Highlights
- Resident Evil's recent success may lead to a reboot, similar to Mortal Kombat 1, that refreshes the universe and characters for a new generation.
- The classic Resident Evil games are still beloved today, but Capcom will eventually run out of games to remake. A reboot could be the solution.
- Following the example of the Mortal Kombat franchise, a Resident Evil reboot could maintain familiar elements while introducing fresh new spins on the stories and characters.
Much like any other franchise that's been going for the best part of three decades, Resident Evil has had its fair share of ups and downs over the last 27 years. Popularizing the survival horror genre right out of the gate in 1996, Resident Evil has 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, the Resident Evil franchise 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 future Resident Evil reboot would actually benefit much more from a Mortal Kombat 1-style of reboot, where the universe and characters are refreshed for a new generation.
A Mortal Kombat 1-Style Reboot Could Be Exactly What Resident Evil Needs
The original set of Resident Evil games 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 classic Resident Evil series is 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 while the recent Resident Evil remakes have largely been excellent, it's only a matter of time before Capcom runs out of classic games to remake. With Resident Evil 5 presumably 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 mining Resident 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.
The Mortal Kombat franchise is 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. In Mortal Kombat 1, Liu Kang restarts the universe. To try and uphold an era of peace, Liu Kang changes the origins of every Mortal Kombat character, 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.
The Resident Evil franchise may want to follow in the footsteps of Mortal Kombat 1 if it ever decides to do its own series reboot. Each Resident Evil remake already switches up some classic plot beats, character moments, and gameplay systems, so a Mortal 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 similar Resident Evil universe.