Shinji Mikami got his start at Capcom in the early ’90s, working on licensed Disney games like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Aladdin. After a few years of that, he created one of the most iconic series of all time: Resident Evil. With that marquee release under his belt, Mikami’s career took off, and he’s spent the last few decades releasing banger after banger across several different companies. To Mikami’s credit, he’s always willing to experiment with new genres. Survival horror is where he made his bones, but Mikami’s extensive catalog runs the gamut. That said, five games stand out as his best work.
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Here is a ranked list of Shinji Mikami’s five best games. Before diving in, it’s important to note that if the legendary designer touched a game, it’s eligible for this list.
5) The Evil Within 2
When Mikami launched his Tango Gameworks studio in 2010, he planned to make his grand return to survival horror. The guy had essentially created the genre, so having him come back to it after a half-decade working on action games like Vanquish (which nearly made the list) and Shadows of the Damned was an enticing prospect.
Unfortunately, the first The Evil Within didn’t turn many heads. The horror game was solid, but felt like a step back for the creator. With the sequel, Mikami took more of a backseat role, letting John Johanas take the reins with Mikami working as an executive producer. That resulted in one of the better survival horror games of the last decade.
The Evil Within 2 brings best-in-class atmosphere and tense gameplay. Sure, the open world is a little bland, but that doesn’t detract much from Tango Gameworks’ cult classic. It’s a shame that many players never dived in, though it’s still easy to find, making it easy to dive in.
4) Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Similar to The Evil Within 2, Mikami served as the executive producer on the first three Ace Attorney games. After working with Shu Takumi on Dino Crisis 2, Mikami told the young director to take six months and make whatever he wanted.
That gave the world Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, an incredible visual novel adventure that took players to the wild world of courtroom dramas. Of course, this is a video game, so it’s a bit wackier than your average Law & Order episode, but players flocked to it regardless.
Mikami also helped with Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations, so you could make the case for either of those to take this spot. However, they always say you never forget your first, so I’m sliding Ace Attorney into this slot.
3) Viewtiful Joe
One last Mikami-executive-produced game for the road. Viewtiful Joe was part of the Capcom Five, a strategy put together by the company and Nintendo to bring five great third-party games to the GameCube. I’ll talk about the most successful of that quartet soon, but Viewtiful Joe deserves a shoutout.
Hideki Kamiya had previously worked with Mikami on Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, and a few other games. With Viewtiful Joe, Capcom wanted to make an innovative beat ’em up filled with style. The team did exactly that, giving the GameCube one of its best-looking games.
Toss in the “Viewtiful Effects Powers,” which gave Joe control over time and space via camera tricks, and you have one of Capcom’s best games. On top of that, this was not the last time Mikami and Kamiya teamed up, as they went on to both work at Clover Studios and PlatinumGames.
2) Resident Evil Remake
The original Resident Evil set the standard for survival horror games. However, it didn’t perfectly match Mikami’s vision graphically due to the limitations of the original PlayStation. Now, there aren’t many who would call the GameCube a visual powerhouse, but Mikami and his team wanted to create a remake of the first RE to help new players appreciate the all-time classic.
With that, Capcom produced what is still one of the best remakes we’ve ever seen. Sure, games like Resident Evil 2 Remake look much better, and the ongoing Final Fantasy VII Remake series is pushing the boundary of what a remake even is, but the Resident Evil remake on GameCube was for decades the bar every other remake had to live up to.
In fact, it’s such a strong remake that Capcom seems hesitant to make another one. We’ve seen the studio remake almost every other Resident Evil game of the era, but RE1 remains untouched. It might happen someday, but it is a testament to the GameCube version’s quality that we’ve yet to see Capcom revisit the one that started it all.
1) Resident Evil 4
It has to be Resident Evil 4. The crown jewel of the Capcom Five has subsequently been ported to nearly every console on Earth because, at least in the 2000s, it printed money for Capcom. You could argue that the move to action-heavy combat led to the series taking a bit of a nosedive with RE5 and 6, but that doesn’t make Leon’s adventure any less exciting.
Simply put, there’s a reason Resident Evil 4 comes to everything. It is one of the best action games of all time, and the recent remake only made it better. Personally, I wouldn’t name it the best Resident Evil game, but I’m aware I’m in the minority. Either way, it is the best Resident Evil game that Mikami directly put his hands on.
In some ways, Mikami has spent the last few decades chasing after the highs of Resident Evil 4. Don’t get me wrong, he’s made some great games since, but nothing has hit quite as RE4. Hopefully, whatever he does with his new studio, Kamuy Inc., can take his catalog to the next level.
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a PlayStation 2 console and controller over a field of game box art.
