[Wii] Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles & Resident Evil 4 Wii edition

Press release

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles
Official site
Promotional video 1
Promotional video 2
Article from April 2007 issue of Famitsu:


Genre: On-rails first person shooter
Release date: Autumn/winter 2007

Famitsu preview:
- The game will be divided into at least four stages (mansion, dormitory, laboratory, Raccoon City)
- All characters from Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis will appear, each being playable in their respective stages
- No free movement but the player is able to look around by using the analogue stick
- There will be branch parts just like in Resident Evil Survivor
- There will be quick time events like in Resident Evil 4
- The doors will be opened rather by shooting at them than by using keys
- Jill and Chris will explore the mansion together
- The story will be told from Umbrella's point of view, shedding more light on the company's activities and its downfall
- Mysteries from previous games will be explained by documents
- Albert Wesker will play a very important role
- the actual downfall of the Umbrella Corporation leading up to RE4 takes place in 2003

Man!ac preview:
- you'll meet single zombies only from time to time
- the trailer shown at Capcom Gamer's Day was one and a half minutes long
- producer Kawata says "For Umbrella Chronicles, we concentrated on the shooting in the 'Resident Evil'-series and tried to intensify that" + "The game was built from scratch for the Wii"
- aiming with Wii remote, shooting by pressing the B-button
- scenarios: Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3 Nemesis, Umbrella's stronghold
- retelling of the previous games equals to 50% of the title, the other 50% is new material
- the article indicates that each of the scenarios will have the characters cooperating: Chris + Jill (RE) / Rebecca + Billy (RE0) / Jill + Carlos (RE3)
- the article doesn't say if we will be able to choose the playable character
- apart from the second character saying things like "Let's look for any survivors", he or she won't do anything; the article goes on and speculates about the possibility of a second player taking over the role of that character
- the CGD demo was 20 minutes long
- standard hangun will have infinite bullets
- reloading by moving down the remote for a brief moment
- number of bullets in the gun indicated by the Wii pointer on the screen
- confirmed weapons: handgun, shotgun, MG, rocket launcher, grenades
- a lot of things will be destroyable, the trash can even hinder the player from progressing, you can also shoot out the light which is of course a bad idea
- camera can be moved by using the nunchuk
- pick up items and choose at branching parts by pressing the A-button
- Nintendo is publisher
- uncomplicated controls
- gameplay very simple and not very varied at the moment
- there are little boxes for each character telling their stories ~ the boxes of Leon, Claire and Ada contain a little note "Character has yet to be confirmed for UC"


Q: Why did you choose the Wii as console?
A: Because of the possibilities the Wii provides with its fancy controls. The Wii is a wonderful console to develop games for and its perfect for "The Umbrella Chronicles".

Q: "The Umbrella Chronicles" contains only episodes from "Zero, 1, 2 and 3". Is there a reason why "CODE: Veronica" was left out?
A: We choose those four games because the Umbrella Corporation is present most prominently in these. We're going to tell the story of Umbrella and want to narrow the storyline down to the most important games.

Q: The gameplay of light-gun games in the RE-series is nothing special. Why do you try using the ego-perspective once more?
A: During development we tried many possibilities and eventually decided to use first-person-view. Because we want to concentrate less on the movement and more on the shooting, this camera-view seemed most reasonable.

Q: Will there ever be a an old-school RE?
A: We haven't decided yet. We think a lot about the future of the series and how to keep on telling the story of RE.


Resident Evil 4: Wii edition
Official site
Interview with developers - no gameplay footage (Password: BIO4WIIED)
Article from April 2007 issue of Famitsu:


Release: May 31st, 2007 (Japan)

- Will include Ada's PlayStation 2-exclusive scenario "separate ways"
- true widescreen support
- visuals from the GameCube version with some minor tweaks here and there
- The Wii Remote is used for aiming
- The laser pointer has been replaced by a cross-hair (green when aiming, red when pointing at something that can be shot)
- Knife fighting and quick time events are also performed by moving the Wii Remote

Resident Evil 4 confirms the worst fears for many Nintendites: We'll be getting the short ends of the port stick (Okay, so I failed at punning this time boohoo).

Resident Evil UC on the other hand... I'm not too sure about it. We've got a new way to experience RE, but it reeks of Gun Survivor. Perhaps the promise of filling in the details about Umbrella's Downfall may just justify my purchasing of the game.

$30 US / $60 US

You win this round, America!

We aren't getting a PS2 port of RE4, chaofan. We aren't getting the short end of the port stick. RE4 for Wii is the Gamecube version with actual widescreen 480p AND the PS2 extras.

... Am I the only one here who is going to eventually own ALL versions of RE4?

Originally Posted by Infernal Monkey

$30 US / $60 US

You win this round, America!

Maybe, but the PAL box art is soo much better.

This is good news for me, seeing as how I haven't purchased any RE4 version yet. The previews for Umbrella Chronicles look really promising, too. I'm fine with rail action. You have at least some control with the camera, but it won't be clunky and complicated like Red Steel.

I think the PAL box art is absolute shit. I loved the original PAL GameCube one...

...but I hated the PS2 one the moment I saw it. It just looks so cheap and crappy with this brigther red, like a five minute MSPaint work. Everyone could have done this.
I wouldn't have believed that you can even make that one look any worse by bleeching it and putting a Wii logo on it, but it works. Then again, I won't buy the game until the price comes down, anyway.

Originally Posted by AcerBandit

We aren't getting a PS2 port of RE4, chaofan. We aren't getting the short end of the port stick. RE4 for Wii is the Gamecube version with actual widescreen 480p AND the PS2 extras.

