reason to ditch my GameCube. Obviously, there’s a lot of hyperbole involved when people say the things they do, that I’m obviously taking way too literally for the sake of having something to write about. But I don’t live in Japan, nor do the people in my social media circles, so none of us have any access to the Piss1 or the Wii releases of RE0, so if people are really into the RE series, the primary reason to salvage your GameCube, is undoubtedly Resident Evil 0. That’s a game that can’t be played anywhere else.
