Resident Evil Gaiden: Skilled ReviewPre-Review
I haven't ever played this game until now, but I've always like Resident Evil. I was hoping that the game would hold up and be fun, so let's see how it fared! When judging all aspects of the game, I took into account the year of release and what other games were doing at this time. I believe that this will make the following review fair and honest. There will not be a video review for this title this time, as I failed to record game play by accident. I'll try to include more details because of this.
Graphics: Compared to the competition, not that bad!
First things first, let's talk about graphics. Compared to other Game Boy Color games within the same year, the graphics aren't bad. The sprites are nicely done, and you can see the animations aren't bad either. A game for the Game Boy Color released about at the same time (two weeks apart), Breath of Fire, had about the same level of graphics. They're not bad, but they aren't mind blowing for the time either.
The good things you'll notice are that the animations are pretty good. The sprites are big enough that you can see what's going on, so that helps. The story "cut-scenes" are carried with good still images, I liked them a lot. The lighting is set up so that if you walk by particular spots, you may run into an encounter - which I'm sure was intentional being it was to simulate the horror experience. The tile sets are varied, but at times they are very frustrating. For instance, finding where the door is can become quite the adventure. During my first hour while streaming it, I basically walked by one of the first doors over and over - and didn't realize it until I accidentally bumped into it and saw the option to open the door light up. Maybe at least slightly changing the tint of that tile would have helped greatly.
When in battle, you're given a somewhat arcade style fighting scenario - which will be covered in greater detail later on. Anyways, it seems like each zombie, or enemy, encountered has about 6 sprites each. Far, mid-range, and close by - with some variation between the two sets*. The sprites are actually pretty good, and I'd say there isn't much more that could have been done there. The battle background is pretty good too, but I tend to ignore it because I'm busy trying not to die.
Other smaller notable things that I personally liked, the animation when grappled by a zombie is cool - I really like how your character is shown shoving them backwards instead of just having the sprites kind of move without any animations being presented. The color variation in a few parts of the game, notably the pool deck early on, really do look good. I like to see a bit a variation here and there, so I take it where I can get it. With all this being said, the graphics aren't as bad as I'd originally have gone to think, and I'll slap on an eight out of ten.
Sound: It was cool at first...
I know I'm a tough critic when it comes to sound, but it's because I know it's one of the easiest things to really make an entire game fall apart. Before I get into my thoughts, I do fully understand that basically no Game Boy Color game really had
great sound, so I am easing off the gas pedal when thinking harshly.
So, when you get started, the sound is pretty cool! I really thought that it sounded good when first dropped in, and then I heard another song that I really liked right after. They were done well, I believe! The problem is, the loop of annoyance get's very, very noticeable. For a very long time, I'd say two hours minimum, I was getting so tired of listening to the same tracks over and over and over again. It was mind numbingly annoying, and I really think they should have put more effort into variation of some sort, or heck, at least an option to turn off the background music altogether.
As if the music wasn't annoying enough, whenever you come across a zombie, it makes a low pitched noise that interrupts the song, then restarts the song. So if there's multiple zombies in a room - trust me you'll hear what I'm talking about. It's almost like they chose the most piercing sounds available throughout the game, and I really have nothing positive to think about it after the first twenty minutes... maybe even less than that.
I ultimately ended up muting the game - which I really didn't want to do. I couldn't take it anymore, and it's for this reason I'm giving the sound category a three out of ten. The only reason it gets that high is because the Game Boy Color was hard to work with on sound, and because my first impression was positive. Other than that though, if you play the game: mute it and turn on your own music.
Addictiveness: I mean, I don't think I'd keep coming back, but...
Let's talk about addictiveness. For the sake of sound not totally bringing the whole game down with it, I'll go ahead and pretend that the sound of the game is average. The story of the game is
sort of like Resident Evil, but it's not really why you'd play this, so we can eliminate that from consideration for being addictive. The saving system is a bit of an annoyance, being you have to find specific spots to save instead of just saving anywhere. So, you might get discouraged if you fail to find a save spot, meaning you won't want to come back and continue playing. I'm honestly quite surprised they didn't go mobile friendly and let you save anywhere, that seems like something important for a handheld game - but I digress. The objective of the game is essentially the same thing over and over - which will be talked about in the depth section - and basically it's a great way to make you want to stop playing.
Okay, I know I said I wouldn't bring it up, but dang it: it's my job! The sound really doesn't help me want to keep playing either. If looking for a reason to want to keep playing, I'd probably have to dig deep - and I did have to on this one. Maybe the one positive I can say about the addictiveness factor is that.. well, the game takes awhile to beat. Granted, this is assisted by the horribly laid out save points, but it's long none-the-less and would warrant more play time for completionists like me. That alone won't save the game from a rating of four out of ten, though. So, it gets a four out of ten for addictiveness.
