Resident Evil: Revelations came out on 3DS 10 years ago today in North America (it was late January in Japan and Europe but we missed that date, ok?). It was particularly famous at launch for its 'Revelaitons' box misprint, which became one of the more humorous collectibles in the 3DS era.
Since that original release it's been HD-ified and ported to pretty much everything, including Wii U and Switch. That said, we have a soft spot for the 3DS original (and timed exclusive!) and for the era it represented. It arrived shortly after the beleaguered 3DS had started its fightback - the system had already had a drastic price cut and major releases the preceding Christmas. It was also the game that introduced the 'Circle Pad Pro' to the West, after the peripheral was released in Japan alongside Monster Hunter 3 G the previous December. They were released together, and it was a delightfully chunky thing.
As for the game itself, your humble scribe was a big fan in our review back then. It was (and still is) an outstanding demonstration of the portable's autostereoscopic screen, and was pretty darn atmospheric and visually impressive at the time. It was perfectly suited to the system too, with the developers embracing the opportunity of working on a spin-off and introducing an episodic approach to the story, with neat 'previously on' intros to each section.
It was rather good and is still worth a blast even on Switch nowadays, as long as you go in with sensible expectations of a decade-old title.
It was a big deal 10 years ago, and is still worthy of a hat-tip in 2022.
Comments (50)
Lol. Fantastic headline reference!!
I forgot about Revelaitons!
Awesome game on 3DS, need to replay at some point
Revelations was one of my favourite 3DS games. It’s visually stunning, a fine example of home console quality on a portable console. I have the sequel on the Switch but haven’t played much of it. Not sure if it is considered better than the first.
@gb_nes_gamer For my money the first is the more enjoyable game, the second is good but I think got a bit confused with what it was trying to do. Revelations 1 nailed its style imo
Gyro works in handheld mode but not with docked with pro controller. What the heck?
Loved the game though. I'll give it another spin if this gets patched.
The sequel I bounced off very quickly.
Love this series. For the uninitiated, I'd say play the first game for the better campaign mode and Revelations 2 for the superior Raid Mode. But either way it's money well spent!
Also probably an unpopular opinion, but I always preferred the feel of 3DS XL+Circle Pad Pro over New 3DS XL with the tiny c-stick.
Love Capcom to bits…..but please give us revelations 3 and RE7 RE8
Wow, it's been ten years already? I remember having a nasty cold but still running out to the mall on a cold wintry day to pick this up the moment it launched.
One of my favs from the series. I love Part 2 even more but both are really good. So glad they ported part 1 to consoles/PC as well so it didn't die on the 3DS.
I hate that I didn't notice the intentional typo in the headline until it was pointed out in the article ._.
Revelations 1 is probably my least favorite RE game
The gameplay was extremely boring and I did not like the story at all.
I was a couple of years late to the 3ds party but got the XL model along with this gem as my first game. Loved it but play it on the switch. It's much comfier in the hands. And I'd say I love the sequel just as much.
This is still fresh in my mind, this game is the reason I purchased a 3DS in the first place; I am a massive resident evil fan and I love handheld consoles so purchasing a 3DS was a compulsory buy for me.
I purchased (and I still have it) the physical game plus the circle pad pro that came bundled in a neat little box that was a Zavvi exclusive.
To me this is one of the very best games on the 3DS ever and in terms of graphics I think it’s The Best looking game on the console and on top of that it’s handled so well, in my humble opinion this game has almost no drawbacks.
I think in 2011 this game was far beyond its time in terms of handheld gaming, it really was absolutely breathtaking to playback in 2011 on a handheld console.
Overall I’ve currently put 200+ hours into the game most of which was in 2011
@ThomasBW84 Thanks. It’s on the backlog at the moment but will get to it eventually. I like that it follows main characters Claire and Barry.
One of my favourite games, actually. I know it's not as good as RE4 but I like it almost as much.
The first and only RE I've beaten so far, on Switch even though I got the original with my N3DS prior. Pretty awesome, especially with the episodic nature allowing for a variety of playable cast, and motion controls also help a lot.
