10 Video Game Reboots That Saved Iconic Franchises

4. Resident Evil 4

Although people look back on the dated gameplay of the original three Resident Evil titles as some kind of timeless pinnacle of survival horror combat, at the time the third entry in the series was releasing almost every mainstream gamer had become sick of tank controls and fixed cameras. So, in an attempt to keep the Resident Evil brand relevant, Capcom made an effort to change the game with the fourth numbered instalment. Of course, re-inventing an entire genre is no easy task, and it took the developers at Capcom years to fully nail down the soon-to-be influential combat of Resi 4, as a bunch of incarnations and prototypes were completed and subsequently scrapped before the final vision for the title was settled on. But the extended development time and bumps in the road were all worth it in the end, as Resident Evil 4 came out to re-define the entire survival horror genre. Not only did it save the series it was associated with, but it more or less single-handedly made survival horror cool again in the mainstream. While Resident Evil 4 wasn't a a hard reboot per se, it was definitely an attempt to take the series in a radically new direction, taking fan-loved characters and putting them in a world completely different to the zombie-infested labs of the Umbrella corporation.