Capcom has just announced a Devil May Cry Switch port. The original PlayStation 2 classic arrives on Nintendo’s hybrid console sometime this summer.
The original Devil May Cry first saw the light of day on PlayStation 2 back in 2001. The game started out as one of the many prototypes for Resident Evil 4. Director Hideki Kamiya wanted to create a cool and stylized take on that series. However, they had trouble fitting this theme into the world of Resident Evil, and thus decided to turn it into its own thing.
Its origins as a Resident Evil game are still quite obvious. Devil May Cry‘s setting within a Gothic castle on a remote island shares a lot with Resident Evil 4‘s later stages. Meanwhile, the game still retains a spooky, haunting atmosphere more befitting a survival horror game. Later games would eventually lose most of the latter.
The decision turn Devil May Cry into its own project turned out to be a fortuitous one. The success of the game ended up creating its own subgenre, with other developers and games following in its footsteps. These include the original God of War, Dante’s Inferno, the later 3D Castlevania games, and Kamiya’s own Bayonetta.
The series itself went on to spawn five more games, the latest being the excellent Devil May Cry 5. It also received a number of spin-offs including two anime series, the latest of which will debut on Netflix.
The Devil May Cry Switch port will represent the first time that the series has come to a Nintendo console. This is somewhat ironic considering that the game this was a prototype for, Resident Evil 4, was a timed exclusive on another Nintendo console—the GameCube.
Prior to this announcement, series producer Matt Walker stated that he wanted to see the series on a Nintendo console. However, back then we assumed was that it would be a port of Devil May Cry 5. That said, the original game coming to Switch is still great news for players on the system.
