The Resident Evil 4 Remake is something fans dreamed about for a long time, and there are many fans who are playing through the story for the first time. With the title just being Resident Evil 4, there will be many fans that may not realise that the game is a remake…and no I don’t mean that it is just a remake of the original Resident Evil 4 game that originally released on the Nintendo GameCube in 2005.
As strange as it will sound for a lot of you, the subject of this video is to show that both the original and therefore the remake of Resident Evil 4 are both themselves a 3D reimagining of Capcom’s much older Final Fight game.
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Now I know this will sound nonsense to almost all of you, but bear with me and I’ll be able to justify why I say this. Because of course I’m not completely serious in my claim that Resident Evil 4 was intended as a remake of Final Fight, but there are so many connections between the two games that they felt they couldn’t all just be a coincidence.
Now, I’ll wager that no-one else has made all these connections before, but for clarity when the Resident Evil 4 remake was released it coincided with when I got my Limited Edition Evercade EXP, which if you didn’t know is a retro themed handled console that comes with a bunch of Capcom game built into the system. Having played both of these games in quick succession I started noticing similarities between the two games.
So, without further ado, let’s get into it.
To start with the plot of Final Fight is that you are on a mission to rescue the daughter of a politician. In the game it’s Mike Hagger who is the new mayor of Metro City, and is cleaning up the crime in town. Unfortunately the evil Belger, who is the leader of the Mad Gear gang decides to kidnap Hagger’s daughter to keep him under their control.
Flipping things over to Resident Evil 4 and we again have a plot that focuses on a rescue mission of a politician’s daughter. But in this instance it’s Ashley Graham who is kidnapped, who is the daughter of the United States President. The kidnapper is the evil Saddler from the Los Illuminados.
But I know what you’re thinking. Lots of games and movies have kidnap plots, and usually it’s a damsel in distress, so a kidnapped daughter in both isn’t enough proof that the games are linked…other than that the kidnapped daughter’s are both the children of politicians with the motive of the kidnap to have power over the father. And that the kidnappers are both from evil organisations and have similar…ish names. Saddler and Belger. Oh and that both Saddler and Belger look similar and act as the final boss of the game.
But I hear you. You want more proof that Resident Evil 4 is a 3D remake of Final Fight. I’ll continue.
In Final Fight you have a choice between three playable characters. Arguably both Guy and Cody look a fair amount like Leon. But the Final Fight guys were designed in 1989 and Leon originated in Resident Evil 2 in 1998…so fair enough that you can chalk this one up to coincidence. I guess it’s also a coincidence that the third playable character which is Hagger more likely than not inspired the new look of Chris Redfield in Resident Evil 5 and in particular his extra costume. Pure coincidence of course.
Well, now let’s look at some of the things that are common in both games. In both games you can break barrels. And yes, I get it, there are lots of games where you break barrels. I’m not suggesting that Final Fight is therefore a remake of Donkey Kong. But in both Final Fight and Resident Evil 4 you break barrels, crates and oil drums and inside of them all you will find items you can pick up. Both games have a selection of weapons or ammo, food or health items to restore energy and even items of jewellery. Certainly, it has to be a coincidence that both games feature the same range of items in the exact same range of breakable objects.
Both games also have you break down doors and smash through glass windows.
Both games are also split into rounds in the case of Final Fight and Chapters in the case of Resident Evil 4. Certainly, it’s the case that a huge amount of games are split into levels or worlds, but this was the first time a mainline Resident Evil game which has always previously been one continuous story is now split into sections this way.
Also, structurally in the Final Fight game you will find sections where you cannot progress further until you have dealt with a certain number of enemies to clear a section. Again, this is typical of many games, but it was unusual for the Resident Evil series which now suddenly had many areas which test your endurance before you can go onto the next area. The Water Hall, the Cabin Fight are the most notable stand out areas of this type, but are frequent in the game.
Beyond this both games feature your character on a raising elevator platform forced to fight tons of enemies that jump down from above onto the platform to challenge you.
Keep in mind that these are both Capcom games, and whilst the argument can be made that many games will have some of these features, but it’s the sheer quantity of these ideas that are repeated between games is what makes this stand out. But let’s continue as we’re not done yet.
One of the most notable things that crosses over from Final Fight to Resident Evil 4 is Leon having the new ability to suplex enemies. A suplex for those who may not know is a pro wrestling move. Now, the game Final Fight does have several references to pro wrestling in it with Mike Hagger being a former pro wrestler turned Mayor of Metro City. Add to this enemies that look like Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant and Road Warrior Animal. But we’ll get back to those shortly and stick with the suplex for now.
Just as there are many different variations of kicks or punches, such as a hook, a straight, an uppercut and a jab, there are many different suplexes a wrestler can do. These include side suplex, fisherman’s suplex, vertical suplex, belly to belly suplex, and belly to back suplex otherwise known as a German suplex. It’s these last ones, the belly to belly and Belly to back suplexes which feature in both games. With so many different options for wrestling moves they could have given Mike to do in the game it was the German suplex they gave him to do, and it was then this same move they had Leon do in Resident Evil 4. Keep in mind that up to this point Resident Evil games only gave you the ability to shoot or stab enemies and outside of pushing off zombies that were grabbing you, you didn’t have any hand to hand combat moves you could do in the Resident Evil series. It was this inclusion of German Suplexes in both games that first draw my attention to a potential link between the games.
We’ve spoken about the plot of both games being based on the same core goal, and that there are similar collectibles, breakable objects and fighting moves, but what else? Let’s now look at the enemies, environments and what else is the same.
Both games feature the old timey armour of knights of the round table, chandeliers, decoration based on mythological horses, doors that you break down, and other than the damsel you are rescuing both games feature a single dog that is friendly and doesn’t attack you.
Enemy wise I’ve mentioned that Final Fight has enemies inspired by pro wrestlers. There is the really tall guy in Final Fight based on Road Warrior Animal, and then there are these guys in Resident Evil 4 who are also really tall and wear shoulder spikes like Road Warriors Animal and Hawk did back in the day.
Most notably for the wrestling references in Final Fight is that you will come up against the really really tall dude who looks just like the 1970s Andre the Giant. In Resident Evil 4 you take on the admittedly much taller El Gigante, which translated means ‘The Giant’. Later in both games you are put up against two Andre the Giants or El Gigantes at the same time.
Then there is the boss fight you have against the military guy in Final Fight once you reach the top of the elevator section. Krauser in Resident Evil 4 looks pretty much like the exact same guy. And you fight both atop a building.
And as mentioned at the start of this, the final bosses in both games bear a resemblance and has similar names. Add to this that Belger uses a crossbow to shoot arrows at you, and that this is a common weapon that enemies use against you in Resident Evil 4. And that he can friendly fire against other baddies and that you have the ability to parry these projectiles out of mid-air in both games.
Once you manage to beat both games you’re treated to a cut scene whereby the once damsel in distress pursues a bit of the old how’s your father with the young male lead only to get rejected. So not only do both games have the same premise, but they have the same ending as well.
And both games have you dodging barrels which are rolled at you, and again I know that Mario had to dodge barrels in Donkey Kong and that Mario was also trying to rescue a damsel in distress, but in the case of Pauline she wasn’t the daughter of a politician…although she did become the Mayor of New Donk City herself in Super Mario Odyssey…Maybe it turns out that Resident Evil Remake is a remake of Resident Evil 4 which was a remake of Final Fight, which as it now turns out was a remake of Donkey Kong this whole time!!!!
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