We’ve just passed the halfway point of the year, and the Remake-Remaster Express is still chugging along nicely. Resident Evil 2, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled and Onimusha: Warlords are among the titles already received in 2019, and we’re soon to get MediEvil, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Battletoads and more soon.
Yet 20 years to the day since it first hit shelves in its domestic Japanese market, there’s no sight of a Dino Crisis reboot, despite Capcom recreating or re-releasing a good portion of its back catalog on the latest generation of consoles, with little sign of letting up.
On July 1, 1999, Capcom diversified its survival horror genre in ways no-one expected, swapping zombies for dinosaurs, an urban American setting for a Jurassic Park-esque island habitat, and tying the experience behind a genuinely brilliant female lead.
Dino Crisis protagonist Regina largely eschewed the era’s obsession with buxom dimensions and overt sexualization–until you unlocked that cave girl outfit, at least. The rose-red-haired mononymous agent combined the no-nonsense spy characteristics of Ada Wong with a straightforward, Jill Valentine-style personality, creating a hero that felt both human and vulnerable.
While Dino Crisis adopted many of Resident Evil’s mechanics–the inventory, health system and puzzles to name three–it departed from Capcom’s more famous horror franchise by introducing dynamic camera angles, using its own real-time engine and 3D rendering. Gone were the pre-rendered backgrounds: the game was fast, furious and action-focused, much like the prehistoric enemies you battled.
Due to its initial success, and despite Resident Evil 3: Nemesis making the RE franchise a bankable hit once more in September 1999, Dino Crisis 2 followed in 2000.
Like RE3, it was more of the same but with two almost-identical changes to the formula: firstly, it opted for a dual protagonist approach in a familiar setting, introducing subversive spy Dylan Morton as Regina’s partner. Secondly, it enhanced the action-adventure elements, making combat even more central to the experience, and introducing first-person arcade shooter sections.
Sadly, all things must come to an end: Dino Crisis 3 was somehow released in 2003. It was an Xbox exclusive that felt like a third-party spinoff from the very start, despite being developed internally by Capcom’s Production Studio 4. Just looking at the box art makes it look like something you’d pick up from someone selling counterfeit DVDs in a side alley.
It was set on board a space station 500 years in the future and players fought dinosaur mutants. Movement was too fast for camera angles to keep up, meaning most of the time was spent shooting at enemies off the screen. The final boss was a Giganotosaurus with two heads. In its final form, it–gasp–grew a third head.
While Dino Crisis 3 wasn’t quite the third-game travesty that the pathetic FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction was (the latter part of the title presumably referred to what developer Team6 did to the once-proud franchise), it was so far from gamer expectations that Capcom presumably buried the series out of shame.
And yet here we are, 20 years later, and people are still talking about a Dino Crisis remake. Just a quick search of the title on Twitter uncovers an immense amount of demand for the game’s re-release; if Capcom took advantage of this beloved IP at a time when remakes and remasters are more popular than ever, it could prove to be a license to print money.
There hasn’t been a single solid piece of evidence to suggest it’ll happen, though. Despite rumors such as this claiming it could be unveiled at E3, or hopeful claims from TheGamer that it would be released before the end of the year, these seem to be borne from optimism and not fact. But who can blame them?
As recently as 2017, Resident Evil 7 producer Masachika Hawata denied any knowledge that a Dino Crisis reboot was even being discussed, never mind planned. However, a year earlier, Capcom told the world it planned to reboot dormant franchises.
As it stands, gaming circles seem more preoccupied with a possible remake of RE3: something Capcom is more likely to create due to Resident Evil 2’s remake release in January, not least due to the wealth of useful assets it will have handed developers–especially that engine.
But imagine Dino Crisis getting the Resident Evil 2 treatment. It’s an idea that will send a shiver up many gamers’ spines, and for good reason: it’s possibly one of the most overlooked all-time great franchises in recent history. Two decades on, it’s time for the developers to have a birthday meeting to discuss the possibility of a remake.
Come on, Capcom. Do us a favor and give us what we want… again.
