List of Resident Evil games you can't play on modern hardware

2026 marks the 30th anniversary of Capcom's beloved survival horror series Resident Evilbut anyone who wants to play through every game in the series has to jump through a few hoops to make it happen. It has been around 30 Resident Evil games released in North America over the years, and while most of them are certainly playable on modern hardware, many others are unfortunately stuck on older platforms.

In fact, it wasn't until just the last few years that the original Resident Evil the trilogy was made playable on modern platforms thanks to GOG and PlayStation Plus Premium. And not all Resident Evil games that are playable on modern hardware are on everything. There are some that can only be played on PS5 through streaming PS3 games (like The Umbrella Chronicles and The Darkside Chroniclesfor example), and others that are only playable thanks to Xbox One and Series X/S backwards compatibility with the Xbox 360.

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Every Main Resident Evil game in order of release

The Resident Evil franchise has been around for decades and is responsible for some of the greatest horror games of all time. Here are all the major releases.

I am in the middle of a massive Resident Evil marathon. My hope is to play through every game and rank them all in time for the 30th anniversary on March 22nd, and while I'm making good progress, there have been some bumps along the way. The only legitimate way to play some of Resident Evil Spin-off games are paying an arm and a leg for a used copy at a high price, and it's just a shame that it's impossible to play through every game in such an iconic franchise on modern hardware. The Resident Evil games that are not playable on modern hardware Resident Evil Survivor, Resident Evil Gaiden, Resident Evil: Dead Aim, Resident Evil outbreak, Resident Evil Outbreak: File #2and Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D.

List of Resident Evil games you can't play on any modern hardware

• Resident Evil Survivor

• Resident Evil Gaiden

• Resident Evil: Dead Aim

• Resident Evil outbreak

• Resident Evil Outbreak: File #2

• Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D

I'm not saying all of these are good games, but for the sake of game history, it would be nice to have these Resident Evil titles readily available on modern platforms in any way, shape or form. Resident Evil Survivor is a genuinely awful first person RE game that completely misses the mark, but it would still be fascinating to revisit through PS Plus Premium or GOG like we can do with the second PS1 era Resident Evil game. Resident Evil Gaidenmeanwhile, is an exciting, non-canon spin-off starring Leon S. Kennedy and Barry Burton that translates RE formula for the Game Boy Color surprisingly well. It would be at home on Nintendo Switch Online's Nintendo Classics service alongside other GBC games.

Resident Evil: Dead Aim is effectively a better take on Surviving idea. Resident Evil: Dead Aim features both first-person action and third-person exploration, and generally has more depth and substance than its predecessor. Dead target is not the best Resident Evil spin-off by any stretch of the imagination, but it contains some surprisingly important revelations for the overall lore and since other PS2 games have been re-released on PS4 and PS5 (including Code: Veronica X), it should also be.

The Outbreak games is where things get a little tricky. Resident Evil outbreak and its sequels were online multiplayer games released at a time when online multiplayer wasn't nearly as prevalent as it is now. Although re-releasing them on modern platforms would still be greatly appreciated, Outbreak Games seem ripe for a remaster or remake collection that allows them to live up to their full potential that went unrealized on PS2 back in the day. Remakes or remasters of Outbreak games can also help solve some of their problems, like the long loading times.

And finally, there is Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D. Released as a Nintendo 3DS exclusive in 2011, Mercenaries 3D effectively combines the mercenaries' modes from Resident Evil 4 and 5 in his own video game. Since the bulk of the content is technically available to play in other games, Mercenaries 3D is least urgent RE The game is missing on modern platforms, but it would still be cool to see it live somehow, for completionist sake if nothing else.