I've recently played through both the Resident Evil GameCube titles with a friend on his Wii. I borrowed the them from another friend and we used a GameCube controller connected to the Wii for that authentic feel.
Here's a look at both these titles I missed back when they were released on the GameCube in the early 2000s!
Review
Played on: WiiReleased: 2002 (GameCube)
Nothing quite represents mid-90's gaming like the Resident Evil series. The original trilogy rose to fame on Sony's 32-bit, success story, the PlayStation 1. The original RE, released all the way back in 1996, set the bar for cinematics and horror for all to follow. It was a landmark release, simply because of its impact on the industry. It had tremendous atmosphere and an unusual non-linear layout, which for me, has never been topped since.
The series has spawned many sequels, spanned many consoles and even ended up as both CGI and Hollywood movies. With so many releases, quality has ranged from excellent to rock bottom. It's a franchise with a lot of weight in the industry. But less so back in 2002, and a remake was something almost unheard of.
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Even as early as the Nintendo 64, Nintendo got their first RE game, namely Resident Evil 2. However, on the horizon of a new generation of consoles, Nintendo wanted to aim at a more mature audience with their up and coming GameCube. Thus, wanting to acquire popular franchises for a mature age group. They looked no further than Capcom's success with the RE series.
A franchise, which incidentally, already had been bought out by another console brand previously. With Sega receiving RE Code Veronica on their critically acclaimed, but ultimately failure, the Dreamcast.
One could argue that the original Resident Evil story has been exaggerated, over the years, for having a great story. I'm here to tell you that it isn't really the storytelling itself that's good. The voices are indeed far better here, and the script less cheesy, but it's not really the dialogue that made RE's story in the first place.
PS: Read my "Looking back" feature of the original, 1996, Resident Evil here!
I must admit, I never got to play the GameCube remake when it was released back in 2002. Only a brief encounter, at a friends house, leaving us both on a low note. It looked too grey and gritty, and didn't quite convince me. Years later, with that same friend, we gave it a proper chance. Our scepticism was swept aside as it turned out to be an excellent reunion with a classic!
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Some background info here, I've played both the original and Dir. Cut versions of RE1, many times. I’m no newbie to the series.
To my surprise, there were quite a few nice additions to this remake clearly aimed at the veterans of original release. Putting oldies like me out of their comfort zone. For instance, there's a wonky doorknob, that's situated near a central save room, that forces you to take an alternate route through the mansion when backtracking. There are new rooms, different items and placements of them entirely and new cutscenes. Even an entire new area, dug out from the original drawing boards of the 1996 development!
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Some background info here, I've played both the original and Dir. Cut versions of RE1, many times. I’m no newbie to the series.
To my surprise, there were quite a few nice additions to this remake clearly aimed at the veterans of original release. Putting oldies like me out of their comfort zone. For instance, there's a wonky doorknob, that's situated near a central save room, that forces you to take an alternate route through the mansion when backtracking. There are new rooms, different items and placements of them entirely and new cutscenes. Even an entire new area, dug out from the original drawing boards of the 1996 development!
This remake excellently puts veterans out of their old RE routine, a fantastic way of making the game feel new, even for old players. Bring back the memories of playing it for the first time!
One could argue that the original Resident Evil story has been exaggerated, over the years, for having a great story. I'm here to tell you that it isn't really the storytelling itself that's good. The voices are indeed far better here, and the script less cheesy, but it's not really the dialogue that made RE's story in the first place.
No, it was the untold story that built the atmosphere. What you witnessed, the small bits of information from diaries and notes you found along the way. What you saw in each room, what you imagined happened prior to the mansion incident. That atmosphere, that loneliness, built RE1 into a great story in your own head.
To aid this untold story, RE1 greatly benefited from a believable, well-designed environment and setting. REmake is no different, only emphasising a bit too strongly on darkness and a muted colour scheme for my liking. It should've had the distinct colour variations of each room like the original. That said, the mansion is still such a fantastic setting for a horror title, and REmake uses some incredibly pre-rendered graphics for it's time to illustrate this beautifully.
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This remake hits the right spot. On the surface it seems like a remaster, but it It changes more than what appears at first, outside the visuals. Making sure veterans and newbies of the series get their share of entertainment in the experience.
To aid this untold story, RE1 greatly benefited from a believable, well-designed environment and setting. REmake is no different, only emphasising a bit too strongly on darkness and a muted colour scheme for my liking. It should've had the distinct colour variations of each room like the original. That said, the mansion is still such a fantastic setting for a horror title, and REmake uses some incredibly pre-rendered graphics for it's time to illustrate this beautifully.
%206_18_2024%2010_52_00%20PM.png)
%206_18_2024%2010_48_43%20PM.png)
This remake hits the right spot. On the surface it seems like a remaster, but it It changes more than what appears at first, outside the visuals. Making sure veterans and newbies of the series get their share of entertainment in the experience.
It's about scaring you and building a great horror loneliness. Furthermore, it goes to illustrate how far the current RE games have moved away from this classic formula, resulting in action and cheesiness, with ridiculous characters and no atmosphere resembling anything creepy.
If you've never played the RE games, start with the original RE or this fantastic remake!
Released: 2003 (GameCube)
Zero was originally developed for the Nintendo 64, it was to become an exclusive RE title to compete with the releases on PS1. It got delayed, moved and remade for the GameCube. It's the last in the classic RE series mould, when you think of pre-rendered backdrops and camera angles. A style that Capcom since left behind.
