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Source: http://palgn.com.au/

The Resident Evil series is undoubtedly one of the most successful franchises of all the last two generations. Spanning multiple consoles with a number of spin-offs, it’s been a staple of Capcom, with the most recent Resident Evil 4 being one of the greatest games of all time. People seem to like killing zombies, and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles on the Wii may scratch that itch.

For those of you who have played any of the Resident Evil: Survivor games of the past, this style of shooter will be very familiar to you, although Umbrella Chronicles is significantly different (and better) then those games. It’s an on-rails shooter, a genre that’s usually reserved for games such as Time Crisis and House of the Dead. We had some fun playing Umbrella Chronicles today, as we were shown how to play by one of Nintendo’s friendly representatives. They had it set up with the ‘Crossbow’ from Link’s Crossbow Training, so that shooting at the screen seemed more intuitive. Of course, you can play with just your Wii remote as normal, but it did feel very natural using the extra peripheral to help us aim and feel like we were shooting an actual gun.

In the particular scenario we played, our characters were on a train, and zombies started attacking by the bucket-load. Shooting them is as easy as aiming and pulling the trigger, with the Wii remote and Zapper substituting perfectly for a light gun. The zombies all varied in size and style, some of them were missing bits of their face, others were particularly obese, and some of them crawled toward you. The variety in zombie was nice to see, even though they all end up being shot dead in the end.

As it is of course on-the-rails, you have no say in the direction that you move. You point and shoot, sometimes aiming at items that you can collect such as weapons or health. There were also other enemies including slugs, and by holding down the Z button and swiping the remote, you actually take a swing with your knife. This is the best way to defeat slugs when they crawl on your face, or to stab zombies that get just a bit too close to you. It’s not a massive addition to the gameplay, but it works.

There are parts of the game where you must counter-attack in a certain way. This works similarly to RE4, where you must press the corresponding button at the right time or shake the Wii remote when it tells you to so that you can avoid attacks from your enemies. They don’t come up too frequently, which does make the gameplay a little bit more interesting when they are used. You can also throw grenades if you have them, to blow those zombies back to the hell they came from.

A lot of the areas were of course very dark, but luckily, it’s a horror game, so dark is definitely a good thing here. There was a surprisingly good amount of detail in the environments, and while not stunning, the graphics definitely do their job effectively in immersing you in the zombie-filled world. We especially liked moving across the roof of the train, only to be surrounded by a bunch of icky slugs all jumping at you at the same time.

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles looks like a great addition to the series. It probably won’t turn heads like RE4 did, but it’s been designed with the Wii in mind, and succeeds greatly in getting the player really involved in what they’re doing. It’s great that this Wii exclusive ended up being made, as it shows that Capcom are keen on bringing Resident Evil to the masses, not just to the ‘hardcore’ gamers that the series usually targets. We are looking forward to this one.

We all get the urge to jump into a mass of zombies and just let loose with whatever we happen to have on hand. We even have the urge to do this in nothing but a string bikini and cowboy hat, and then change into another string bikini with matching high heels… I could be wrong about that last part. Gamers who don’t have a problem with massive amounts of blood, zombies and busty women might be missing out on one of the most entertaining zombie series of games available. The Onechanbara.

Disappointment is abundant when it comes to games that promise fields of zombies for you to hack and slash your way through. I’m looking at you Dead Rising. So it’s a relief whenever we get to go back to the shambling hordes, and we get to take out our frustrations after trying to rescue someone because you got a message you couldn’t read at the bottom of your screen. What is even more of a relief? The fact that Japanese game makers still have no problem with the famous Capcom breast jiggle engine.

The The Onechanbara series of games originate from D3’s Simple2000 games that specialize in cheap, fun games. They don’t have a lot in way of depth or in game cinematics, but what can you expect from something written on CD discs and only costs 2,000 yen (~$20)? The Onechanbara is the Simple2000 series that stands out. In fact, they stand out so much that Microsoft picked it up to continue in Japan with last year’s release The Onechanbara: vorteX.

The Onechanbara and its many sequels have enjoyed a certain amount of success in Japan and South Korea because of their simple game play and the cathartic effect of watching a woman wearing less than Paris Hilton at a family function cutting zombies to ribbons with a katana. The series, which has four PS2 titles and one Xbox 360 release, was an evolutionary process that can be seen as the titles progressed. In the first of the series the speed at which you attacked zombies makes you miss the swift actions of Frank West, but that’s okay because the zombies aren’t terribly interested in you. On top of it there was a blood rage power up meter that filled very quickly and killed you even faster.

It wasn’t until less than a year after the first, and a pitiful expansion called The Onechanbara: Blue, that The Onechanbara 2 was released Shortly followed by its own expansion called The Onechanpon, which not only fixed the unwieldy speed and retooled the frustrating blood rage, but it added a two player option. Now you had the option to play as a bikini clad bimbo while your friend played as another bikini clad bimbo, a schoolgirl, a biker chick or roller derby girls. (They all have names, but does it really matter?)

Now don’t start revving up your zombie bloodlust and PS2 just yet. Even though you don’t need to know Japanese to get the gist of the game it’s not available on the American market, at least not to people who play by the rules. There are, however, still rumors buzzing about Tamsoft releasing vorteX for American 360s. Nothing is confirmed yet, but if there’s enough demand, it might still be possible. How does the Xbox 360 version play? I don’t know. I only have an American 360. How does it look though?


Source: http://www.cinemablend.com/