Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles for Wii Reviews by Gamers

Nintendo's Zapper peripheral's about ready to ship, and we're ready. It's not just us, either: Capcom's been ready to pounce on the peripheral with its upcoming lightgun shooter title Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. We've already had extensive hands-on with the game at previous events like the Electronic Entertainment Expo and a Capcom Press Summit, but the game seems significantly improved since then in the version that's being demoed at this year's Tokyo Game Show. In case you missed what Umbrella Chronicles is all about, check it: the game's a House of the Dead-style gun shooter that's based around situations from past Resident Evil games. In this case, it follows the rise and fall of the Umbrella Corporation and its zombie influences, spanning Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil and Resident Evil 3. The TGS demo's only one level: a portion of the story that's based upon the train ride in Resident Evil Zero. The game walks players along a set route through the train, one or two players aim and fire their Wii remotes at the screen to blast the near endless assault of zombies, slugs, undead Dobermans and other horrors with the guns that they find along the way. While the game concept or its controls really hasn't changed, it's clear that it's definitely improved over the course of a couple of months. Better feedback from enemies as they now jolt when shot to give players an idea of the damage they're causing. There's also a lot more encouragement of blasting the environments - there are Umbrella logo pick-ups that'll open up more of the story and unlock hidden items , but you'll only find them if you shoot things that weren't really meant to be blasted with a gun. Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles looks pretty great on the Wii with tons of destructible items and cool, detailed models of zombies and other critters. The TGS demo ends when either you die trying to get through the zombie infestation, or when you put down the end-of-level boss: a gigantic scorpion in the caboose. A rapid-fire series of shots to the head will take him out. We're a lot more content with this product than we have been in the past - clearly the game's coming together in its final hours of development.

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