Like many of my generation, I grew up obsessed with gaming and paleontology. So imagine the smile on my 8-year-old face when I strolled into the video game section of my local Blockbuster and literally found a title called “Dino Crisis.” I ignored the back of the case (not to mention the ESRB rating), begged my parents to rent the game, and rushed home to try out what I thought was a fun little shooter.

Suffice to say, I couldn’t play for 15 minutes without turning off the TV and indulging in a reptilian nightmare. Years later, I played the game again with a friend and beat it in one incredibly entertaining go. Through this, I overcame my childhood trauma and became a huge fan of another iconic Capcom survival horror series.

Of course, I’m not the only die-hard fan of Dino Crisis, as the series has become one of Capcom’s most profitable franchises. So why has this multi-million dollar IP failed to make it beyond the sixth generation of consoles while other horror series like Resident Evil and Silent Hill have risen from the grave (and, in some cases, refused to be fully buried)? That’s what came to my mind when I saw the trailer for Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ new film, 65. The film promises an unpretentious sci-fi story featuring time travel and a ton of scary lizards. And since the reaction to the trailer proves that audiences are still craving prehistoric thrills, this seems like the perfect moment to dig into the events of Dino Crisis and explain why the series deserves a comeback.

The story of the Dinosaur Crisis begins in 1993, when the dinosaur media craze of the ’90s began with the release of Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park.” From Dinotopia to Cadillacs to dinosaurs, countless movies, games, and even TV shows have tried to capitalize on audiences’ fascination with extinct creatures. And with Capcom’s own Resident Evil taking the gaming world by storm with its claustrophobic sci-fi horror thrills, it’s no surprise that RE co-creator Shinji Mikami would combine the two ideas in his next big project.

Interestingly, the tone of the original Dino Crisis is much closer to Michael Crichton’s iconic (albeit highly technical) novel than Spielberg’s blockbuster film adaptation, with elements of velociraptor evisceration and more overt mad science than the film. In the first game in the series, players take on the role of a special agent tasked with investigating a secret research facility. The protagonist attempts to navigate the high-tech facility while solving puzzles and battling increasingly aggressive dinosaurs.

While this sounds like a prehistoric rehash of Mikami’s previous work, in his new project, the director has actually made a conscious effort to update the RE formula, making Dino Crisis a “panic horror” experience rather than a traditional horror game. The fast pace makes him liken the game to a terrifying roller coaster. DC was also Capcom’s first horror title to incorporate real-time 3D graphics into its environments, allowing for more dynamic camera angles and greater visual uniformity.

The original Resident Evil game was given a second chance with an incredibly successful remake, so I think it’s a very smart move by Capcom to give Dino Crisis a similar update. You could even incorporate Mr.

Either way, even if the media argued that the title was just another of many Resident Evil clones, Dino Crisis stood out among its contemporaries due to its unique thrills. This inevitably led to a sequel in 2000, with the second game branching out even further from the RE formula, making the title more action-packed in a way that hasn’t been replicated to this day.

The first truly addictive third-person shooter, Dino Crisis 2 saw an entire city sent back in time to prehistoric times, and only two special agents (including Regina, the protagonist of the first game) were able to solve the titular dinosaur crisis battle. . However, this time the gameplay was radically changed; the title returned to more traditional pre-rendered backgrounds and added a points system that encouraged players to be more aggressive. In fact, DC2’s innovative combat system served as the basis for Devil May Cry’s style system, which in turn inspired a whole new generation of character action titles.

Given the huge advances that third-person shooters have made, it makes sense to revive the trigger-happy thrills of Dino Crisis 2, either in a remake or an all-new game. In fact, a return to this addictive style of combat may even incorporate some action elements from Resident Evil 4, bringing both franchises full circle, as Dino Crisis 2-influenced Devil May Cry started out as a cancelled version of Resident Evil 4.

In the years following the release of DC2, there were a few spin-offs, such as a light gun shooter called Dino Stalker (a sort of crossover with the Resident Evil series) and a mobile FPS called Dino Crisis: Dungeon in Chaos, but neither of these were particularly notable. It wasn’t until 2003 that the official third part, Dino Crisis 3, came out for the original Xbox.

Featuring jetpacks, giant colony ships, and horribly mutated dinosaurs, the game again differed from its predecessors by focusing on sci-fi elements. Players assumed the role of another special operations team tasked with investigating a technological malfunction. They raced through a transforming space station and faced off against genetically modified monsters with futuristic weaponry.

Unfortunately, this may have been too far removed from the original concept of the series. The game alienated die-hard fans with its modern setting and frustrated newbies with clunky gameplay mechanics and annoyingly fixed camera angles (that didn’t match the sequel’s breakneck pace). Oddly enough, the title was initially going to be set in a more detailed urban environment, but Capcom scrapped the idea after the September 11 terrorist attacks, believing that urban horrors might offend Western sensibilities.

Of course, DC3 being the last instalment in the series to date, poor critical reception led to poor sales. It’s 2023, two decades since the last Dino Crisis game, and while titles like ARK: Survival Evolved and The Lost Wild are vying to become the next big dinosaur-centric franchises, no game series has come close to matching Capcom’s original extinction simulator. . But as films like Jurassic World: Dominion (and hopefully the aforementioned 65) have shown, audiences are still hungry for dinosaur-related media, so the Dino Crisis series is likely to be successful no matter what direction it goes in.

From first-person horror experiences like Resident Evil 7 that try to simulate the thrill of an active hunt (think a more intense version of Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Movie Game), to more modern fare, you can’t go wrong with a Gears of War-inspired third-person shooter with plenty of bloody dinosaur action. But this game is only as good as its developers look back on what made the original games popular in the first place.

So what are you waiting for, Capcom? Gamers, it’s time to make the dinosaurs extinct… again.