When coming up with this list of 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Resident Evil, we had to look far beyond the games. Sure, there are assorted game development stories and interesting tales about the game’s name, but some of the far more interesting stories come from the development of Resident Evil movies, and games you never even heard about. The most popular zombie game in existence is way more interesting than you think it is. These are 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Resident Evil.

  • 10

    Resident Evil’s Real Name is BioHazard

    And it makes sense right? After all, the games are usually about some sort of virus or parasite that turns you into a crazy raving zombie monster. Unfortunately, BioHazard wouldn’t play in America because of copyright issues. It’s commonly believed that these arose due to New York '80s punk-metal band “Biohazard,” though Capcom never gave an official word as to what copyright issues they were experiencing. Capcom had an internal contest to change the game’s name and Resident Evil won, even though the name doesn’t really make any sense.

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  • 9

    Resident Evil 1’s Voice Acting Was the Better of Two Takes

    When Resident Evil 1 was originally going to come out, its voice track was completely in Japanese. However, Shinji Mikami thought the quality of the voice acting didn’t live up to his expectations. They searched out new voice actors for the American release, resulting in famous lines like, “You were almost a Jill sandwich.”

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  • 8

    George Romero Once Wrote a Resident Evil Movie Script

    Yes, the king of zombie horror once wrote a script for an adaptation of the king of zombie video games. Bet you didn’t know that about Resident Evil. His script followed the plot of the original game very closely, although he made Chris and Jill love interests and Chris wasn’t a S.T.A.R.S. member. In the end the script was scrapped for Paul W.S. Anderson’s take. This isn’t the only instance of Romero writing for Resident Evil by the way. He actually made a Japanese commercial for Resident Evil 2.

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  • 7

    Resident Evil Was Inspired by Sweet Home

    Sweet Home was an NES game based around horror. It could be most accurately described as an RPG, very much in the vein of Dragon Quest. However, the main focus was on party management and the games interesting perma-death system. Oh, and Sweet Home was a licensed game for a Japanese horror movie that you probably haven’t seen… but definitely play Sweet Home. It’s an amazing horror title for an 8-bit console.

  • 6

    Resident Evil: Survivor has a PC Port

    Resident Evil: Survivor was a Resident Evil game that was adapted into a light gun format. It was kind of crap… but somehow they made it even worse by porting it to Windows PC exclusively in Chinese territories. The engine and graphics were rebuilt from the ground up and are largely considered inferior to the original PlayStation port. It is widely regarded as one of the worst horror games of all time.

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  • 5

    There Was a Pink Herb in Resident Evil 0

    You can’t get it in the game, but it exists within the game’s code. You could screw around with the game’s code with a Game Shark or Pro Action Replay in order to get the herb, but it doesn’t do anything. We all know what the Red, Green, and Yellow herbs do, and Capcom has never revealed what this Pink herb was supposed to do. Perhaps we will never know.

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  • 4

    Before Resident Evil 2 Came Out, Capcom Was Working on Resident Evil 1.5

    Resident Evil 1.5 is the unofficial name given to the game that was being worked on before Resident Evil 2. It was very different from Resident Evil 2, as Claire Redfield wasn’t even featured in it. Instead there was a character named Elza Walker who never even crossed paths with Chris. Character models were different, zombies behaved different, it was basically a totally different game. It even had RPG style equipment that would increase your defense and stats.

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  • 3

    Resident Evil Was Originally Meant to Be a First Person Shooter

    Unfortunately, Capcom and Shinji Mikami didn’t think that the first person shooter genre handled horror well. Remember this was the PS1 era, the only sorts of shooters we got were Doom or at best Goldeneye. They redid the game to be more like Alone in the Dark, more an adventure game than a shooter, while still retaining plenty of enemies to kill. It was this strange combination of elements that created the survival horror genre. Just one of 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Resident Evil.

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  • 2

    Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil: Code Veronica Were Meant to Be Switched

    After Resident Evil 2, Capcom decided that they would work on two separate Resident Evil games at the same time, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil: Nemesis. Nemesis was supposed to be a spin-off game which recapped events leading up to Resident Evil 2, and Resident Evil 3 was supposed to continue the story utilizing a next-generation graphics engine. Unfortunately, Capcom had entered into an exclusivity contract with Sony which forced them to release a numbered title on a Sony platform. Thus, Resident Evil: Nemesis was rebranded as Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 3 became Resident Evil: Code Veronica on the Dreamcast.

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  • 1

    Devil May Cry Started as a Resident Evil Game

    The final item in our list of 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Resident Evil isn’t really about Resident Evil at all. It’s about Devil May Cry. Yes, the smart talking red trenchcoated hero of the series, Dante, was originally going to be the protagonist of Resident Evil 4. In fact, Resident Evil 4 itself was tooled to be a much faster paced in your face action game before Capcom felt the game strayed too far from its roots. However, since they enjoyed what was created they allowed it to have its own series, and Devil May Cry was born.

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  • Bonus

    15 Facts You May Not Know About Resident Evil

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