Retronauts Creeps Through Resident Evil's Roots
To ring in the series' 20th anniversary, USgamer's masters of podcasting explore the Capcom series that coined the term "survival horror."
This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.
This most recent run of Retronauts has featured more than its share of "sorry to make you feel old" moments, so in the spirit of great sorrow we regret to inform you Resident Evil has already turned 20 this year.
Yes, it took us by surprise, too. But since we game journo types can't help but be pathologically obsessed with anniversaries that end in a zero or a five, a Retronauts episode about Resident Evil was inevitable. Even if the adversarial nature of the series rubs you the wrong way, you have to at least credit Capcom for making the absolute most of the technical limitations baked into Sony's 32-bit hardware. And this seminal survival horror series certainly helped elevate the careers of extremely talented Japanese developers: Shinji Mikami, Hideki Kamiya, and a whole lot of Platinum Games folks spent a portion of their early careers toiling away in Capcom's zombie mines.
Given that these main episode of Retronauts only last for 90 minutes, we couldn't possibly cover the entire scope of the Resident Evil series—and its many spin-offs—in our allotted time. So, for this episode, I decided to concentrate on the first three Resident Evil games. Each entry in this initial trilogy carries its own interesting development story, as it often took more than one try to craft a Resident Evil experience worthy enough to be published. When this episode comes to a close, hopefully you'll have a greater appreciation for the slightly antiquated antics of survival horror.
Joining us on this one is Dave Rudden, who hosts the professional wrestling podcast Cheap Popcast on the Laser Time Network. And our cover art comes courtesy of Nick Daniel. As always, you can keep up with the latest Retronauts news via our Twitter and Facebook accounts, and check out some of our video content over on our YouTube page. And, in case you forgot, Retronauts is fully funded by our Patreon campaign, so if you can afford to donate even a dollar a month, please consider it! Every little bit really helps our cause.
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