First thing this morning, Vinnk and I made a mad dash for the Capcom booth to try out this Wii-only, on-rails shooter. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical going in because this isn’t a proper Resident Evil sequel, but more of a spin off. On the other hand, Capcom had been treating us to a lot of cutscene video, trailers, and gameplay footage. We were intrigued. Step inside for my hands on impressions…

We are assuming the game we got to play is chronologically first in the series. You can choose to play as Rebecca Chambers or Billy Coen (or both, if it’s two players) from Resident Evil Zero as you make your way along the zombie-infested train that begins that game. By the end, you fight a giant lobster/crab-thing and try not to lose your head.

Visually it’s like Resident Evil 4, and even plays somewhat like the Wii version with the freehand pointer. In fact, it’s a lot like that. We had the option of using the new Wii Zapper with the game, but it’s more of a hindrance than a help — the nunchuck must be held separately from the gun because you need access to the C and Z buttons, as well as be able to shake the remote to reload. Having to use the zapper one-handed is a bit awkward, but fortunately you’re not required to do so.

The B trigger fires, the C button cycles through your weapons that you pick up, and the Z button brings out the knife — which you can use to slash in tandem with swinging the nunchuck. You can use special weapons by holding down the B trigger, or lob a grenade by tapping the Z button as you do so. There’s also what appeared to be a wiimote-only setup which works similarly — replace the Z button with A, and cycle through weapons with up or down on the d-pad, and you have almost the same experience.

The gameplay itself is indeed like other titles of the rail shooter genre (i.e. Time Crisis 4, which also premiered at this show). Small touches, such as picking up typical Resident Evil items (herbs for health, weapons, etc), having moments of “free movement” to explore the area, and the cast of characters who banter about make it feel more like a Resident Evil game than not. They put a LOT of work into the gameplay and visual polish, which is something I wasn’t expecting when the game was first announced. And playing a Resident Evil game in tandem with someone else is pretty fun. Even though the Wii Zapper isn’t the best fit for this game, I do look forward to using it in others; it definitely is best utilized two-handed.

While it won’t take the place of Resident Evil 5 (currently available only for Xbox 360 and PS3), this game offers an interesting experience that you can’t get on any other console. I’m a little weirded out by companies making these “side-games” on Wii (i.e. Soul Calibur Legends), but on the other hand they’re making these games specifically with the console in mind, and neither title is the throw-away, budget-style game they could have been. I look forward to playing each of these games in full, and it will be interesting to see how well they are received by Wii owners around the world.