The Resident Evil franchise has produced some of the most iconic characters in video games, like boulder-punching Chris Redfield, the delightfully evil Albert Wesker, and Jill Valentine, the Master of Unlocking herself. Yet the most famous one is arguably the rookie cop turned special agent Leon S. Kennedy. His debut game, Resident Evil 2, was hailed as the best of the original games.
Then his next game, Resident Evil 4, reinvented the series and gaming in general with its over-the-shoulder shooting gameplay. Now it may become one of the best games of all time again with the upcoming Resident Evil 4 Remake showing a lot of promise. That said, Leon has managed to escape the confines of his franchise, as he appeared in these non-Resident Evil games.
8 Trick’n Snowboarder
Trick’n Snowboarder was Cave’s attempt to cash in on the late 1990s craze for extreme sports. It worked for Cool Boarders and 1080° Snowboarding, so why not Trick'n Snowboarder too? Because it had lackluster controls that made it much weaker than those games, and didn't offer anything new over them either.
However, it did have Leon, Claire Redfield, and a zombie cop as playable characters. That’s because Capcom published the game in Japan and North America, and thus was able to let Cave add the RE2 cast for flavor. It doesn’t quite match the ridiculousness of Metal Gear Solid 2’s Solid Snake and Raiden grinding around the Big Shell in Evolution Skateboarding, but it’s up there.
7 Minna To Capcom All Stars
Mobile gaming has grown fast since the Java days, though it’s still a dumping ground for shovelware and games featuring long forgotten mascots (like Croc: Legend of the Gobbos). Minna to Capcom All Stars fit the former description, as it was only available for Japanese mobile phones via the GREE social network.
It was a Hero Training RPG that saw the player use Capcom stars from games past and present to save Capcom World from “Chaos Energy.” However, it was less Final Fantasy and more SNK Vs Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash. Payers dealt Capcom characters out in the form of cards, one of whom was Leon Kennedy. The game was shut down in 2013, only to be replaced with the nearly identical card game Street Fighter X All Capcom.
6 Project X Zone 2
Monolith Soft’s tactical action RPG Namco X Capcom was one of the PS2’s last highlights, yet it never made it out of Japan. Western fans had to wait for its 3DS sequel Project X Zone, where heroes from Namco, Capcom and Sega games came together to find out why there were weird portals linking their worlds. The sequel, Project X Zone 2, brought them back with a few Fire Emblem characters to deal with a new set of portals caused by golden chains.
Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine represented Resident Evil as playable characters, but Leon Kennedy made it on the cover. He can be selected as a support character who, on top of joining in for attacks or doing a super attack of his own, shares banter with the playable leads. So, if anyone’s wondering how Leon would handle Tekken’s Kazuya Mishima or Yakuza’s Goro Majima, Project X Zone 2 has the answer.
5 Dead By Daylight
Behavior Interactive cottoned onto a unique premise when they made this online survival horror. One player, the Killer, has to capture four Survivors and impale them on hooks as a sacrifice. Meanwhile, the Survivors have to avoid the Killer, fighting them off or avoiding their sight long enough to power up five generators and escape the stage.
It had original characters, but it’s more famous for using horror icons from Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, Evil Dead, Attack on Titan (for some reason), and more. Resident Evil was represented by Leon and Jill Valentine as Survivors, and Albert Wesker and the Nemesis as Killers. Resident Evil 5's Sheva Alomar, Resident Evil 3's Carlos Oliveira, and both Chris and Claire Redfield were available as skins for Leon and Jill too.
4 PUBG Mobile
PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds started off the craze for battle royale games, and earned seven Guinness World Records, including “Most Actively Played Video Game on Steam.” It’s since been superseded by Fortnite , which had more colorful characters and settings than PUBG's blander designs. But PUBG did have Leon! Kind of.
The mobile version of the game did a crossover with the RE2 Remake where players could purchase Leon and Claire Redfield skins, and fight against the Tyrant and William Birkin. They were perfect additions for the new Survive Till Dawn mode. It had a day-night cycle where the enemies got more aggressive at night. Players just had to collect enough Vaccines, get lucky with loot crates, or cough up enough cash for UC to get them.
3 Teppen
Following on from Minna to Capcom All Stars, GungHo Online Entertainment and Capcom joined forces to make another collectible card game featuring their figures. It’s a free-to-play game available on Android and iOS smartphones. Unlike MtCAS, Teppen plays more like Magic: The Gathering or Hearthstone as two players take each other on with their decks.
The first player to knock their opponent's HP down to zero wins. Leon appears as a Unit Card, either as his regular self or as Veteran Agent Leon, who can deal big damage across enemy units depending on the number of Action Cards played. It can be a good card if it's played right.
2 Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
This expansion to Monster Hunter: World saw the Hunter take on new beasts with improved mechanics in the frozen wastes of Hoarfrost Reach. While the player searches for the Tracker’s missing mentor, they come across evidence of a monster known as the “Old Everwyrm.” As if the Ice Dragons weren’t enough.
Players could forge armor that turned them into Leon or Claire, alongside a Mr. X skin for the Handler. But they needed to beat a Resident Evil-themed event quest to earn enough STARS badges alongside regular monster bits to make them. Since the event ended back in December 2019, new players are now out of luck unless they have an old save file with the data on it.
1 Dying Light 2
Techland’s sequel to their zombie-based action RPG doesn’t officially feature Leon Kennedy, though the similarities are undeniable. In a tribute to its survival horror forebears, Aiden will come across an injured Peacemaker called Leon who looks nearly identical to the former Raccoon City cop.
His doomed partner is a more obvious RE reference. He’s called Chris, and he punched his way to the generator room. Once Aiden finds him all zombified, his outfit resembles the old STARS uniform, and his dog tags reveal his surname to be “Redfield.” Even when the two are in other franchises, Leon and Chris can’t catch a break.