Love them or hate them, Capcom has always made sure that players can enjoy their games across a dearth of different platforms. Regardless of your opinion on the company that alone is commendable. It even holds true for portable systems. The Game Boy Color was seriously lacking in hardware compared to home consoles of the time, but that didn’t stop them from bringing their flagship survival horror franchise to the archaic small screen. They couldn’t just port Resident Evil to the system, but they did manage to create an all new installment that to this day is still exclusive. Today we’re going to take a look at it. Here’s our review for Resident Evil Gaiden on the Game Boy Color.
Following the events of the first three Resident Evil games an underground organization was formed consisting of ex-members of S.T.A.R.S. As well as former Umbrella employees. Resident Evil Gaiden begins as Barry Burton (one of the underrated protagonists of the series if you ask me) is being briefed within this organization. As it turns out one of Umbrella’s latest biological weapons has been unleashed on a luxury cruise ship called the Starlight. Leon Kennedy (from Resident Evil 2, in case you didn’t know) was tracking it but contact was lost with him. Barry is sent aboard the ship to find Leon as well as eliminate the new bio-organic weapon.
In typical Resident Evil fashion Barry arrives only to discover that all of the passengers have been infected with the t-virus. What this means is that you’ve got a ship full of zombies to contend with. It wouldn’t be a Resident Evil game without hordes of the undead, am I right? This handheld installment, due to the hardware limitations, plays very differently from your typical installment in the series. You view the action from a skewed overhead perspective that almost feels like a side view. You can move in all four directions to explore the environments and can interact with objects in the background. You’ll need to do so to progress, because this game is all about exploration.
Resident Evil Gaiden is your typical ‘find items to unlock new areas all the while gathering ammunition and healing items’ survival horror game. Honestly it’s pretty darn ambitious for the 8-bit hardware. The Starlight is a very big area and has a lot of different areas to explore. These are populated with with zombies and other enemies. Oddly, combat is not real-time here. When an enemy grabs you Barry shoves them back, and you’re whisked away to a separate first person view combat screen. In this sense the game feels like a role playing game which is pretty unique for the series.
As I just mentioned battles happen when zombies grab you, but you can also opt to press and hold the B button at which point a reticule appears. You can guide this to a zombie and the action button also leads you to an action scene. The distance you are from an enemy when you engage plays a huge part in the combat system. On the action scenes you’re shown the zombie enemies as they’re standing still, but in time they move closer. When they’re right up against the screen they can attack and damage Barry. You target and attack enemies with a meter that rapidly moves left and right. You have to press the attack button right in the small area designated for each enemy. It’s an okay system and leads to an interesting take on the genre but it’s largely frustrating.
The battle system is downright annoying at times. You’re limited in your bullets, and the incoming enemies create a sense of panic that caused me (even through the course of the game) to misfire far too often. Thankfully ammunition isn’t that rare and can be picked up from defeated enemies. The same goes for herbs. The hit box changes depending on the weapon you’re using, but it’s still not optimal no matter what you’ve equipped. To make matters worse there are only a few different enemy types, and their patterns are not diverse in the least. It’s mostly a graphical change, and any other variation is far and few between. Even the boss encounters play similarly to all others.
To make matters worse the game has the whole ‘escort mission’ thing going for it. There’s a girl on-board the ship that joins you, and she too can be attacked by enemies in the midst of combat. It’s more annoying than anything else because if she dies it’s a game over. Later on Leon takes her place, and it’s largely the same, but he can actually attack enemies with his shotgun. You can’t attack as both at the same time and instead the action switches back and forth between he and Barry. I feel like the combat system is good on paper but in execution it falls short.
The biggest issue however is that this just doesn’t feel like a Resident Evil game. It has the trappings of one; most of the game you’re searching for keys and other items to unlock the path forward. Backtracking constantly, and exploring the environment. That’s the worst part of Resident Evil! The combat is too frustrating to be fun, and Resident Evil Gaiden lacks the jump scares that the series is known for. The Starlight is rather drab compared to say, the Spencer Mansion or Raccoon City Police Department. It’s clear that Capcom didn’t have their A-team on this one. There’s a reason it was called the ‘handheld ghetto’ and Resident Evil Gaiden is a clear case of this.
Resident Evil Gaiden is a Game Boy Color game, and it sure looks like one. The problem is that the developers were too ambitious, and didn’t manage to keep the system’s hardware limitations in mind while designing this one. Areas of the Starlight look too similar. It can be confusing. Battling the same enemies over and over again doesn’t really help with the repetition. The music is okay, but it fails to set the appropriate atmosphere. Some of the tracks hit the right notes, but then you get the repetitive battle theme over and over and it ruins the whole thing. Furthermore, there’s one track that plays during all dialogue and it’s very simple and kind of annoying to be honest. You’ll be hearing a whole lot of it while you play though.