Story: Not sure I'd call it fitting, but it's good enough.
The story isn't bad! It loosely, and I mean loosely, follows the main points of the Resident Evil franchise and delivers a decent story for the Game Boy Color. It is by no stretch anything to write home about, but it's not terrible. The plot isn't bad, but at the same time I found it forgettable. For die hard fans of the series, I can see you wanted to know the plot and paying extra attention. Truth be told though, I don't think the story really will help fill any holes for you die hards out there. I think that if the story had been more focused then the running back and forth, both the game play and the story would have gotten a boost. Not much else to say without spoiling it, but we're going to give the story six out of ten.
Depth: Try your hardest to pretend this is Mario Golf
You're looking at that headline like "what on Earth is he talking about?" Don't worry, I'm going to tell you right now. The battle system is essentially as deep as the game gets. Earlier I mentioned how I thought the zombie sprites were pretty good, and they are. So how does the system itself actually work? Well, basically whenever you get into an encounter: you're thrown into an old school golf game screen. It will show the zombies at their range, either short, mid distance, or far, and there will be a bar at the bottom of the screen. There will also be a cursor rapidly moving left and right. Your mission in every battle is to wait for the cursor to land on top of the bar, and hit the A button. You must do this multiple times with the different weapons you get, and it's probably the most boring battle system I have ever seen or played.
There's no other way to battle in this game, it's literally that simple. On to non-battle depth, the games puzzles are not really puzzles. You're main goal throughout virtually the whole game is to find a key, open the door, find another key, open that door too, find a key again, open the door... you get where I'm going with this. There is not much variation at all in terms objectives, so you're just going to do it over and over. These two things take up roughly 95% of your play time. So, if you like golf simulators and key finding objectives - this game is for you in terms of depth. For the other 99% of people who aren't into that, I strongly suggest that if you take anything away from this review, let it be the Depth. It's where most of your time will be put into, and you need to know what to expect. It's nothing great, as you read.
Plus, going back to my previous statement, why on Earth was saving done like it was done? The saving locations are just far and few between. So if you decide you need to get going and forget to save, you have to go through all that nonsense again! I guess on a positive note, the map was cool... The depth of this game is pretty horrible, and I'm giving it the lowest score I have ever given for depth: a two out of ten.
Difficulty: The hardest part was forcing myself to beat the game for this review.
This game is difficult for so many different reasons. First off, the save spots are far and few between as mentioned multiple times earlier. This causes a lot of backtracking when you have to load up a save. Then, the battle system is at times very difficult, you tend to run out of bullets fast and the such. Find herbs is key, and it requires searching every nook and cranny - including the zombie filled ones. I seemed to run out of them almost as quickly as my bullets, so I would say the battles alone were difficult.
The objectives for finding the key and stuff was simple enough and helped loosely with the map. Problem is, zombies held keys. This means that you need to defeat the zombie - and at times it's pretty hard when all you have is a knife while your poisoned without any herbs. So, even the main objective is considerable hard when you truly look at it.
The hardest part of the game for me was honestly forcing myself to want to finish it. I lost interest so fast - but I did finish it because I didn't want to review a game that I didn't completely understand. For all these reasons, it's a ten out of ten for difficulty.
Summarization and Explanation for Scores
Graphics: 8 / 10
The graphics weren't bad compared to the competition. They did well at times with the lighting, and the animations were clean and noticeable. Maybe a little more attention to detail for the tile set could have helped out, but the graphics were good overall.
Sound: 3 / 10
I promise you'll hate the sound after about an hour. If you play the game, take my advice and mute the audio - you'll be much happier with your own Spotify play list playing - or even no sound at all would be better.
Addictiveness: 4 / 10
If you're a completionist and want to finish every game you start, I think there might be enough here to at least warrant a play through. After that, it would take a stronger man than myself to play it again.
Story: 6 / 10
Don't want to spoil anything, but basically it uses the same characters as Resident Evil would use. I don't know if it'll plug in any holes, but it holds its own as a game of its own.
Depth: 2 / 10
With an extremely boring battle system, and an extremely boring objective system, followed up with a horrible save system... There is basically nothing here to remember.
Difficulty: 10 / 10
It's hard. The battles are hard, avoiding the battles is hard and at times impossible, finding the keys is annoying, and the music is hard to listen to. Basically, if you love to hate video games, this one's for you!
Overall: 4.5 / 5The game is bad, but it's not
horrible. It has it's moments, some good and most bad. If you're a die hard Resident Evil fan and you think you can handle what's been talked about - you might want to play the game. Otherwise, don't expect anything great from the game.
Thanks for reading everyone!
Graphics
8 Sound
3 Addictive
4 Depth
2 Story
6 Difficulty
10
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