It begins on a train, prior to the mansion incident in RE1, with Rebecca Chambers, the medic from RE1 and a runaway convict, called Billy Coen, as main characters. You quickly realise something is wrong on the train, as it gets infested with zombies and leeches. Sigh, yes, leeches. From here, you end up at sort of research mansion, clearly showing the developers had a wide range of imagination of locations. Sigh, again.
I must stress that I adore the mansion setting in RE1, however, in Zero it feels a little tacked on. Like they had to do it again, since RE1 worked out so well. Sadly, its design is forgetful, probably following the REmake a bit too closely and falling in it's shadow. I like how it connects into RE2 later and the train level at the beginning looks fantastic, I must say.
The game allows you control two characters at the time, instead of the traditional swap of characters for the entire playthrough, like Resident Evil 2, RE:0 let's you swap characters on the fly. But, herein lies RE:0's main problem. The coop feature of controlling two characters adds no fundamental improvement or entertainment value at all. It's cooperative mode, without the coop.
Sounds confusing? Well, it doesn't have any option to play with a friend and begs to ask the question, why was it even added in the first place? At worst, it actually makes the experience less tense and more annoying.
If you've never played the RE games, start with the original RE or this fantastic remake!
Review
Played on: WiiReleased: 2003 (GameCube)
Zero was originally developed for the Nintendo 64, it was to become an exclusive RE title to compete with the releases on PS1. It got delayed, moved and remade for the GameCube. It's the last in the classic RE series mould, when you think of pre-rendered backdrops and camera angles. A style that Capcom since left behind.
It begins on a train, prior to the mansion incident in RE1, with Rebecca Chambers, the medic from RE1 and a runaway convict, called Billy Coen, as main characters. You quickly realise something is wrong on the train, as it gets infested with zombies and leeches. Sigh, yes, leeches. From here, you end up at sort of research mansion, clearly showing the developers had a wide range of imagination of locations. Sigh, again.
I must stress that I adore the mansion setting in RE1, however, in Zero it feels a little tacked on. Like they had to do it again, since RE1 worked out so well. Sadly, its design is forgetful, probably following the REmake a bit too closely and falling in it's shadow. I like how it connects into RE2 later and the train level at the beginning looks fantastic, I must say.
The game allows you control two characters at the time, instead of the traditional swap of characters for the entire playthrough, like Resident Evil 2, RE:0 let's you swap characters on the fly. But, herein lies RE:0's main problem. The coop feature of controlling two characters adds no fundamental improvement or entertainment value at all. It's cooperative mode, without the coop.
Sounds confusing? Well, it doesn't have any option to play with a friend and begs to ask the question, why was it even added in the first place? At worst, it actually makes the experience less tense and more annoying.
I get the idea; one character has the healing and herb mixing ability, yet is more vulnerable, and the other is strong and takes more damage. However, you end up playing mainly with Billy. Simply because the fighting will always be necessity to progress and you never know when an enemy turns up.
Constantly switching characters just ends as a gameplay burden and avoided. As long as the game doesn't force you to and when it does it ruins the pace and consistency; it's just time is spent moving the stale character from room to room, keeping up with the other.
The lack of loneliness destroys the scary element, a feature needed for a slow-paced horror title like this. RE2 also had two main characters, and did so in an excellent way, showing two sides to one incident.
The story is terrible. It starts off badly from the beginning. Introducing, one of the worst characters in gaming I've ever witnessed. I know Japanese games tend to have, way-out, characters, but this tops the chart. The main bad guy is a man that controls leeches, by singing opera. Yes, you read that correctly. A man. Whom controls leeches. By singing opera to them.
Combine this with the appearance of a cocky Albert Wesker, this is prior to RE1, so why is he such a big-shot anyway? The story pulls the atmosphere to a low. The cutscenes are so bad, with cheesy evil performances by the bad guys. Worst, by a land slide, is opera singing, leech man. Whom consistently tries to pull you down with comments that a spoilt brat would say. It completely destroys any hope for the game picking up an interesting story. Ever.
The story is terrible. It starts off badly from the beginning. Introducing, one of the worst characters in gaming I've ever witnessed. I know Japanese games tend to have, way-out, characters, but this tops the chart. The main bad guy is a man that controls leeches, by singing opera. Yes, you read that correctly. A man. Whom controls leeches. By singing opera to them.
Combine this with the appearance of a cocky Albert Wesker, this is prior to RE1, so why is he such a big-shot anyway? The story pulls the atmosphere to a low. The cutscenes are so bad, with cheesy evil performances by the bad guys. Worst, by a land slide, is opera singing, leech man. Whom consistently tries to pull you down with comments that a spoilt brat would say. It completely destroys any hope for the game picking up an interesting story. Ever.
The only actual good side to the story is Billy's past, and the relationship between him and Rebecca building throughout the playthrough. But these are far between and can never save the train wreck of a story. It's a prequel that somehow makes itself completely redundant and even messes up consistencies leading to the events of RE1.
Playing through it, I realise what I should've back in the day; Capcom changed everything in Resident Evil 4 to my annoyance back then, but it sorely needed a fresh start. It didn't hit my kind of taste with RE4, marking the downwards spiral towards action versus horror, but respect what it did commercially to keep the series alive.
That said, something had to change and RE:0 proves that point in retrospect.
It's a forgettable story and a prequel that muddles up the timeline. It was the last in its heritage for the series, ending on a low, proving change was needed.
