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I know this isn't my general area here, but my re-purchase of a Wii after months of not having one left me with some catching up to do game wise, one of the games that were on top of my list largely due to my love and devotion to anything Resident Evil was the spin-off title Umbrella Chronicles. At first I was less than enthusiastic about the game after hearing that it was to be a rail shooter I became concerned that it was going to have the depth and the length as House of the Dead with slightly better dialog and voice acting. Then came the announcement that the game was going to retail for the Wii max of $50 which seemed to be outrageous for a Rail Shooter. However, I realized after buying my Wii I needed some more games, and after realizing how much of a hypocrite it'd be of me to buy Time Crisis 4 after bitching about the price for a light gun shooter I opted for Umbrella Chronicles instead. I can say without hesitation or stutter that I feel that I made the right choice.

Umbrella Chronicles is probably one of the few spin offs in the long line of Resident Evil Spin-offs that haven't sucked, even though I still will unconditionally buy the game and play through it. I mean, how can I not give Capcom my money for the series that is almost as much of a staple to my gaming diet as Metal Gear and Sony? One of the first games my folks got me on my Playstation was Resident Evil: The Directors Cut (now imagine a young Viking playing RE in his basement, most Jack Thompsons would have pissed themselves over this except I turned out alright because my parents raised me with the understanding that VIOLENCE IS WRONG!). Anyways, as I was saying about this being one of the few Resident Evil Spin-offs that I feel are actually in the same ballpark as the main series in terms of quality and Non-suckitude.

The game starts you off on a train with the undead, every chapter allows you to choose between two characters, this game starts you off with the returns of Rebecca Chambers and Billy Coen. I of course played as Miss Chambers because the idea of a gal as timid and young as Rebecca kicking that kind of Undead a** makes me feel pretty good inside. From here the game takes a pretty standard rail shooter course, which isn't bad, but at times I wondered if Billy was helping out of just sitting there behind Rebecca picking his nose.

Anyways, the game plays well, I remember a few years back when Resident Evil Dead Aim came out, I rather liked the Light Gun aspect of it, but the rest of the game was simply Speed II with Zombies and a bad third person control scheme. I'm glad that Capcom didn't try anything like that with this title because the whole thing would have been absurd. I also can imagine the Wii Zapper really coming into use in this game as well, just for pure Arcade nostalgia.

One of the other things I'm rather digging about this game is that it's acting as a kinda recap for Resident Evil 0, Resident Evil, and Resident Evil 3 which makes me wonder (and hope) that Capcom will remake past Resident Evils to the standards that they set with Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition (which if you don't know by now, is THE GAME for the Wii in terms of gameplay development).

The game has a good amount of replay to it, trying to beat times and get a better score whilst shooting the undead is fun no matter what kind of mood you are in. The game looks pretty good too, the atmosphere is set up perfectly and the levels are nearly flawless in terms of layout and design. The cutscenes are also well done and make me all giddy inside to be seeing Jill Valentine doing the things that Jill Valentine does best.

Perhaps I'm a bit biased here, I do tend to buy EVERYTHING with the RE title stamped on it *glares at the Resident Evil Trilogy on Blu-Ray*, but no matter, this game is satisfying and challenging. Apart from the obvious bummers of your partner not doing anything in the game besides follow you around, and the somewhat awkward control set up, the game is what I wanted it to be.

So here it is, Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles... 8 out of 10