10 Famous Video Games That Started Out As Something Else Entirely

9. Devil May Cry

Compared to the overhaul of Super Smash Bros., Devil May Cry went relatively unchanged from its early days to when it was released. In fact, the biggest change of all was arguably to the title, as well as its place in the Capcom multiverse. Originally, producer Shinji Mikami and director Hideki Kamiya actually began working on the game as the fourth installment in Capcom's hit survival horror series, Resident Evil. In contrast to the earlier titles in the series, the goal was to make what was then going to be Resident Evil 4, a "cool" and "stylish" action game. On the way to making it so, the protagonist, Tony, had superhuman abilities granted to him by biotechnology. Kamiya felt that the mission of "cool"/"stylish" was being held back by Resident Evil's fixed camera angles and pre-rendered backgrounds, leading to an overhaul in how those were presented. Ultimately, the style just wasn't working - for Resident Evil's survival horror roots, anyway. As a result, Mikami convinced the staff that the game was better off being its own entity, leading to elements such as Umbrella founder Lord Ozwell E. Spencer and the biotechnology being removed. The rechristened hero Dante would go on to fight in a world full of demons, rather than bio-engineered zombies, in the newly retitled Devil May Cry, whose popularity was such that it became its own franchise. However, that still left Capcom short one Resident Evil sequel. After more tries working around concepts starring Resident Evil 2 protagonist Leon S. Kennedy, with a shift in genre echoing the previous attempt to move away from survival horror and more towards action was repeated. Mikami oversaw its development as well, and took steps to set it apart from the series entries which came before, including a new over-the-shoulder viewpoint and the removal of Umbrella as a central focus. The changes paid off, as Resident Evil 4 sold like hotcakes across numerous platforms, while Devil May Cry gave Capcom two hit franchises instead of one.