For some reason, I am seemingly alone in feeling that the Wii version of Resident Evil 4 is inferior to the original Gamecube version. It looks about the same despite “true widescreen support”, it adds no additional content whatsoever beyond what was available in the PS2 version, but most importantly, the Wiimote greatly impairs the experience in several ways, which I explained in my hands-on earlier this year. Since IGN and Gamespot thought the game “totally rocked man!!!!1”, my opinion was naturally overturned and discredited. Nevermind the fact that everyone who played the game at the Capcom event eventually got frustrated and quit. Those other sites must have tried it out when I wasn’t looking.
Luckily, for people who wish to get their RE on the way it was meant to be rather than conforming to gimmicks and meaningless PR double-talk, Capcom is preparing a bundle of Biohazardy goodness for the Playstation 2 to be released this Fall. For the price of Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition, buyers will receive Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil Code Veronica X, and Resident Evil Outbreak (which may as well just be named Gun Survivor Online, minus the “Online” since that service was cancelled some time ago). Still, RE4 and Code Veronica were two of the best games in the series, and that’s saying quite a bit considering Resident Evil was what finally broke me out of my Sega Saturn fanboyism and got me to buy a Playstation.
I know that using a controller or a Wiimote all comes down to personal preference, but if you have both systems and missed out on either of these two masterpieces, the PS2 bundle is the way to go. Plus you’ll be doing yourself and everyone else a favor by teaching Nintendo and Capcom that they can’t just throw Wiimote functionality onto the same old shizzle and expect it to sell like crack. I mean they probably can, but that’s only because people are stupid, and crack is really, really, really addictive.
[Thanks to Adam Dork for the tip. He still thinks “crack” means pancakes. Shhh!]
