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Next up, the Hollywood Chronicles.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles marks the first follow-up to Capcom's attempt at bringing the RE series into the lightgun shooter genre of games, a genre that's long been dominated by one other zombie/monster themed title, namely Sega's House of the Dead series. The first title, Umbrella Chronicles, built off of events from previous RE titles in an effort to give fans a truncated retelling of previous events, and while it was a certainly unique take for the franchise, it still had its fair share of problems. The hit boxes were a little too small for most, making it hard to achieve the headshots that tied into the multiplier and ranking system for levels, and the camera movement that attempted to mimic movement was a little too distracting for most. Darkside Chronicles looks to improve upon issues that players had with the first, and does a pretty good job of it too. In fact, I'd venture to say that I really, really enjoyed this sequel, and I'm looking forward to seeing it (hopefully!) continued on the Wii in the future.

This time out we're seeing the events of Resident Evil 2, and Resident Evil: Code Veronica being covered by the main gut of the game, with both stories being book-ended by a new scenario called Operation Javier, focusing on Leon Kennedy (after the events of 2) and Jack Krauser. Basically it's a small prequel to RE4, but doesn't seem to tie in heavily to the RE4 scenario, other than giving us a glimpse of these two guys together on their first mission, and Krauser first actual encounter with the RE monster set labeled B.O.W.'s here. Being a huge RE2 fan, I was really looking forward to the events that focused on that part of the game, but I found the CV and Javier sections to be equally fun and entertaining. It certainly deviates from the story a little bit; in the sense that these are quicker tales than the entirety of the actual games they're based around, mostly serving as a way to get you from notable boss fight to boss fight. You'll see a lot of fan favorite encounters, like the giant croc fight in the sewers from part 2, so I think the fan service throughout the game is really well done. Voice acting and the actual plot are ok, but like I said, you're getting the cliff notes version of both games, so there's a little bit lost in the explanation of events. Not that the games have ever been particularly deep, but there's a lot of complex stuff in the different viruses and character relations that aren't really focused on here. There is a lot of supplemental reading material that can be uncovered if you want to delve a little deeper, but it's purely optional stuff.

As far as the actual gameplay goes, I'd venture to say that not a great deal has changed from Umbrella Chronicles, except that they've improved on most of the issues players had before. The hit boxes are noticeably larger, you'll still have difficulty knocking out random objects like lights and other environment breakables, but nailing a zombie in the head (even from a distance) isn't nearly as troublesome as it was before. This brings the series more in line with what you'd expect out of a lightgun shooter, and makes for a far more enjoyable experience. There's still a lot of on foot movement for the camera, with a lot of boss fights involving quite a bit of action so that the camera doesn't focus on one spot for long. However, there are plenty of instances where it'll thankfully sit still, almost to the point of lingering on one spot for too long, leaving you wondering if you're supposed to be shooting something before it'll finally look away. Still, it's a better experience than UC was, and something that's definitely improved. As far as having other things to shoot in a level besides enemies, you'll find plenty of breakable objects in most stages, including objects that you can just shoot to get a reaction out of. There's a lot of stuff like ammo and healing items scattered about, which you can move your aiming reticule over and press A to pick up, but there's also a lot of gold coins and money hidden about, which is used for the weapon upgrade system.

The weapon upgrades work out in a similar fashion to RE5, giving you a menu in between levels to upgrade the different weapons you've acquired. You'll start off with the basic pistol that has unlimited ammo, but you'll quickly gain access to series favorites like the shotgun, sub-machine gun, and Magnum. There's even a crossbow and grenades present this time out, so you get a pretty nice selection to choose from. For the upgrades, there are about four options per weapon, like Ammo capacity, power, reload speed and so on. The upgrades are all pretty pricey, so it'll most likely take you a few full games before you're able to max out the majority of your weapons, adding a little replay value to the game. I had a blast going back through RE5 with items like the Magnum maxed out with unlimited ammo, and I suspect I'll get the same enjoyment out of tearing back through Darkside Chronicles with similar tools at my disposal.

The visuals are really nice this time out too, and while they'd compare favorably to what UC did, it's still really nice to see the older games rendered with current hardware and visuals. Toying around in the Police Station from RE2 was great, and even revisiting the gun shop from the beginning of the game was pretty awesome. The boss redesigns and updates look really nice, and the pre-rendered cutscene work is pretty impressive. The South American themed Operation Javier shows that it's entirely possible to see RE5 style environments (with a bit of downgrading of course) done on the Wii, and the prison sections of Code Veronica are moody and reek of dank atmosphere. Even the weapon selection is a little better this time out, allowing you to switch between them with the Nunchuk, which no longer has any other function other than a inventory shortcut (but a much needed one) and the ability to reload with a shake. Really, it's a marked improvement over Umbrella Chronicles, but they still kept in the stuff that worked from the previous game. All together I'd say it's a really solid follow-up and it's one of the best efforts Capcom has made with a Wii title in a bit.

My only real complaint comes from the boss fights, which I think are visually entertaining but oftentimes drag on a little too long. The first boss fight is a little off putting, as you're moving about constantly and forced to fire away with little in the way of powerful weapons at that point. The boss takes an insane amount of hits before you're able to get to his death animation sequence, and it doesn't set a great mood for the rest of the game. It does improve from that point, but other boss fights, like the Birkin fight in the Blast Furnace for RE2, still seem to be these big bullet sponges with hard to hit weak points that don't always present themselves well. I'm not arguing about the difficulty as much as I am the fairness of the encounters and the prolonged shooting aspect of it, I feel like they could have been challenging but shorter somehow. The Croc fight is a sign of what I would have liked to have seen, where you don't seem to do a great deal of damage with your basic weapons, but new elements are introduced via the environment that change the odds in your favor. This wasn't such a big deal to me that it hindered my overall enjoyment of the game, but you'll find your initial play through to be a little more difficult than you might expect, especially if you have a hard time deflecting attacks with timed shots and what not.

If you're a die-hard RE fan then I think you'll really dig the new look at old stuff that this game offers, and all the fan service stuff that you can read and unlock along the way makes it a pretty cool experience. There's plenty of unlockables to uncover in the form of alternate costumes and weapon upgrades, making it worth the time to revisit the relatively short campaign over and over in order to unlock it all. Being able to play the game with another player in tow is certainly a lot of fun, and the improvements made to the shooting make for a pretty enjoyable multiplayer experience. It's definitely worth checking out even if you were disappointed with Umbrella Chronicles, as I think the improvements made here actually work. I look forward to seeing what Capcom does next with this spin-off, and I hope we see more like it in the near future.