Another zombie-smash hit in the making
At the 2009 Tokyo Game Show, Capcom revealed Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles,
a new episode in the Resident Evil series, which will be a Wii remake for the Resident Evil 2
and Resident Evil Code: Veronica. The presentation started with producer Masachika
Kawata and the new game trailer. The action will take place in South America, a new and
unused setting for RE, in the year 2002, and the main characters of the game will be Leon
S. Kennedy, Jack Krauser and a little girl whose name is revealed in the last part of the
trailer as being Manuela. Other notable characters present in the trailer are a Tyrant and a
mysterious fiery creature that has for long waited to become one with the Veronica virus.
In addition to these, Javier Hidalgo will be another name that influences the story. He is a
wanted South American drug lord that has complete dominion over his territory. Yet he
suddenly disappears and soon after a former researcher for the Umbrella Corporation is
spotted entering his domain. The U.S. forms a search party and this is where Leon and
Krauser come in, as the team members. As the time line for the game is set in 2002, these
two have yet to become enemies and collaborate unaware of the future that Capcom has in
store for them.
The TGS presentation also gave away a small gameplay segment, as producer Kentaro
Noguchi, part of the company that develops the game, Cavia, strolled through a few
minutes of Operation Javier. He showed the public the auto lock feature for the easy mode
of the game that will result in a more meager score, but will help novice players manage the
levels. The game takes the Wii and milks it for all it has, in terms of graphics and textures,
along with lesser, but important details like the shaky-cam effect. Also, the game will pause
while in menu, so players can freely maneuver through the inventory and manage items
without the fear of brain-hungry zombies.
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles will be launched in Japan on January 14, six weeks
later than the North American release on November 27 - a strange decision since most
games made by Capcom have hit the Japanese market first. Noguchi did mention the extra
available time that will be used for "additional measures," but didn't say anything about what
those are.
