Onimusha: Warlords - CHASER

Far be it from me to question Capcom's carefully planned release schedule, but why release a bare-bones remaster of PS2's first million seller Onimusha: Warlords a week and a bit before Resident Evil 2 is given the bells-and-whistles treatment? Still, it'll be nice to revisit the missing link between tank control Resident Evil games and Hideki Kamiya's fluid castle sweeping.

NEW AGAIN

Capcom double-down on their re-release strategy with HD makeovers for Resident Evil 0 and the NES Mega Man games. With any luck we'll eventually get some sort of Onimusha collection and some of the company's so-called curate's eggs like Killer7, God Hand. or maybe even Shadow of Rome.

I'd also like to see Capcom revisit their arcade releases. We've had loads of collections before but they all tend to focus on early output rather than refined iteration. A complete Street Fighter II package with all five games would be fantastic. Even better would a comprehensive package dedicated to how Capcom could take any licensed premise and turn it into a thoroughly entertaining side-scrolling beat 'em up. Neither Alien vs Predator nor Cadillacs and Dinosaurs deserve to be forgotten.

Disaster Year 2001: Devil May Cry

Begun as a Resident Evil entry, with a combat system based on Onimusha bug findings, Devil May Cry defied its derivative origins to become a charter example of the extreme combat sub-genre. Devil May Cry is at once a then-gen nitro remix of Biohazard spook-mansions, the sole successful 3D update of Castlevania explores, and a riveting recalibration of abandoned side-scroll tick jab gameplay. The game features multiple swing weapon disciplines, each staffed with a assortment of unlock special actions, as well as ever escalating lead shooters.

What makes Devil May Cry so exciting is that your armaments never become irrelevant. There's always a new way to use them; danger foes can conceal unforeseen weakness to an action you've all but discarded. Everything you acquire has a specific function, and used correctly can whittle mob health in seconds. Devil May Cry's combat system enjoys the kind of depth usually only seen in impenetrable frame-count fight sims. It's fun though. The hero, Dante, is a smart mouth upstart. Endemic genre stoicism discarded for pure glee whoops, and chatty eye-rolls on Boss re-encounters. Distraction side quests provide tasks that get you thinking about how to push the limits of your moveset. There's even a super-identity trip to the Fantasy Zone that sees a seething Space Harrier Dante chasing after a marbled Father God, interact tuned to on-rails blaster. A wonderful game.