As I mentioned in last night’s post, I picked up the (cheap!) Wii Edition of Resident Evil 4. Hey, I didn’t get the PS2 port, so it’s not so bad. And I sold my GC copy and a few other games to fund the purchase anyway. But bugetary concerns aside, holy smokes!
Now, you may not believe me, because you’re all cynical asses, but playing Resident Evil 4 with the Wii remote almost makes it feel like an entirely new game. I loved the laser sight of the original, really I did, but the aiming reticule is just so much more practical, even if it does make the game a tiny bit easier (NB: aiming at distances is now possible). The new knife features are great, particularly the “homing knife” as I like to call it, which, when you make a slashing motion with the remote, will automatically make Leon turn towards and slice anything within striking distance. It may again seem to ease up the difficulty, but really it’s just a time-saver. Slashing to use the knife in itself is far more fun than button knifing, and boo to all those “but I don’t want to move when I play games” douchebags. Laziness is the lamest excuse ever, and I should know. Also I like twitch reloading. It’s fun.
But motion-control lavishing is not all I have to do today. No! I am also impressed by the new junk that Capcom added in when they ported the game to the PS2. The Separate Ways sub-game is very nice, but I am disappointed by the pre-rendered cutscenes. They are visibly crap in comparison to the real-time cutscenes in the main game (all the PS2 version’s cutscenes were FMV, the GC’s were all game engine). Capcom could have gone the extra quarter-mile and redone them in real-time to really impress me. But you know what? Griping about cutscene quality of what amounts to a really elaborate mini-game is superficial. I feel bad about it. I just really wish I could beat the game on pro difficulty, because I want to play with that sweet new laser weapon. Though that brings up another good point.
When I played through the game like four times on the GC, I always found it had a stable amount of challenge, and I never really took note of item underuse. Not that it was really hard, but it surely kept me on my toes. I remember the first time through I didn’t have anywhere near enough money at any time, and health supplies would always find use. But when I blazed through it on the Wii, by the time I reached the bulldozer scenario, I noticed that things were getting a little cramped in my inventory. It only got worse by the time I faced off against Krauser in the ruins. And while the situation was getting a little better over time (that last area can get a litte hellish, and the helicpoter pilot was taking a lot of friendly fire liberties), but by the time I was ready to face the final boss, I still had almost as many healing items in my inventory as I’d used over the course of the game. Not only that, but all my weapons were top-level, and I still had plenty of pesetas to go around. Either the Wii version takes it a lot easier on you, or I’ve gotten really good at the game. I’m betting on the latter, because if it’s true, maybe I’ll finally be able to finish that stupid cabin scenario on pro. That’s where my game always ended on the GC.
In summation, RE4 Wii Edition really kicks the llama’s ass. No, wait, that’s Winamp. But RE4 Wii is still damn sweet. Made me fall in love with the game all over again. If you never played another version – and you’re a douche if you haven’t – it’s system-seller good. I can see logging at least as many hours into this one as I did with Twilight Princess (two playthroughs worth), and I’ve already played this game multiple times.