10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Resident Evil

1. Resident Evil Is A Spiritual Successor To Sweet Home

It may surprise you that the Resident Evil series wasn't Capcom's first foray into the world of the supernatural, in 1989, they released Sweet Home for the Nintendo Famicom. Sweet Home is an RPG based on a Japanese movie of the same name, though the game was never released outside of Japan due to explicit content and violence. Players would explore a decrepit, haunted mansion, discover cryptic clues, solve puzzles and encounter creatures such as skeletons or zombies, but the most important task was survival.

While certain aspects were obviously modernized, Resident Evil 1 bares a huge resemblance to Sweet Home in its mechanics, settings and themes. Even the names are similar given that Sweet Home is obviously ironic, as the mansion is haunted. The similarities to Resident Evil are even more abundant when you consider that other supernatural creatures were planned to appear in Resident Evil, but were later removed in early development. The puzzles and exploration elements are particularly evident in Resident Evil, even the iconic door-opening loading sequences first appeared in Sweet Home.

Resident Evil couldn't have been a direct sequel to Sweet Home because of the attached movie rights, nevertheless Resident Evil is clearly inspired by Capcom's past project.