REVIEW: Resident Evil 2 (Nintendo 64, 1999) “The Streets Are Crawling With Zombies!”
Like many other Nintendo enthusiasts, I have been greatly enjoying the software output on the Switch 2 over the past 15 months or so. And earlier this year, it became home to three modern Resident Evil titles. Two of which had previously been released on competing consoles in Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village; and one all new game in Resident Evil Requiem. Now, in my opinion, the quality of this trio was all over the place (7=Bad, 8=Great, 9=Okay). But having played through all three in rapid succession, something took hold. Something got inside my system. And by something getting inside my system, what I’m saying is that my Resident Evil 2 cartridge got inside of my Ye Olde Nintendo 64*.
It was time to party like it’s 1999.
Now you’re likely aware of this but as a reminder: Resident Evil 2 is the second installment of the much beloved series of Resident Evil children’s video games. My initial experience with this franchise back in the day was mostly one filled with curiosity and borderline envy though. Because this darn franchise was locked away to the highly popular CD console Playstation, featuring full motion video and voice acting. Y’know, doing all that stuff which Ninten did not. So this of course made the likelihood of installments ever appearing on Nintendo’s cartridge based 64 bit console slim to chesnos. But then low and behold, Angel Studios (the developers behind Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr. and later to become Rock Star San Diego) stepped up to the plate and said “waitasecond, hold my crossbow.”
In short: They knocked this port out of the park.
There are some compromises, sure. But so what if the full motion video clips are blurrier and more compressed that a PC movie trailer in 1996? It’s all still there. Along with all of the dialogue featuring all of that voice acting. This team delivered 2 CD’s worth of information onto a single cartridge along with possibly the most unexpected perk: The visuals are somehow even better than in the Playstation original. And playing it again over 25 years since its release was kind of mind blowing not only in how well it has aged technically, but also just how great the game itself is.
And a massive part of what makes this thing so special lies in the atmosphere Capcom managed to originally conjure up. It knows when to escalate tension and when to crank up the action and suspense. The whole thing excels at having a damn mood. There are two campaigns to play through via Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield, both narratively running parallel to each other as each characters explore the Raccoon City police department during a zombie outbreak. After having played through the two of them, they’re essentially the same structurally with some minor supporting character/map swaps and alternate weapons exclusive to who you’re playing as. But even without really all that big of a difference between the selections, it was still a blast going through the game twice.
The star of the show here is the overall presentation though. It is nothing short of mind boggling how well this game looks, plays and most importantly feels in this day and age. And going back to the original hardware really took me back to an era where the future of gaming was more exciting than ever. Because yes, I recently hopped on the guy my age trend of buying an old school television to hook all of my pre high definition consoles up to (and yes, this also naturally led to also buying a VCR and getting into collecting VHS cassettes, which is a whole other post). And in doing so, it has been incredibly rewarding dusting off all of my old cartridges and giving them another spin after so many years. Resident Evil 2 was one of the first games I popped in after getting everything all set up and it was kind of shocking how instantly captivating it was to play it through to completion again. There were even a few welcome surprises that I honestly didn’t remember at all (like the ability to use the D-pad to move your character? In a N64 game!?) which really kept me on my toes.
Listen you guys, Resident Evil 2 on the N64 is a nothing less than a frickin’ miracle. Capcom and Angel Studios deserve a lot of praise for the accomplishment of technical wizardry on display here. It may not have been a release that anyone was particularly demanding at the time but they went ahead and developed the thing anyway and the results are spectacular. It is the game that right out of the gate solidified my love for this franchise and made every subsequent entry in the series something to look forward to. And luckily for fans everywhere, there was and still continues to be plenty more on the way.
9.5/10
Oh, and this is some good Halloween video game playing right here too, boy I tell you what.
RESIDENT EVIL 2 for the NINTENDO 64 can be played authentically or using various methods located across the Interwebs
*PROTIP: While I did play through this game with my original N64 console and cartridge, I didn’t really want to have to deal with the cords and worn out analogue sticks on those old controllers. Picking up one of these great 8BitDo bluetooth receivers and connecting to a wireless NSO gamepad, what you essentially wind up with is the system’s equivalent of the almighty WaveBird for the Gamecube. And with absolutely no noticeable lag, talk about a quality of life upgrade!
