Dino Crisis 4 has never been announced by Capcom as we enter into the 10th birthday of the original Dino Crisis, which was released for the PlayStation One way back on July 1st, 1999 (in Japan).
Cashing in on the “survival horror” king, the Resident Evil series, Dino Crisis sought to differentiate itself from that titan of gaming by taking the same horror formula (down to “door opening sequences”, complex puzzles, a fixed camera perspective and key finding fetch quests) that worked there and adding . . . YOU GUESSED IT! Dinosaurs! Everything is better when you add dinosaurs right? RIGHT?!
The sad fact is that Dino Crisis wasn’t necessarily a bad game. And if it was remade now it would be an AWESOME game (see the picture above. Now picture it in HD). However it was literally Resident Evil 3: Nemesis with dinosaurs. Which became less appealing when you added new, unfamiliar characters and the same style of voice-acting from that era (i.e. the voice acting sucks). However dinosaurs were a big enough difference back in the late 90’s to make an impact, and the game sold over 2.4 million copies. Making it a 32-bit hit for Capcom.
Dino Crisis 2 actually took that similarity to heart by fundamentally changing the game into a shooter . . . although it used the same gameplay formula as all survival horror games of the time, the focus was now on shooting and action instead puzzles. Swarms of dinosaurs would come at you and you would earn points (yes, points) for the more kills and “combos” you performed. I never played the game but it got great reviews in the pages of EGM and other mags at the time.
Then came the Xbox-exclusive Dino Crisis 3 . . . We shall refrain from speaking of that shameful retail and critical bomb. You can find information on it on the Internet. Somewhere else.
I’ll just say this. Dino Crisis 3 to the Dino Crisis franchise what Jason X is to Friday the 13th. Dinosaurs. Cybernetic dinosaurs. In space. Apparently someone thought that would be a good idea. And then they were probably fired.
Sadly I was never able to complete the original Dino Crisis despite being a fan of the game. All because of that DAMN PIPE PUZZLE!!!!!!!!! Of course, this is 2009, so maybe I should replay the game. I’m sure youtube could finally help me solve it.
Now let’s hope that Capcom re-releases the first two Dino Crisis games on the PlayStation Network to celebrate the franchise’s anniversary! This in fact may indeed happen as Capcom will be releasing classic PS1 titles on the PlayStation Network in the USA, and Dino Crisis’ name has already been brought up!
Here is a video of Dino Crisis 1. Skip the first 45-seconds of item management to see the good parts.
Dino Crisis 2 in action.
. . . . Dino Crisis 3.
Okay to be completely fair, I never played Dino Crisis 3 . . . just read about how bad it was.
So would you like to see a revival of the Dino Crisis series? What about re-releases of the games on PSN?