I played this recently on Steam, still great fun as was the 3DS & Wii U versions. A classic in every way.
You guys didn't disappoint with the headline. Well done.
Pretty much 100%'d it on 3DS, bought it on Switch, but have barely played.
One of the worst games in the series, which is a low, low bar. Decent enough for a 3DS title, but I played it on the PC after the port came out and, aside from Raid mode, really did not enjoy it in the least. Gameplay is fine, but the scanner gimmick got old real, real quick, it has some of the overall worst writing the series has ever had, and features the single most insufferable character not just in Resident Evil, but possibly all of gaming. Raymond Vester sucks the moon right out of the f'n sky and single-handedly ruins whatever potential Revelations might have otherwise had.
Still have the game on 3DS with the misspelled box as well.
RE: Revelations remains visually impressive to this day. I don't think anything before or after it ever topped it, which is a real feat when you take into account that the majority of the 3DS's library was released after RE: Revelations. Even ignoring the graphics, it was a great game. I agree with @Broosh that this is the one you should play for the campaign mode, and RE: Revelations 2 is the one you should play for its raid mode. The first one's raid mode is not that good, and the second one's campaign is not that fun. Also 100% agreed that the Circle Pad Pro is much better than the C-stick, but I don't think that's an unpopular opinion.
By the way, I don't think the game's title had a typo anywhere outside of North America. My EUR copy's title is spelled correctly on the cardboard box, the game box and the extra holo game box. It's always weird when this site, European in origins, references American stuff like everyone's meant to know that. Same thing when there was an article mentioning the track skip exploit in one of Mario Kart 7's tracks, and it used the North American name for the track, which is not used or even known anywhere outside of North America. The article was also written by a European writer, if I remember correctly.
Ahh yes, the game so good that after RE6 was hated by most, they ported Revelations to everything else and the rest is history.
thx for making me feel old
Great, great game even though the campaign does have its weak spots (but then again the great sections are really excellent). I love the music, artwork and the atmosphere too (especially on the ships).
Raid is best in the 3DS version IMO; a bit easier than in the HD versions (that require you to sign up to Resident.net - or what it's called now - to obtain weapons and parts in order to stand a chance).
The gun play is excellent (especially with sniper rifles - it's just very satisfying to get a perfect head shot as it's not so easy). The evade function works really well too. You don't even have to press a button, but just have to move the left stick away from the monsters at exactly the right moment (and it becomes kind of natural the more you play the game).
Raid is quite different compared to The Mercenaries mini games found in Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6 though (plus in the standalone 3DS game, The Mercenaries 3D); it's a bit slower, the areas are much larger and you have time to "breath" between encounters.
(I do like Mercs. 3D though as it just plays better than in 4, 5 and 6 IMO - and you can even move and shot if you use the right control figuration - C, I think)
Revelations is my most favourite Biohazard/Resident Evil game.
As bad as the collector's market has gotten these days with respect to pricing, the Revelaitons misprint is refreshingly affordable. It's only about $10 more than a "Revelations" cover copy, at about $34, according to PriceCharting.
@GeneJacket Really have to disagree here. The acting in RER never struck me as some of the worst in gaming. Have you played 4 and witnessed anything Ashley said?
Love this game to death. And the sequel.
Beat the game on 3DS, then beat it again online via RAID mode with my brother. So good.
My favorite RE games with gyro and where you're not first person and not being constantly chased.
We NEED a Revelations 3!
@Kilroy I've played every single game in the series at least twice over. RE4, specifically, I've played through maybe a dozen times or more...most recently, yesterday. Ashley is annoying, sure, but people often downplay how ridiculously goofy RE4 actually is. Leon himself, in that game, is a dumb one-liner spewing parody of an action hero. The whole game is corny as hell, and it KNOWS what it is. The same applies to most of the series, the camp is part of the appeal, and they lean into it when appropriate (except for RE6, which is one of the big reasons it fails so hard).
