In March 2011, Nintendo launched the 3DS, successor to the mega-successful DS, in the UK. In its first week, its highest charting game was a port of Super Street Fighter IV, which reached #6 in the individual formats chart. I played that one, which was fun, although not alone in the stereoscopic 3D effect not adding much. Mostly during the 3DS’s early days I used it to play DS games and StreetPass.
Within months, Nintendo had cut the price of the 3DS by a third and apologised to us early adopters by giving out some old games for free, hoping to trade on nostalgia for forgiveness. The 3DS went on to be a success, if not to the same level as the DS. The price drop undoubtedly helped, but so did getting over its slow start when it came to the games available.
One of the few 2011 successes on the 3DS was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. It took the Zelda classic from the early days of 3D gaming and updated it for… a new start for a different kind of 3D gaming. A Zelda game which was already unusually concerned with looking at things was a perfect fit, working to show off looking at things and seeing them coming out of the screen. In normal circumstances, it could easily have been the first 3DS game to reach #1, at least on the individual formats chart. Instead, 2011 was the summer of Zumba Fitness.
So that 3DS chart feat had to wait until the following January, and for once a game which wasn’t by Nintendo. It’s one which works on much the same appeal to nostalgia as Ocarina of Time 3D, though. Take something iconic and pioneering from the mid-’90s age of early 3D, in this case Capcom’s first foray into the third dimension of its classic PlayStation era, and update it for the present day. However, the original Resident Evil had already had even more plentiful remakes and reissues than Ocarina of Time, and that included one on the Nintendo DS. So Revelations would instead be something a bit newer.
The influence of the original Resident Evil is clear, and not just because it perfected so many series standards straight off. That game’s mansion location is traded for a big ship, with a similar range of locations but even more of a sense of being trapped. You get to play as original protagonist Jill Valentine again. Limited ammo, limited manoeuvrability and limited visibility are used to ratchet up tension and make each of your actions count for more. There’s even a full return to the ridiculous dialogue that the series started off with. At one point a character in a tense situation says the actual words “me and my sweet ass are on the way”.
A big factor in the revival working is that big looming monsters staggering towards you is a perfect use of the third dimension. Combining the gameplay of the earlier games with the over-the-shoulder view of the more recent ones emphasises this even more. Trying to take a shot at the head of a bloated corpse-thing as it fills up your 3D view, jerking unnaturally, is a bracing source of tension that takes a long time to wear off.
The limitations of the 3DS work in favour of Revelations. The lack of a second stick makes it hard to move and turn at the same time, and gives the controls an awkwardness which adds to the sense of vulnerability at all moments. Even more so because it’s matched by your limited field of view, the nature of the controls feels as integral to the level design as in the PlayStation games. Which makes it odd that you could pay extra for a bundle of the game and an accessory to bolt on a second stick to your 3DS.
That’s not the only unhappy concession to modernity in Revelations. Rather than spend your whole time in the creepy ship, those bits are interspersed with levels following other characters elsewhere. These are less heavy on atmosphere and puzzles, and more on mowing down massive waves of enemies with machine guns. It gives a bit of a flavour of Resident Evil Greatest Hits to proceedings, but in not embracing the limitations of the 3DS those parts are the only ones where limitations feel like a problem.
The interesting post-script is that not only did portable Resident Evil nostalgia turn out to be successful on its own terms, it took the route of Grand Theft Auto Stories games before it and became a home console hit too. A year later, Capcom redid Revelations in HD (and not 3D) for the Xbox 360 and PS3, and it reached the top of the charts for a second time. Which was more than Resident Evil 6 managed in between. Nostalgia was very much in.
Top of the charts for week ending 28 January 2012:
Top of the charts for week ending 25 May 2013:
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