Today is September 30. The day Leon Kennedy will never forget. The cop inside him died that day, while the dead themselves started rising and taking over Raccoon City. In these 30 years of Resident Evil, we all got to experience a plethora of memorable moments and games, some of which have stayed with us all this time.
In my case, my first exposure to Resident Evil didn’t actually come through the games. Back when I was a kid at the official end of Yugoslavia (around 2005 or 2006), my older brother started getting really into horror as a genre. For a couple of years there, I would read a bunch of horror comic books – mostly Dylan Dog – and watch horror films that he used to scare the ever-living f**k out of me. One of such movies, or rather franchises, was Mila Jovovich’s Resident Evil, which to five-year-old me was the most horrifying thing on the planet.
I distinctly remember all the particularly gory scenes, and Lord knows there are many of those in the franchise. Zombies, too, were especially scary to me, not least because I had recently seen the German horror-comedy Fido, which itself remains etched in my mind. The whole package of the first couple of Resident Evil flicks really, really scarred me, but also, to some extent, kickstarted my journey as a big horror fan and, well, Resident Evil connoisseur.
Of the games, though, I’ve got to single out Resident Evil 2 as my favorite, both the original and the remake, but I have a fond opinion of Resident Evil 1 and 3 as well. Yes, even the RE3 remake. The fact is that I love the idea of the pursuer, and having Mr. X roam around trying to find me is one of the most terrifying things I could imagine, and it was, by far, the scariest experience I’ve ever had.
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As for the rest of Destructoid, the experiences are rather different, and mostly focused on the games. Our staff writer Scott Duwe is a notoriously huge fan of the games (you should check out his review of Resident Evil: Requiem, it slaps). Speaking of his most memorable scenes, Scott said:
“There are too many to count, but a core memory is the first time the zombies broke through Kendo’s Gun Shop window in RE2. I was nine, I think. I turned off my PS1 and ran upstairs to my parents and slept on the couch because I was too scared to be in my bed myself. I didn’t beat the game till years later, but it’s top two or three games all time for me.”
Scott also thinks that Nintendo played a major role in reviving the franchise. “The Nintendo impact is also severely underrated on the franchise. It gave us REmake, RE4, Revelations, and the Chronicles light gun games on Wii, all of which are excellent. It sucked for me because I didn’t have a GameCube, but thankfully the games came to other platforms eventually.”
To him, “RE5 is one of the best co op games ever made,” while the journey of the RE franchise between “such distinct eras in the three main trilogies” was a “blessing” to experience.
He wasn’t the only one with a Resident Evil-shaped core memory in his mind. Our Pedro Peres looks fondly on Resident Evil 4, and one fight in particular stands out among the rest for him.
“The first one that comes to mind is probably the Garrador fight. I remember the dread in seeing his eyes were sewn shut, then he just burst out of his cage with his huge claws. Kid me felt like the smartest kid in the world when I used the bells to redirect him so I could shoot the weak spot on his back. That fight got me holding my breath in fear he would somehow listen.”
Lastly, the legendary Tiago said that he didn’t have a single favorite Resident Evil game, but that all of the original ones provided him with countless “fond memories.”
“One day, my teenage friends invited me to see them playing the first one. It was one of the coolest experiences ever because I was just a highly impressionable tiny kid. RE2 was great because it expanded on the original, like all sequels tend to do, but didn’t go too far. I’ll never forget that f**king Licker smashing through the window. I actually love RE3 because Nemesis adds a terrifying new dimension to the entire thing. There’s not much I need to say about RE4; it might very well remain the best action game ever made.”
But it’s your opinion that matters most, Destructoid. We all have our own takes and views on Resident Evil, the best game(s) in the franchise, and how it impacted us and brought us where we are today. I’d attribute at least some credit to RE allowing me to have an audience of readers coming in to check out what I wrote, and that’s, I think, what I’m most thankful for.
What was your core memory from Resident Evil? Which part of the last 30 years stands out the most to you? Let us know below.