Yeh true. But even with the extras, its just starting to feel like Wii will be the home of "rehashed and wiimoted" games, as well as "oh this Wii is less graphical than buggery. We'll make it Ugly Betty with wii controls".

But all of that concern for the Wii won't matter. I'll still be getting both RE games anyway -_-'.

I'm buying Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles for sure , but I wonder about RE:4.... I love the game but.. The changes kinda does not worth it

Here's 2 new movies for Resident Evil 4 Wii edition and weird trailer from the Japanese site.

http://www.nintendo-europe.com/NOE/en/GB/games/...

http://www.capcom.co.jp/wii_bio4/movie/index.html

Q: "The Umbrella Chronicles" contains only episodes from "Zero, 1, 2 and 3". Is there a reason why "CODE: Veronica" was left out?
A: We choose those four games because the Umbrella Corporation is present most prominently in these. We're going to tell the story of Umbrella and want to narrow the storyline down to the most important games.

There, that was your bullshit answer. Nevermind that Code Veronica is the direct sequel to RE2 with WESKER in it kicking ass with his new virus/alien shit powers.

========================================

Fixed.

This must be a grand build up to RE 5.

Man, i really like the PAL box art, but not for Resident Evil. That deffinetly makes me think of a stylized mindfuck horror game, akin to Killer7.

Man, it's gonna be a while before i actually get a Wii. I'm curious to play Ada's extended missions, but is it really worth buying a whole other copy of RE4? My gut reaction is no, but my brain says "hell yes, gotta see what else there is to the story". Has anybody played it? Is it any good?

As far as Umbrella Chronicles, man, i was so hoping that it wouldn't be just a huge shoot 'em, with absolutly no time to think about anything, other than who to shoot next. Also, the on-rails aspect kinda of makes me cringe, but i was pleasantly surprised with Killer7. We'll see how it goes.

Originally Posted by Helloween

I'm curious to play Ada's extended missions, but is it really worth buying a whole other copy of RE4? My gut reaction is no, but my brain says "hell yes, gotta see what else there is to the story". Has anybody played it? Is it any good?

It's hard as hell, and really makes you plan shit out and ration your ammo, which is pretty cool. But other than that it just explains what she was doing around the island. Nothing too important to the story, and certainly not worth buying the same game twice, or even a third time.

Originally Posted by Helloween

Man, it's gonna be a while before i actually get a Wii. I'm curious to play Ada's extended missions, but is it really worth buying a whole other copy of RE4? My gut reaction is no, but my brain says "hell yes, gotta see what else there is to the story". Has anybody played it? Is it any good?

I think it really depends on how "playable" the game is using the Wii remote as the crosshair. If it's implemented the same way Red Steel was made, then it probably isn't going to be worth it. That game was sadly unplayable at times because of the jerky controls.

But if they do a better job with the aiming, then yeah, it's probably worth it. I mean, the game is only going to cost $30, which is a steal for a Wii game. All the better if you've never played RE4 before (wow you should be shot!)

Originally Posted by Helloween

As far as Umbrella Chronicles, man, i was so hoping that it wouldn't be just a huge shoot 'em, with absolutly no time to think about anything, other than who to shoot next. Also, the on-rails aspect kinda of makes me cringe, but i was pleasantly surprised with Killer7. We'll see how it goes.

I dunno, I'm pretty psyched. Umbrella Chronicles is totally channeling HOUSE OF THE DEAD. Nothing wrong with that!

I have to say the news about Umbrella Chronicles is extremely disappointing, especially considering that apparantly they changed the game from a Resident Evil 4 styled game to a rail shooter because they wanted the game to be more "accessable": http://kotaku.com/gaming/resident-wi...asy-256281.php

It's really sad that even though the game is basically a throwback to the classic Resident Evil games in story, the gameplay is going to be a shooterfest that looks to have little in the way of depth or strategy, or even survival or horror (what genre was the series supposed to belong to again?). I was hoping for a RE4/classic RE hybrid type gameplay like the earlier versions of RE4 were, where you get the shoulder-aiming for precision while still having stationary cameras and moody atmosphere, so their decision to make the game a shooter like this just seems so wrong for what the game is supposed to be about.

As for RE4 Wii (why is it called "Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition" anyway? Isn't it obvious it's on the Wii from that big banner at the top of the game box that says "Wii"?)...meh...after playing through 2 versions of the game already, I really don't feel like playing a third. It would be nice having the extras of the PS2 combined with the superior graphics and sound of the Gamecube version, but it just feels like too little, too late for me. If you're one of the 3 people that hasn't played RE4 before though, it might be worth a look since it will likely be the best version of the game (although I could see the PC version becoming better if they add full mouse aiming and have mods for it).

Originally Posted by Guru

I dunno, I'm pretty psyched. Umbrella Chronicles is totally channeling HOUSE OF THE DEAD. Nothing wrong with that!

You've never played the Survivor series, have you?

Looks like Famitsu likes Resident Evil 4 Wii, at least. They do have a hard-on for Nintendo, but it's definitely an indication. I'm looking forward to it!

38/40 from Famitsu.

Originally Posted by surasshu

38/40 from Famitsu.

I don't know how forgiving Famitsu is when it comes to ports but that rating seems to indicate some good controls. It will be my first Wii game so I hope it's not too hard to aim.
Getting this as soon as the price drops. 60$ is just way too much for a two year old game that has its PAL localization already done.