The classic Resident Evil games inspired many imitators on PS1 and PS2, with even Capcom’s own franchises shaped by the initial games’ success. Onimusha was a melee-focused take on Resident Evil’s set camera angles and tank controls. Devil May Cry was famously a prototype for Resident Evil 4, and some shades of that show in its mansion setting and powerful guns. However, Capcom made one other franchise almost identical to Resident Evil, just with a different kind of enemy: Dino Crisis started as Resident Evil with dinosaurs instead of zombies, but RE diverged from Dino Crisis more quickly than most fans realize.
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Dino Crisis Didn’t Take Long to Become Its Own Franchise
The first Dino Crisis released on PlayStation 1 in 1999, and was cut from the same cloth as Resident Evil. That’s appropriate considering it was made by a lot of Resident Evil’s original staff, developed concurrently with Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Both games took more action-heavy approaches to Resident Evil’s formula, with RE3 introducing a dodge button and a persistent, evolving pursuer; and Dino Crisis developing “panic horror” through faster and more intelligent enemies. It was an interesting time for horror, but Capcom’s sibling franchises would go ahead in different ways.
Resident Evil put the breaks on its numbered sequels until 2005, content to release a variety of spin-offs, side games, and even the first RE remake while prototypes for 4 were developed in the background. Dino Crisis had no such baggage, and went straight to Dino Crisis 2 in 2000. This was not the same Dino Crisis, however; the horror genre had been mostly dropped in favor of action. Combos, counterattacks, and avoiding damage all contributed to point tallies that could be exchanged for items, weapons, and upgrades at save points. There is also a new protagonist, Dylan, who provides different gameplay from the series’ iconic leading lady Regina. This sudden shift into arcade action was a surprising move, but not an unwelcome one. Resident Evil would strive to keep some of its ideas through recurring side modes.
Resident Evil Remained a Star, Dino Crisis Didn’t Get Far
Unfortunately, Dino Crisis didn’t live long enough to see the release of Resident Evil 4. After 2, a light-gun shooter in the Gun Survivor series called Dino Stalker released in 2002, and Dino Crisis: Dungeon in Chaos came to phones in 2003. Later that year, Dino Crisis 3 released as an Xbox exclusive, and was received poorly enough that the franchise went into stasis. The game tried furthering DC2’s campy arcade action, but its space station setting, new main characters, and poor camera alienated fans. As Resident Evil continued to pump out new titles and receive star treatment in crossovers, Dino Crisis was left in obscurity.
It’s telling that the recently revealed Exoprimal, despite containing a Regina lookalike and a futuristic dinosaur crisis, is a brand-new IP. It may be that a revival project deviated too much from what Capcom felt comfortable calling Dino Crisis, but this still indicates that the name doesn’t hold much power today. Meanwhile, Resident Evil has the RE Village DLC, a retooled RE:Verse, current-gen upgrades for several titles, and several more rumored projects like RE4 Remake. Dino Crisis and Resident Evil have gone down two very different paths, and it will likely stay that way until Dino Crisis can truly make a return.
MORE: Why Dino Crisis Isn’t As Popular as Resident Evil
