Summary
Much like any other franchise that’s been going for the best part of three decades,Resident Evilhas had its fair share of ups and downs over the last 27 years. Popularizingthe survival horror genreright out of the gate in 1996,Resident Evilhas continued to be one of the most beloved horror franchises in gaming ever since, though it’s definitely had a few stumbles along the way, with a handful of entries being considered less than great by most fans.
That being said, theResident Evilfranchise has been knocking it out of the park time and time again recently, but while the series is thriving right now, a reboot may be inevitable. Rather than restart the whole series from scratch,a potential futureResident Evilrebootwould actually benefit much more from aMortal Kombat 1-style of reboot, where the universe and characters are refreshed for a new generation.
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A Mortal Kombat 1-Style Reboot Could Be Exactly What Resident Evil Needs
The original set ofResident Evilgames are undeniable classics, and while they’re starting to show their age a little, they still have a huge following today, and it’s easy to see why. With a plethora of iconic characters, some wonderfully cheesy dialogue, an intriguing plot, and some of the most terrifying monsters ever put in a video game,the classicResident Evilseriesis objectively good. Thanks to the recent remakes, a whole new generation of fans can experience all of those features from the comfort of their shiny new consoles.
But whilethe recentResident Evilremakeshave largely been excellent, it’s only a matter of time before Capcom runs out of classic games to remake. WithResident Evil 5presumably next up to bat, there’s really only a handful of games in the series left to be remade, and of those, fans only really want one or two. Though the mainline sequels have also been well received, Capcom is going to want to continue miningResident Evil’s legacy characters and story as much as it can, and that has the strong potential to lead to a large-scale reboot of everything, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
TheMortal Kombatfranchiseis another series that’s managed to remain incredibly popular for three decades, and in that time it’s undergone several reboots. Instead of completely starting over the universe from scratch, the most recent entry acts more like a soft in-world reboot, where the characters and general plot beats remain the same, but things have been refreshed for new audiences. InMortal Kombat 1, Liu Kang restarts the universe. To try and uphold an era of peace, Liu Kang changes the origins of everyMortal Kombatcharacter, which in turn leads to certain classic plot beats either not happening, or happening in a slightly different way.Mortal Kombat 1’s soft reboot is a great way to refresh some classic characters and plot moments, giving old fans something new yet familiar, while giving new fans a perfect jumping-on point.
TheResident Evilfranchise may want to follow in the footsteps ofMortal Kombat 1if it ever decides to do its own series reboot. EachResident Evilremake already switches up some classic plot beats, character moments, and gameplay systems, so aMortal Kombat 1-style reboot is only really one small step further. This would still allow Capcom to give fans all the big moments they know so well, such as the Raccoon City Outbreak, and characters like Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, and Leon Kennedy, but allow them to also put fresh new spins on each element, delivering a familiar but new set of stories inside a new but similarResident Eviluniverse.
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