The last time the Resident Evil franchise lent itself to an on-rails shooter for the Nintendo Wii was Umbrella Chronicles, a game that had a surprising amount to it, but one that lacked the frenetic, exciting nature of Sega's short-but-insanely-entertaining Sega Ghost Squad. Capcom's latest attempt, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles does increase the pace a little, but also throws in one or two fresh problems to give the whole project a feel of one step forward, one step back.

The crux of the game is pretty much the same. Your Wiimote becomes a light gun - and help yourself if you want to use the cumbersome-and-not-included Zapper frame for it - and you need to blast your way through level after level of infected zombie action. There are pick-ups you need to be quick to snag (a tap of the A button gets them if you can swing your on-screen crosshairs to them in time), and there are assorted weapons and customisations to aid you in your battle. It's all fairly conventional in that sense, save for the fact that Capcom once more brings in familiar faces from the Resident Evil franchise and weaves the narrative around classic moments from the series.

The action itself is primarily reactive and fairly brain-free, but it's certainly fun. While it shows up the graphical limitations of the Wii itself (although, to be fair to the console, there are some fine looking moments here), when you have two players side by side blasting through the game, it's hard to really be bothered by that.

What is far more bothersome is the camera itself. To add a sense of urgency, Capcom has introduced a handheld shakey-cam approach, as if the makers of The Bill had been popping a few too many cans of Red Bull. At best this makes key moments of the game incredibly irritating, and at worst it makes them blatantly unfair. The camera disorientates you in a way that makes it all-but-impossible to fire off accurate shots, and it simply feels like Capcom has overdone the effect.

It's a pity, because that aside this is a solid improvement on the already decent Umbrella Chronicles. There's enough to blast through, the momentum of the game is better, and while the bosses are a bit hit and miss, there's so much else to work through - and quite a lot of variety to the sequences you play - that there's little question you get good value.

Fans of the franchise will, as an added bonus, have a whale of time simply revisiting locales from earlier games, and spending time in the company of some of the famous Resident Evil faces of versions past. You don't need any prior knowledge of it all, though, as there's enough in Darkside Chronicles to deliver a good, solid blastathon. It's slightly better than Umbrella Chronicles and certainly leaves us quite looking forward to Capcom doing all this again in a couple of years' time.

Verdict
A niggle or two aside, this is a big game, and one that improves on Umbrella Chronicles too. It may be mindless zombie-blasting action, but it's fun mindless zombie-blasting action.

Company: Capcom

Tags: capcom sega survival horror red bull resident evil resident evil: the umbrella chronicles games video games