Resident Evil – Top VIII Ridiculous Moments

The month of May marches on and the team at VGamingNews are continuing our look back at the Resident Evil franchise and discussing what makes it one of the best, and most popular, series in gaming. While the series prides itself on scares and gruesome monsters, we can’t ignore the franchise’s B-Movie roots and some of the silliness that we’ve been treated to throughout the years. So below are our rankings of the Top VIII Most Ridiculous Moments in the Resident Evil franchise; some simply raised an eyebrow while others literally had us laughing out loud, but they certainly helped make Resident Evil what it is today. Let us know your favourite ridiculous memories from the series in the comments!

VIII. Chris Punching Boulders (Resident Evil 5 – 2009)

When we started Resident Evil 5, we immediately noticed that Chris had decided to hit the gym and get ripped. Those big beefy arms were certainly out of place compared to his usual appearance, but it was convenient that steroid-induced Redfield had been juicing when it came to the climax of the game. The stage was set for Chris to finally face off against series stalwart Albert Wesker, in a volcano no less. Why no one is questioning how a normal human is withstanding temperatures that would evaporate skin is beyond us, but as the battle progresses, a boulder the size of a large bus gets in Chris’ way. Not wanting to waste any time, he decides to punch his way through. No guns, no grenades, just pure brute force. We don’t know if it was the ‘roids doing the business but Chris certainly got it done, and now “Press X to punch” is one of the most iconic memes, not only in the series, but the whole of videogame history. In later games, this ridiculous feat gets brought up and is still as funny today as it ever was. Thank you Capcom.

VII. Derek the Dinosaur (Resident Evil 6 – 2012)

Before Capcom’s rethink of the entire series, Resident Evil 6 happened. It threw everything at the players, including a copy of Jurassic Park on DVD. While we could have easily made a Top VIII out of this game alone (flying a helicarrier, really?), the part of the game that takes it too far, even for a Resident Evil game, is Derek Simmons. The antagonist has a few different forms throughout the game, each sillier than the last but what makes no sense is his transformation into a dinosaur. The series has seen the DNA of various creatures being spliced with whatever virus Umbrella has cooked up; snakes, sharks, and spiders have all been genetically altered. In fairness, these can actually be found in the wild but the transformation of Simmons into a freaky T-Rex-type monster left us scratching our heads. Did someone find usable dino DNA? Has Umbrella invented time travel? The best theory we can come up with is that two Umbrella scientists, Susan and Gary, had an argument over the plausibility of Jurassic Park during a heavy sesh. Susan decided to take matters into her own hands and a few weeks later she certainly proved Gary wrong.

VI. Gone Fishin’ (Resident Evil 4 – 2005)

We’re showing our age with this one, but back in secondary school, before the internet really took off, daft rumours around video games circulated via magazines and word-of-mouth. The ones like being able to catch Mew in Pokémon Red if you traded two Mewtwos and pulled the link cable out half way through the trade – outrageous stuff, but with no-one able to confirm or deny, these things spread like wildfire. One such rumour was a simple one to do with Resident Evil 4 – don’t go fishing or something bad will happen. It seemed harmless enough at the time, but unlike the Mew trick, this one was real, and for later rereleases built into the trophy/achievement lists. When you take Leon to the lake, head out onto the dock and start shooting at the fish nearby, Del Lago, the huge Salamander boss will want to have a word with you. With his teeth. It’s a silly and somewhat frightening experience but after the shock, we couldn’t help but laugh at this ridiculous Easter Egg.

V. Neptune (Resident Evil – 1996) 

We had to suspend belief a few times in the original Resident Evil, but you could find some twisted logic in there if you looked hard enough. But all that logic goes right out of the window as you clamber down a ladder (hidden behind a couple of bookcases in a random bedroom no less), and discover a broken 750,000 litre aquarium and a few angry sharks swimming around in a basement lab. I genuinely have a multitude of questions… Who exactly is buying genetically modified-shark weapons? Who approved building a lab under a guys bed? How do Umbrella plan on getting the sharks out of that lab? And who had to pay the water bill after filling that tank up?

IV. Tofu (Resident Evil 2 – 1998)

Unlockable characters and outfits come as a badge of honour for players, especially when a game makes it particularly tough to access them – and because they’re tough to get, you’re almost certainly offered a very cool character as a reward for all your hard work. That isn’t really the case with Resident Evil 2 though, where designers took the decision to program in an entire scenario where you play as a giant block of tofu with arms and feet as the very last reward in the game. You might argue that Tofu shouldn’t make the list as he’s only available in a bonus scenario and certainly not canon, but we’re not having it – what is a list of ridiculous Resident Evil moments without mentioning the sentient block of bean curd running through RPD Station?

III. Accessing the Secret Lab (Resident Evil – 1996)

With industrial espionage becoming more advanced than ever before, companies are going to greater lengths to keep their secrets safe, but no-one comes close to how far Umbrella Inc. went to hide their secret lab beneath the Spencer Mansion in Resident Evil. Thinking about it now, how exactly did anyone get any work done, when it must have taken the best part of an hour just to get to your work station in the morning. Get the Eagle Medal from the book, get the Wold Medal from the caves, plug them into the fountain, wait for the water to drain and ask Kevin the intern to put the medals back for you while you take the elevator down to the lab. I find it a hassle having to bring an ID card to work with me, and I struggle to remember my IT passwords most days – there’s no way I’d hack working in the Arklay Facility for more than a week with all that faff required.

II. Live Action (Resident Evil – 1996 / Resident Evil Movies)

To this day we can’t fathom why Capcom took the approach of using actors to chew the sets of a faux forest, trying to escape from a zombie puppet dog, but we’re glad they did.. Jill awkwardly runs through the field like, well, a videogame character, Wesker can’t leave his perfect hair alone and Chris looks like a sweaty mess despite everyone else looking rather kempt. It’s ridiculously hilarious and the uncut version is even better with gratuitous amounts of blood splashing across the screen in full colour. It’s an opening that’s completely disjointed from the rest of the series and definitely daft, but we can’t help but love the amount of ham presented. If this wasn’t proof enough that live action and Resident Evil don’t go hand in hand, the early noughties big screen adaptations certainly reaffirmed this notion. The movies might share the same name and characters, but across the span of six big budget adaptations, the look and feel of a B-Movie was never far away. They are awful, yet somehow rather watchable, in a ‘rubbernecking at a car crash’ kind of way. Maybe we’re being too harsh. Or maybe Paul WS Anderson only saw the opening five minutes of the first game and said “I’ve seen enough, I’ll take it from here”.

I. Voice Acting (Resident Evil – 1996)

Unable to pick just one line for the top spot, we agreed to give the crown of ‘Most Ridiculous Moment’ to the entire voice cast in the original Resident Evil. Adding voice acting to videogames was such a double-edged sword in the 90s. On one hand it offered the chance at immersion and storytelling like never before, but you also had to contend with strained budgets, dubious translations and a very limited pool of actors willing to work on a game. All of these factors culminated in a perfect storm and led to some spectacularly hammy lines that have since worked themselves into the very fabric of videogame lore. The bad script and awful actors worked hand-in-hand to deliver us such golden moments as the terribly wooden, “I hope this is not Chris’ blood”, the overly specific “It might be handy if you, the Master of Unlocking, take it with you”, and of course, the shining star atop the trash heap, “That was too close! You were almost a Jill sandwich!” The entire game is littered with dodgy dialogue, and truly, it’s that B-Movie charm that helped launch the franchise into the hearts of so many players around the globe. Put a smile on your face today by checking out the supercut that brings all of the ridiculousness together under one roof.