20 Stupid Decisions That Destroyed Their Franchise

7. Lost Sight of Prehistoric Scares – Dino Crisis 3

Video game history is full of misguided attempts to change something fundamental about a long-running and treasured horror property. The drastic departures of Resident Evil 5/6 and Dead Space 3 – from terrifying survival horror endurance tests to excessive action blockbusters – are the most infamous instances, but Dino Crisis 3 deserves as much disgrace for its wrongdoings.

Specifically, it ditched the island/jungle destinations of Dino Crisis and Dino Crisis 2 for the ludicrous locale of a space station. As the Hellraiser, Leprechaun, and Friday the 13th film franchises previously proved, going into space is the clichéd sign of creative bankruptcy in the horror world.

Granted, the silliness of having dinosaurs terrorize a crew of armed cosmic explorers could work in a self-aware B-movie kind of way. But, the game is completely genuine with its preposterous premise, and either way, going so sci-fi is inherently antithetical to what Dino Crisis should be.

Dino Crisis 3 took place several hundred years after Dino Crisis 2, too, so it couldn’t bring back protagonist Regina or have strong ties to its predecessors in other ways. Its janky camera, unfair difficulty, and outrageously enormous environments only added salt into the wound as well.

There have been talks of rebooting the Dino Crisis brand – whether with a sequel, spinoff, or remake – but nothing’s gotten off the ground.