With the original Resident Evil becoming a runaway success almost overnight, there was no chance of Capcom leaving money on the table when it came to the highly anticipated 1998 sequel. Much like Mortal Kombat II, which we covered here, this bloody follow-up gained several belated conversions – with one even running five years behind the universally acclaimed PS1 release.
Before diving into Capcom’s drip-feed of conversions, there’s the SEGA Saturn version to address. SEGA’s 32-bit console had performed reasonably well in Japan, in no small part thanks to Capcom bringing over dozens of their arcade hits. In fact, Capcom were still producing Saturn games as late as 2000, at which point the Dreamcast was available. A conversion of Resident Evil 2 had been made public, and reported to use the 4MB expansion, but was eventually cancelled in October 1998 following technical issues. With the Saturn dead in the west by this point (Europe’s last game was the RE inspired Deep Fear, funnily enough, in July 1998) they may have also believed it was unlikely to recoup costs in Japan alone.
RE2’s next port of call after the PS1 was, believe it or not, on the failed Game.com handheld from Tiger Electronics. In screenshots, it didn’t look too bad – imagine if Capcom had commission a Game Boy version, and you’ll get the gist. However, Tiger largely existed as a toy company and much of the Game.com’s catalogue reflected this, looking similar to the franchises they’re based on but completely screwing up everything else. Sluggish and unresponsive controls, poor animation, bizarre camera angles and jerky scrolling – this version was DOA.
It’s not much surprise to find that RE2 turned up on PC next, launching early 1999 via Virgin Interactive in Europe and Capcom themselves elsewhere. Proudly, the box claimed it “only requires a P166 to run” – that being a Pentium chip a few years old at this point. A backhanded compliment, there. This version featured higher resolution visuals, an art gallery, and a new Extreme Battle mini game involving planting anti-virus bombs while defeating enemies using limited ammo. This mini game would later feature in subsequent conversions, including the PS1’s Platinum re-release, dubbed DualShock Ver. Incidentally, Virgin also gave RE2 a ‘White Label’ budget re-release in 2001.
Where next for RE2? On the N64, of course – a system that never received the original and wasn’t exactly known for mature titles, while also famous for its restrictive cartridges. Between them, Factor 5 and Angel Studios managed to produce nothing short of a miracle, cramming two CD-ROMs worth of content into a 64MB cart by using advanced compression techniques. You’d think this cart release would rely on still images instead of FMV, but no, all FMV clips were intact. The developers even found wiggle room for new character costumes, a randomised mode that shuffled item locations, and 16 new in-game documents. The N64’s expansion pack additionally helped boost the screen resolution, making this the best looking version to date.
Review scores for this unlikely conversion were positive, including a lofty 9.1 from IGN, who praised the absence of loading times – another boon over the disc version. Even today, the N64’s RE2 is often spoken about when it comes to miracle ports. It must have required a lot of resources just to see if it was possible.
Whereas N64 RE2 was greeted with open arms, the next two releases left fans scratching their heads, gaining lukewarm reviews due to their tardiness despite nothing being technically wrong with either.
After skipping the Saturn, SEGA fans were finally able to play RE2 in mid-2000 on the Dreamcast, again handled by Virgin Interactive in Europe. This version released a few months after Resident Evil: Code Veronica, which saw the franchise evolve into full 3D, and as a Dreamcast exclusive initially was given a large push. Differences between the two were a generation apart. Capcom simply ported the PC version, which makes sense, with the only major addition being a life bar present on the VMU. In Japan it launched as a Value Plus budget title with a Code Veronica demo, making it a far more appealing proposition. It only managed to sell 66K units in the US, although it is worth bearing in mind the jump from to PC to DC was likely a quick process.
The Dreamcast also gained 1999’s Resident Evil 3: Nemesis in late 2000, which performed better commercially, with sales closer to 100K.
Finally, RE2 slumped onto GameCube in 2003, this point being five years old and superseded by both Code Veronica and the GameCube’s own lavish Resident Evil remake. It arrived the same day as a similarly no-thrills RE3 conversion (January 2003 in the US, May 2003 in Europe) and both were strongly criticised for their age. It also lacked the exclusive content from the N64 version. GamePro called it “a nostalgic experience” – which probably wasn’t the reception Capcom hoped for. Most critics also called out Capcom for not updating the visuals.
With Resident Evil 4 a GameCube exclusive (initially, at least), these re-releases simply served as a way for fans to play through all the mainline entries on the same system. Nintendo was likely grateful for the support too, seeing the GameCube had large gaps in its library. It seems that people are more accepting of the GameCube’s RE2 and RE3 nowadays, knowing what they’re in for.
Today, the preferred way to play RE2 is via the remake. If you wish to sample the original’s hokey horror delights, the PC version is available on GOG with a few minor improvements for £7.99, while the PS1 original can be downloaded on PS4/PS5. You can’t go far wrong with any of the retro iterations, with the Game.com version being the only outlier. Try to tackle that abomination, and you’ll find yourself a new nemesis.