Quick Take
- Narration: Cindy Kay handles Aniel’s in-depth reporting with precision, the developer interview material translates well to audio, giving the oral history sections particular life.
- Themes: creative vision and corporate constraint, the accidental birth of survival horror, franchise evolution and identity
- Mood: Devoted and meticulous, like an extended conversation with someone who has memorized every corridor of every game.
- Verdict: The most comprehensive behind-the-scenes account of Resident Evil’s foundational decade, required listening for fans of the franchise’s classic era, and a genuinely fascinating study in how IP evolves under institutional pressure.
I was a teenager when Resident Evil 4 released, and I have spent probably more hours than I should admit thinking about what that game did to the genre the previous entries had defined. So when Itchy, Tasty arrived with the promise of narrating the development of the series from 1996 through 2006, exactly the decade that begins before the genre existed and ends after its most influential pivot, I cleared an entire weekend morning for it. Alex Aniel spent two years interviewing former Capcom staff to write this, and that access is audible from the first chapter.
The title comes from a line in the original Resident Evil’s notoriously awkward English dialogue, and that choice of title tells you something important about the book’s tone. This is not a corporate hagiography. Aniel and his sources are comfortable discussing the series with both reverence and clear-eyed analysis, including the mid-series struggles that could have ended everything before Resident Evil 4 reset the trajectory.
The Survival Horror Genre Being Invented in Real Time
The origin story is the book’s most valuable section, and it’s more improbable than the mythology suggests. The synopsis notes that the unexpected success of the original Resident Evil ‘saved the company from financial trouble,’ which is a remarkable thing to read about a franchise now synonymous with survival horror dominance. Aniel’s access to former Capcom staff gives the pre-release development specific texture: how the design philosophy was articulated internally, what the fixed-camera cinematography was meant to accomplish, how the horror film influences, which Aniel tracks through the worlds of film, literature, and gaming, were actually applied in practice rather than as retrospective talking points.
Cindy Kay’s narration is well-suited to this oral history mode. The interview commentary from game creators, intercut with Aniel’s analysis, reads as a genuine multi-voice document, and Kay handles the transitions between reported speech and direct quotation cleanly. For a book this rooted in what specific people said in specific rooms, that clarity matters.
The Middle Decade and the Franchise’s Near-Collapse
The section covering the turn of the century, when the series ‘struggled,’ in the synopsis’s diplomatic phrasing, is where the book does its most interesting analytical work. Anyone who played the mainline entries in sequence knows that the series started repeating itself before finding a way out. Aniel traces how that stagnation developed institutionally: which creative decisions reflected genuine artistic intent and which reflected the pressure of maintaining a franchise that had become central to Capcom’s financial health. The tension between artistic vision and commercial obligation that this section documents is familiar from the history of any major entertainment property, but it’s rarely documented this specifically for a game series.
The one significant critique reviewers raise is that the book ‘stops prematurely’, Aniel covers 1996 through 2006, ending after Resident Evil 4, and doesn’t address the later chapters of the franchise. One reviewer expresses disappointment about the absence of coverage of Resident Evil 6 and 7. This is a real limitation, though it’s worth noting that 2006 is a defensible cutoff: the post-RE4 series is a genuinely different entity, and a second volume covering 2006 to the present would be a different book.
Lloyd Kaufman and the Voice Cast Interviews
The foreword from Lloyd Kaufman, Troma Entertainment legend and therefore a figure with direct relevance to the b-movie horror aesthetic that flavors the original Resident Evil’s live-action sequences, is a delightful editorial choice. Aniel’s new interviews with the game’s voice actors and its live-action cast function as primary source documents in audio form: these are the people who gave the franchise its most quotably terrible dialogue, and hearing them discuss it with perspective is one of the book’s genuine pleasures.
This material translates unusually well to audio. The interview format that underlies Aniel’s research is an inherently auditory structure, and listening to his synthesis of those conversations feels closer to the source material than reading the same passages on a page would. It’s one of those cases where the audio format genuinely serves the content.
For Whom Itchy, Tasty Is Essential
Diehard Resident Evil fans who know the development team names and can trace the franchise’s creative genealogy will find depth here that the broader gaming press has never assembled in one place. Casual fans who loved a game or two but want to understand where it came from will find the origin material satisfying without needing that encyclopedic prior knowledge. Game history readers who aren’t Resident Evil fans will find a case study in how a single unexpected success shapes a company, a genre, and a decade of creative choices.
If you want a full-franchise history through the modern era, you’ll be disappointed by the 2006 endpoint. If you want the definitive account of survival horror’s foundational decade, the years that created the template every game in the genre has been reacting to ever since, Itchy, Tasty is exactly what it claims to be.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Itchy, Tasty cover the entire Resident Evil franchise up to the present?
No. The book covers 1996 through 2006, ending with Resident Evil 4. Games from Resident Evil 5 onward are not covered. Aniel focuses on what he calls the franchise’s foundational decade, the years that defined the genre and the series’ identity.
Do you need to have played the games to enjoy this book?
Familiarity with the games significantly enriches the experience, but Aniel provides enough context that a non-player interested in game history can follow the narrative. Die-hard fans will get more from the specific development details; general readers get a compelling creative history.
How does Itchy, Tasty relate to other Resident Evil books like Philip J. Reed’s shorter study?
They’re complementary in scope and focus. Reed’s Resident Evil (also in this catalog) is a shorter critical study of the 1996 original’s horror design and cultural influences. Itchy, Tasty is a comprehensive behind-the-scenes history of the entire 1996-2006 development period across multiple games.
Is the VaatiVidya connection mentioned anywhere in Itchy, Tasty?
No, VaatiVidya narrates a separate title (Abyssal Archive, a Dark Souls analysis) and has no connection to this book. Cindy Kay narrates Itchy, Tasty.
