Reviews// Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles

My only slight niggle was that it was slightly harder to do the ‘shakey-shakey’ bits with the Wii Remote when trying to shake off zombies that were rudely invading my personal space; or when trying to slash away killer leeches sucking my face off; or when, at certain key points in boss battles, I was trying to dodge.

Overall though, the improved aiming won out over the slightly harder dodging and leech slashing. The weight was right too. I mean, how can you play a light-gun game with something resembling a television remote control? You can’t. You need to feel that you have that submachine gun in your hands and, with the Zapper, you rather satisfyingly do.

Back to Umbrella Chronicles, the controls really couldn’t be simpler. You press [B] (or the Zapper’s trigger) to shoot stuff and you press [A] (or, if you use the Zapper, [Z]) to pick up ammo, health-giving herbs, new weapons and more. You press the [C] button to scroll through your weapons. You shake the gun to reload, which makes you feel a little bit like the Terminator - that is cool.

If like me, you choose not to read game manuals and just assume that you will pick up the controls quickly, then RE:UC will ‘learn you’. You may well end up playing the game with your thumb balanced awkwardly on the [A]-button (above the Zapper) and your index-finger stretching uncomfortably to reach the trigger. Then, an hour later, you read the manual and realise that [Z] does the same thing as [A] for those using Nintendo’s gun toy. Okay, you might not. I did.

Accurately and speedily targeting zombies’ and boss monsters' weak points is vital to your success and progress. You will usually find the weak point to be at the top of your enemy’s head. Let’s face it, taking out a bunch of zombies in quick rapid succession with single shots that blow their heads clean off never fails to raise a smile. If all else fails, you can simply toss out a grenade to clear out a bunch of the filthy, rotting scoundrels.

The real highlights of Umbrella Chronicles are the boss battles, with the first couple, the giant scorpion and bat, lulling you into a false sense of security (“Pah! too easy” I initially sniffed). In later levels, however, they are nothing less than ‘bastard hard’ (not the official term). You have to learn to use your weapons and ammo wisely and dodge VERY well. I promise you that you will return to time and time and time and time and time again until you take the bastard hard bitches down!

Finally, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles co-op, with two Zappers, is close to the most perfect amount of fun two people can have with their clothes on. Or you can choose to play it naked and then have a shag each time you take a boss down, which would be an interesting new sex game (for the record, I suggested this, but the wife unfortunately declined).

SPOnG Score: 90%

Conclusion
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is, in my opinion, the best original third-party game developed for release on Wii this year. It looks lovely, it plays well and – unlike pretty much every other light-gun based game I’ve played – it has great longevity and ‘just-one-more-go’ appeal. Cynics might claim that Capcom could be accused of trying to cash-in on nostalgia value by appealing to the huge Resi Evil fan base worldwide, but even if you’ve never played a previous game in the series, you will still love this.