First Impressions: The Master of Unlocking opens up the pump services for Capcom’s milking station yet again. Go ahead: moan like the zombie that you are.
Capcom knows a lot about making video games. Their innovative designs have drenched gaming with several benchmarks across various genres. In fighting they gave us Street Fighter. In iconic sidescrolling platform/action/shooting games they gave us Mega Man. And in horror it was Resident Evil. Capcom is renowned for their work on some of the greatest games of all-time; however, the company's also known for heavy milking. Where franchises like Street Fighter and Mega Man saw sequel, after sequel, after spin-off...Resident Evil has gone down a somewhat different path. Resident Evil does technically have five numerical volumes in order, not counting Resident Evil Code: Veronica -- which is also considered a sequel in the series' storyline. But rather than imitate a tactic like showcasing eight different Mega Mans (and all those X chapters, and so on), Resident Evil was given the facelift treatment not once but twice, and soon to be a third time.
Resident Evil came to America in 1996 on the PlayStation and Saturn consoles. It was only two years later when Capcom decided to smother the game with some glamor in a Director's Cut for the PlayStation in which new views of the mansion were implemented using refined graphical touchups. Several years later Capcom announced that the series would move exclusively to Nintendo's next-gen system, the GameCube, and game players would be treated to a complete retooling of the original Resident Evil a prequel to the already venerable series, and a powerhouse of a sequel, RE:4. Even though the exclusivity of he deal has gone the way of the dodo, Capcom is at it again, handing DS owners the zombie goods of the original Resident Evil, this time for the Nintendo DS.
Certainly the DS isn't as powerful as the GameCube system is, or otherwise Capcom could just base their DS iteration of Resident Evil on that one. However, bringing the PlayStation counterpart of the game on the road isn't a bad idea. When it comes to B-movie games, Resident Evil was the king. Lines such as, "You were almost a Jill Sandwich!" are hilarious and shouldn't be forgotten. Of course, you don't want shell out your hard earned cash just to replay the exact same Resident Evil all over again, especially when you could just pop over to the local game store and grab a copy from the bargain bin. You're probably wondering what does the handheld upgrade have that the Resident Evil from nearly a decade ago doesn't.
Known as a "rebirth" mode, the new attractions in Deadly Silence will of course consist of activities to do with DS-specific actions. Some examples include being able to slash at zombies with the stylus, and in the same light with swiping motions shake off such enemies as spiders that have latched onto either Jill or Chris (the two main S.T.A.R.S. members you'll play as, if you didn't already know). You'll also be able to physically blow into the DS's microphone for use with reviving injured members of your team and solving several original puzzles. Other interesting touches range from getting the knife permanently separated from the inventory list (as it'll now be mapped to the L button for convenient use), getting a more action-oriented horror game (zombies will walk through doors now, making the mansion a less safe place), and getting a multiplayer option. Players will be able to compete and cooperate in a four-player offline venue that will have you either joining forces to survive the mansion's terror together, or race against the odds to kill the most amount of zombies before your buddies do.
