Resident Evil For The SNES, What Could Have Been For The Popular Horror Franchise

The Resident Evil franchise is one that continues to grow stronger and stronger with every year. A horror staple in the gaming community, the series itself is incredibly well-know but what you might not know is that the root of the franchise actually goes back farther than you might think.

In a recent interview with Game Informer, director Koji Oda sat down to discuss the popular horror game. Oda has many works under his belt, including the infamous Super Ghouls n Ghosts title that came out on the SNES and original PlayStation. When it comes to Resident Evil, however, the original plan was to have it on the Super Nintendo system, though the technologically advanced (at the time) PlayStation system ultimately won that fight.

The original SNES concept was meant to be a spiritual successor to the NES horror game Home Sweet Home - but plans definitely changed.

In the interview, Oda states:

"Honestly, I feel like I joined the game industry at the best time. Typically, games would take half a year and no longer than a year to develop, so I feel like I was able to take part in a lot of different projects. It's not that well known, but before Resident Evil went to the PlayStation, I was working on it for the Super NES.

This was back before the name Resident Evil had even been assigned to it. The codename for this was literally just 'horror game.' On the SNES, we were working with limited hard drive space, so it's not like we could dump a movie in there. If we had actually completed it on the SNES, I'm sure it would have been considerably different. For example, it was originally set in a place that had nothing to do with reality – more of a hellish place."

Tough calls like that for developers and publishers alike happen all of the time, but it does make you wonder what sort of impact having it originally release on the SNES would have had on the franchise we know today. To learn more about Resident Evil, and it's tremendous journey, you can check out the full interview right here.