That Strange Resident Evil Promo That's Become Forgotten

Resident Evil is a series that became an all time favorite of mine last decade. I went from avoiding these games at all cost and thinking they were stupid, to being a full blown fan who has beaten each entry multiple times. I like all of the games to an extent (yes, even 6), but there's one entry in the series that will always stand out to me the most. And no it's not 2. In fact it's not even one of the main numbered games! It's none other than Resident Evil Revelations on the 3DS. Yes the 3DS version specifically.

Revelations was one of the main games I wanted on the 3DS. Back then I was extremely active over at Capcom-Unity (and running this blog through it), and I would check constantly for any piece of news I could find about it. I liked the idea of the game being set on an old abandoned luxury ship, and I liked how it was "classic" Resident Evil with the RE4 gameplay. To make things even better it released when the Circle Pad Pro was coming out, which made it the very first Resident Evil to actually use standard 3rd person shooter controls. Gone were the days of being a human tank who could only stand still while shooting! Now we could aim (I preferred the first person aiming mode), shoot, move, and rotate all at the same time! It was perfect.

While the game is now pretty well known since it has been ported to nearly every console out there, the marketing of the original 3DS release seems to have been forgotten. It was a series of fake advertisements and videos leaked online, where Capcom did whatever they could to make it seem legit. Those who would stumble upon it by mistake wouldn't give them much second thought, and even Resident Evil fans might not have realized what it was they were seeing. My personal favorite of these promos is a video titled "strange animal on the beach," and is something that has slipped through the cracks for many years since. At the time of this writing it only has around 70,000 views, and I'm sure I make up at least 100 of them. It is however the most popular of the "set" as it's the only one to actually contain something interesting. That's what helps make it believable though.

Here's the first video in the series. It's uploaded by an unknown user on YouTube, and basically shows nothing. It's a clip from a vacation video, and not something most people would even bother clicking on.


Again it's not much of anything, and there's no way of even knowing what we are looking at. Nothing to tip the viewers off, and still to this day it's just as hidden as it was back then. However it's the "strange animal" follow up video that did draw at least some attention.

(Just as a warning this video is age restricted by YouTube due to it's "graphic" content, but keep in mind that it's completely fake. The restriction most likely happened due to the supposed realistic nature of this, but whatever.)


It's this video that would finally tip off fans in the know, but still to this day it remains without context. (Putting aside the comment section.)

While it's really not much, the way Capcom promoted this 3DS game was actually pretty shocking. A lot of detail went into it, and they tried to treat it as more than just a game. We would later on see a similar "contest" of sorts for Operation Raccoon City, but since then Capcom has been pretty quiet with their promotions. Standard trailers, live streams, and demos -- which work out fine, but they miss the charm they had in years past. Back then Capcom was all about getting their community involved with projects, and their promos and events were a great way to do so.

But anyway just thought I'd share this with you guys. It's just a little piece of forgotten Capcom history.