Shinji Mikami comments that there is no space for a Dino Crisis remake because Monster Hunter exists according to an interview by Eurogamer. Shinji Mikami is known for the creation of Resident Evil and Dino Crisis as a director and producer for Capcom. However, fans are confused from his statement suggesting that Dino Crisis and Monster Hunter would take the same space.
Shinji Mikami perhaps points out that one game could potentially cannibalize the other. Take for example Medal of Honor’s modern spin which is Medal of Honor Warfighter. Despite having a sequel, the modern Medal of Honor mysteriously disappeared. One could infer Battlefield cannibalized the MOH market. But MOH had numerous similar rivals such as Counterstrike, Rainbow Six, and COD Modern Warfare. Dino Crisis does not have a close rival. And to suggest Monster Hunter would eat up a portion of Dino Crisis sales is not convincing.
A Dino Crisis remake could not exist because Gran Turismo exists!
Dino Crisis and Monster Hunter are not similar. Monster Hunter is not a survival horror game. At best, mon-hunt players capture monsters that resemble dinosaurs. Dino Crisis is a survival horror game, where players try to survive investigating a plot infested by dinosaurs.
Both Dino Crisis and Resident Evil had familiar similarities such as the fixed cameras, pre-rendered scenes, and obviously as survival horror games. Dino Crisis felt like Resident Evil with dinos. Yet each title earned millions of respective sales, granted that Resident Evil had more sales. If having similarities was an issue, Dino Crisis shouldn’t have existed.
It would make more sense if he said there’s no space for a Dino Crisis remake because of the Resident Evil remakes. But that would drive a point for a Dino Crisis remake as the recent RE2, RE3, and RE4 remakes raked millions of sales. Clearly there’s a market for survival horror remakes from the PlayStation 1 era.
Shinji Mikami states that having the awesomeness of dinosaurs was nailed down by Monster Hunter. Assuming that the monsters in mon-hunt are dinosaurs, you still play as a hunter in Monster Hunter while you play as a survivor in Dino Crisis. Monster Hunter equips players with comical super weapons; Dino Crisis throws players into a Jurassic Park survival-horror level fantasy. Monster Hunter is coop friendly; Dino Crisis is solo problem solving. Mon-Hunt has not demonstrated the fullest possibilities of what dinosaurs could be in a Dino Crisis survival horror setting.
Read between the lines?
Does he have something else in mind though? It appears Shinji Mikami is imagining a cross-breed between a Dino Crisis and Monster Hunter game on his remake approach. But there are a few things to note: Shinji Mikami does not work for Capcom anymore. If we’re talking about remaking Dino Crisis, it would only be Dino Crisis 1 and 2. Not so much for the spin-offs. We’ll expect them to be story-driven single-player games. And Dino Crisis fans keep trying to rebuild their fan versions of the game. Wouldn’t such efforts warrant the possibility of selling an official game?
Perhaps Shinji Mikami making such a Dino Crisis remark started a conversation on the Internet to drive a potential remake. At least we know that the fans are waiting for a Dino Crisis remake. I have been waiting for a Dino Crisis remake for a VERY long time.
