Resident Evil 4

If you’ve never heard of Resident Evil 4 before then you’ve been living under a rock. There’s simply no need to bother you with the obligatory introduction, as this is a game that needs no introduction: it simply rocks. Whether or not you’ve played Resident Evil 4 before doesn’t matter. The bottom line is this. If you loved the game on either the GameCube or PlayStation 2, then you’ll love it even more on Wii. And if you’ve never played it before, then you’ll finally understand why the rest of the world is so in love with Capcom’s horror-adventure.

Capcom’s re-envisioning of its Resident Evil franchise resulted in what you could argue is a masterpiece. The adventure features seamless storytelling, and its plot is unlike previous games in the franchise. A series of in-game cut-scenes and Metal Gear Solid-style radio conversations push forth the story, which twists and turns throughout its life.

The plot here, which opens with Leon S. Kennedy having to rescue the president of the United State’s blonde daughter from mysterious kidnappers, captivates, but the underlying gameplay is what almost instantly hooks you.

Content-wise, this is a port. Let’s get that out of the way, and let’s make sure you fully understand what it means. The game features the same single-player mode and extras (like the Ada Wong “Separate Ways” side-story mode) seen in the PlayStation 2 version. However, there are some changes here that make this the superior version of Resident Evil 4, such as the newly added Wii-mote controls. The new controls, in short, are awesome. With the Wii-mote, you can simply point and click to eradicate crazed villagers and zombie-like foes. The new control scheme feels incredibly realistic, and at times you’ll forget you’re holding a remote, not a real-life weapon. There are few games that feature control that is fun in itself, but RE4 is one of them.

Unfortunately, while the pointing controls are perfect, there are some shortcomings when it comes to other control mechanics. Initially, it can be difficult to control Capcom’s Wii port. The game requires pressing and holding down multiple buttons at once, so it takes time before you’re able to memorize the configuration. For instance, to simply shoot at oncoming villagers, you have to press and hold the B trigger, control Leon’s view with the analog stick, use the Wii-mote to control the on-screen reticule and shoot with the A button. Once you’ve mastered the setup, it’s no problem, but there is a bit of a learning curve to manipulating Leon through crowds of crazies.

Some will find Capcom’s choice to separate turning Leon when he has his gun pointed at enemies with the analog stick from aiming his weapon with the Wii-mote disappointing. However, the design actually works better than just about any other control scheme we’ve experienced on Wii. Popping off shots at stumbling zombie-like baddies has never been so intuitive or fun. Aiming at specific body parts is completely feasible. For instance, you can shoot an approaching villager in the head, and it will explode watermelon style. Or you can shoot him in his left leg, and he will fall to his knees accordingly, allowing you to run up to him and roundhouse kick him onto his back.

In both the GameCube and PlayStation 2 versions of Resident Evil 4, Leon’s knife was easily forgotten, but that’s not true this time around. With the Wii-mote, you can simply shake the remote from left to right, and Leon will whip out his knife and follow suit. Both a manual mode, where you can aim where Leon slashes manually, or an auto-aim mode are available. And there's more waggle -- many of the timed button action sequences have been replaced with Wii waggle. The new waggle controls here are appreciated, and they work very well.

If somehow you don't like the new Wii controls, at any time you can simply plug in either the Wii Classic Controller or GameCube pad and play with whatever you prefer -- a nice option.

Despite some winning design choices in regards to control, Capcom has been lazy in other areas. For example, the item selection screen is a direct port and hasn’t been updated to take advantage of the Wii-mote’s pointing capabilities. Because of this, changing weapons remains more complicated than it should be. Scoped weapons, like the sniper rifle, meanwhile, are controlled with the analog stick and not the Wii-mote. While this itself isn’t much of a problem, the jerky sensitivity when aiming with these weapons is troublesome.

Outside of controls, RE4 impresses with memorable and varied level design. For the most part, this is a travel from point A to point B adventure. There’s some backtracking, but when you travel through already-explored areas, there are often changes in place, such as the time of day or weather, even.

Perhaps Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition’s biggest shortcoming is that it’s a two-year-old game. The game doesn’t look nearly as impressive as it did when it released on GameCube. Especially on HDTVs, textures are blurry and objects are aliased. Occasionally, there is texture work that manages to surprise with detail and realism, but there are just as many instances of textures that look aged. Most impressive are the character models here – both in detail and animation. There are many re-used character models in place, but they all look great.

it would have been nice had Capcom updated the game’s visuals to take advantage of the more powerful Wii hardware. But it would have been nicer had it not cheaped-out on what appears to be a semi-fake widescreen mode. The GCN version didn’t even run in widescreen on widescreen TVs. Instead, it always ran in letterboxed 4:3. When playing RE4 Wii on a widescreen HDTV, the game automatically runs in what appears to be 16x9, but upon further inspection, we believe the same-old 4:3 letterbox has been zoomed-in on, cutting off the top and bottom black bars and thus creating what looks like 16x9. Because of this, the game looks even blurrier due to a loss of detail. We popped in the GameCube version of RE4 and used our TV’s zoom-in mode on the 4:3 letterbox and were disappointed to see what looks almost identical to what Capcom tries to pass off as “true” widescreen in the Wii iteration.

When it comes to reviewing a game like Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, which is at the end of the day just a port of something so many played two years ago, it can be difficult. Do we even take into consideration the fact that this is a port, or do we treat it as if it just released today? The truth is, this is a port, and thus it is not a new game to many. However, simultaneously, it is an opportunity for those who missed out on it the first and second time around to experience what is the definitive version of the adventure. Once all is said and done, this is a must-buy for Wii owners who have never played Resident Evil 4 before or simply want to relive Capcom’s magnum opus.