Following the incredible success of the early Resident Evil titles, Capcom began to be seen as something of an expert in the survival-horror genre. Lending this new-found expertise further credence, it released Dino Crisis in between Resident Evil 2 and 3, and while initially, some saw it as little more than a Resident Evil clone with dinosaurs, it built up a steady fan base, eventually going on to spawn three more sequels over the course of the next four-year period. The franchise has been on the shelf since 2003 though, and while many fans would love to see it make a comeback, it remains to be seen if Capcom will ever make it happen.

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When the first Dino Crisis was released in 1999, it was perfectly primed for success for two main reasons: because of its close similarity to Resident Evil which had been wildly successful already, and because the world was still in the midst of dinosaur-mania, which had started with the 1993 Steven Spielberg movie Jurassic Park and didn’t really subside until the early 2000s. These factors helped to ensure Dino Crisis was well received by fans, but to its credit, critics seemed to like it too.

The game played very similarly to Resident Evil, with the same fixed camera, almost identical gameplay, and a potent action/horror blend. The plot could’ve literally been the script for a new Jurassic Park movie. It sees players investigating a secret research facility on the fictional Ibis Island, which has been overrun by an array of menacing dinosaurs, the result of a scientist’s botched experiments. Players must navigate the island, opening locked doors and defending themselves from these hungry prehistoric beasts. Capcom quickly followed up the game’s success with a sequel just one year later, and Dino Crisis 2 received equally strong reviews, with some critics stating the series could now sufficiently stand on its own two feet and be free of the Resident Evil comparisons.

A third game followed two years later, titled Dino Stalker. It was primarily a light-gun shooting game that was part of Capcom’s Resident Evil spin-off series titled Gun Survivor, and was reviewed poorly. A third proper sequel, Dino Crisis 3, arrived in 2003. Interestingly, this time the game was an Xbox exclusive, with Capcom deciding Microsoft’s superior processing power made it the logical choice. Set in the distant future on a space station, the game deviated heavily from the first two outings, subsequently garnering mediocre reviews that seemingly led to the end of the series. The IP has remained dormant since then.

As new ideas for video games are becoming harder to come by, many developers are turning to remakes of old titles from their existing libraries, giving a new generation the chance to discover classic games from years gone by, with a shiny new coat of paint and substantial mechanical improvements. Dino Crisis seems a perfect fit for this, but despite several rumors, nothing concrete has materialized yet. Many expected at least one of the games to appear on the PS Plus subscription service, but again, to date this hasn’t happened either. There is undoubtedly still a gap in the market for a Dino Crisis revival of some sort, and Capcom is surely leaving money on the table if it doesn’t address this.

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