Itchy, Tasty is an enjoyably informal and informative account of how one of gaming's most iconic series found its feet

One of the great unspoken truths about video games, beyond all the intrigue and drama and the cold hard face of all that technology, is that they are made by mere humans. People like you and me, who face some of the same challenges, make the same mistakes, the same compromises, and experience some of the same triumphs and failures. Itchy, Tasty, a new look at the birth of the Resident Evil series from Alex Aniel, is as fine an illustration of all that as you’ll ever see – indeed, perhaps its greatest achievement is how it goes beyond the legend that is Capcom’s survival horror series and looks at some of the human stories behind it all.

I went in expecting a detailed history on the series and its origins – and Itchy, Tasty delivers all that and then some – but ended up with so much more besides. That’s thanks in no small part to Aniel’s approach, gathering first-hand accounts from the people who helped make Resident Evil a phenomenon. Aniel – a lifelong Resident Evil fan, even if he admits it was Silent Hill that first took his heart – has been a resident of Japan for some years, where he works as a producer alongside Japanese developers.

Itchy, Tasty reviewAuthor: Alex AnielPublisher: UnboundAvailability: Out on April 15th

“Resident Evil changed my life in a lot of ways,” says Aniel. “I found out that Resident Evil was a game by Capcom, and that Capcom was a Japanese company. So that was partly responsible for why I became interested in learning Japanese, and eventually came out to Japan to join the games industry as well.”

It’s perhaps Aniel’s experience, and his intimacy with the Japanese development scene, that’s enabled such candid accounts. It also helps that this is a strictly non-official affair, and that all the interviewees have since left Capcom – something that’s more liberating than it is restricting, even if it does mean this history of Resident Evil only takes us to the release of Resident Evil 4.

Let’s Play Resident Evil 2 – Late to the Party Watch on YouTube

“Resident Evil started big and it got bigger and then it hit trouble for a few years,” says Aniel of the timeframe he chose. “Then Resident Evil 4 came out and revolutionised our industry, and that’s kind of a nice kind of thing to end on. The other benefit, of course, is the director of every Resident Evil up to 4 have all left Capcom.”