Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition: Aggro Aggregation

Blog Post: Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition: Aggro Aggregation Subscribe to this RSS feed

Author: Dave Rudden
Digg This!
Comments

A two-and-a-half year old GameCube game gets converted for the Wii with new control scheme and nothing else. The critics love it. Huh?

RE4 on the Wii: A cut above?

Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition arrives under very different circumstances than the GameCube version did back in January of 2005. Whereas the game originally arrived amidst a torrent of hype on a system in need of some new life, RE4 came to the Wii after a surprise announcement just three months ago--in the shadow of another Resident Evil title (Umbrella Chronicles), no less.

The game boasts the best of each version, with the GameCube version's graphic engine and the PS2's extras. Still, its surprising to see critics fawning over the addition of motion sensing controls to a last gen game. Oh, wait... they've done that already. Anyway, here's the choicest shanks from the web's copious amount of review meat:

IGN points out a distressing note about the game's graphics:

At the time of this writing, though, RE4 remains one of the prettiest efforts on Wii, a truth that probably should make us happy, but doesn't - it only serves to demonstrate the lazy approach that the majority of studios have taken on Nintendo's new system thus far.

GameSpy does away with the overblown pleasantries and explains why this version of RE4 was deserving of a perfect score:

The reason that the Wii version is the best is because the new control system makes the gameplay more enjoyable.

GamePro further examines the joy of the control scheme, in the second highest aggregated score, a 4.75 out of 5:

This is the first game I've played on the Wii where the physical, hands-on nature of the Wii Remote and Nunchuck actually drew me in deeper to the reality of the game.

1UP was the lone dissenting voice, going as far as asserting that it's the worst version available in the lowest score given to the game yet, with an 8 out of 10:

If you've never played this game before, you should first ask yourself, "Why not?" But if you haven't, there are better and cheaper options than this still-good-but-not-as-good-as-the-others version for Wii.

Personally, I'd have to lean more towards 1UP's judgement. The control scheme was second nature on the GameCube, and while RE4's gunplay outpace other Wii shooters, the aiming is too loose for my liking. Still, the combination of each version's finest features was enough for me to trade in my GameCube version. If only the game offered Classic controller support...

games