Revelations, on the other hand, takes itself so damn seriously. It's completely missing the self awareness of the rest of the games, so when Vesters super mustache-twirling, Dick Dastardly ass shows up he's so cartoonish and completely at odds with the tone of the rest of the game that it sinks the whole ship, pun 100% intended.
Best Resident Evil game out there. I remember raid mode kept me going for hours on end.
@nessisonett Capcom was going all in on the crossovers with Layton on 3ds
Sneaky *****. I see what you did there.
I played soooo much of R2 on switch…. I was really looking forward to the rumor of a third game but man it’s been a while… I should probably give up hope on that. I really wish they would keep improving the formula. Better story and raid modes…
@GeneJacket Yeah, I can see that.
Damn 10 years already it still looks great. Although it has been upscaled for the switch port and I haven't looked at it back on the 3DS since
Speaking of which I remember getting jump scared with Bats breaking though the window on the ship during my Playthrough of the demo and then shortly after a monster dropping down from the ceiling. I loved the return back to the original scares of resident evil with the added action elements.
Personally I think it's aged well
In my opinion the best version of the game is on 3ds due to the excellent graphics with amazing stereoscopic 3d!You live that game while you playing it, is that good the 3d effect! One and only experience that will never live again unless Nintendo give us a New 3d console!
I got the circle pad pro for only one game and it wasn't this one.
It was Metal Gear Solid 3D, which was pretty much impossible to play without it (I mean you could, but it would have been a pretty bad time).
RER was totally playable without the CPP, I did and most people I knew did too. But once you got onto the HD version and started playing it that way, you couldn't go back. The re-release for Switch is the version I would go back to for the revised Raid Mode customization and extra stage (Ghost Ship Chaos), but playing RER with the gamepad and being able to switch grenades and weapons on the fly via the touch screen was amazing. I clocked over a 1000 hours in Raid mode across Wii U and Switch.
The Circle Pad Pro is awful. I used it for Resident Evil Revelations and Metal Gear Solid 3D. For Monster Hunter 4 I used the New Nintendo 3DS. The Circle Pad Pro is asymmetrical so not very comfortable because the screen is slightly at the left side. It was a mistake to release the 3DS and 3DS XL without a second analogue stick. The New Nintendo 3DS (and its two variants) were the right thing. The nub works perfectly! The (smaller) New Nintendo 3DS still is my favourite handheld ahead of Switch.
@gb_nes_gamer Both games are good but the second is many notches higher.
Loved the atmosphere in this game. The 2nd is fun as well....but am I the only person who just can't stand the episode approach? If you bought it in the parts or were getting back on the game then sure but otherwise, imo more annoying.
Wii U is still the best platform to play this game on
I sorta like this game. I do recommend others play it if you like Resident Evil. All the sections on the ship are great. All of the other sections outside the ship really take away from the experience.
This was one of my favorite third party games on 3DS. The 3D was actually really well done; not only could you adjust it on the 3DS itself, but you could adjust it further in the game settings too. Great atmosphere, great level designs, great combat, and a decent story, even if it gets kinda dumb at the end.
I can’t believe this game is 10 years old. My god, where does the time go?
@YoNemesis Rev1 wasn't episodic,. Rev2 was, but it wasn't like Telltale where you'd maybe get a new episode once every few months. It was essentially on a tv show schedule. The game was fully done at release of Ep1, and the subsequent episodes were released once a week for the following 3 weeks. You only had to wait a month to play the whole thing.
I'm still slowly playing this if anyone wants to play raid mode on 3DS sometime.
@Kilroy Ashley wasn't bad. I don't know why people over react about her. I think she's a perfect fine character for her situation, I mean I would be scared ***** too if I was her
Loved this game though, it was such a blast to play through. Probably one of the better re games imo
The game was amazing visually back then.
It impresses me that it had so few sales on 3DS.
I really enjoyed it. And when I saw how it looked on WiiU, I was kind of meh. Looked better on 3DS as far as I remembered back then.
It was more immersive with 3D and headphones and in the dark 100%.
And the original black 3DS - mmmm. The one I have
I lost the cartridge, but I refuse to throw out the box.
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