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Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles – 12 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 08/15/2019

Posted in: Nintendo, PlayStation 3, Retro Consoles, Sony Consoles, Wii. Tagged: capcom, cavia, exclusive, first person shooter, fps, light gun, Nintendo, rail shooter, resident evil, shooter, the umbrella chronicles, wii. Leave a comment

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Cavia, Inc.

Release Date: 11/13/2007

Available On

Resident Evil is less known for its light-gun arcade games, as these are held in public places that are niche hangout spots. The Wii with its remote and Zapper attachment is just begging to be used as a light-gun, and many of these games followed, and Capcom jumped on the bandwagon. Umbrella Chronicles is one of the more solid light-gun games on Wii, but it must be played co-op or you’re not going to have a good time.

The game has four chapters, with each one following bits and pieces from Resident Evil 0, 1, and 3: Nemesis, respectively, with the final chapter being an exclusively unique section just for this game. Each chapter has three or four sub-chapters and a few side chapters that are shorter and feature an alternate perspective featuring Ada Wong, Albert Wesker, and one Umbrella operative, Hunk. Story-wise, don’t expect to get a comprehensive telling of the Resident Evil series, as the pre-rendered cutscenes are chopped up and it’s not very cohesive or easy to understand. This is more for people who have played the older games before.

Outside of that, the shooting itself is rather solid. There are over a dozen weapons in the game, with your side pistol having unlimited ammo and various other guns like submachines, shotguns, rocket launchers, and handcannons making up the majority of the arsenal, but the ammo for these guns is extremely limited, and that’s the first downfall of this game. Why make an action game based on survival horror and keep the ammo count low? The pistol does very little damage, and you just forget about beating a boss with it. Ammo is incredibly scarce and requires you to have a partner, as some scenarios and waves just can’t be defeated with only the pistol. Hordes of enemies, sometimes over a dozen, will spawn in front of you, and popping them with 8–10 shots each with a pistol is just not feasible. With a second player, it’s possible, but solo is not. After chapter 3, I had to resort to a partner because it just gets too hard and too demanding for one player.

There are a good variety of enemies in the game, with some not appearing until the final chapter, and the bosses are all unique and incredibly challenging and require great reflexes, aim, and actual skill. Bosses are recycled from previous games, but fighting them in a 3D environment is pretty awesome. Some bosses have multiple stages, but these repeat in a cycle and can even include quick-time events that require button presses or a quick waggle. Quick-time events are peppered throughout the game and thankfully not abused, but they don’t appear on-screen long enough, and the waggle ones won’t trigger unless you start waggling the second they appear on the screen. This can lead to frustrating deaths.

Speaking of deaths, if you find a health spray, this acts as an extra life and can resurrect you on the spot, but without one, you start at the last checkpoint. There are herbs lying around for health, ammo, grenades, and barrels just begging to be blown up to take out large groups. This is one of the most difficult light-gun games I have ever played, and sadly, it’s impossible to finish solo without having unlocked the infinite ammo. The first two chapters have a nice difficulty scale, and it just ramps up way too hard on chapters 3 and 4. There’s also an issue with the game feeling too repetitive and not having enough variety, like vehicle scenes similar to other light-gun games. It relies too much on just shooting the same enemies ad nauseum.

Let’s talk about production values. Capcom is never one to skimp on a Resident Evil game, usually, and while Umbrella Chronicles looks fine, it shows it doesn’t push the Wii in the right direction. It looks like a GameCube game at best, with muddy low-resolution textures, but somehow there’s still a slowdown when too much is going on. It really could have looked better, even on the Wii, as there are better-looking games on the system, but what’s here is fine. The menus are pretty ugly, with not much going on, and everything looks so blurry and low-res. I need to redact my GameCube comparison from earlier; it’s more like a Dreamcast port, to be honest.

Overall, Umbrella Chronicles is a decent light-gun game that requires a second player or you won’t get very far. The boss fights are bombastic and fun, and each is unique, but the same enemies repeat over and over, and the scenarios don’t change. You’re just running down hallways or open areas and blasting enemies. The game goes on way longer than it needs to, with each chapter taking about 30-45 minutes to complete if you include the bonus missions. There is a lack of variety when it comes to other stuff to do to make this game even more exciting to play. The extras aren’t worth unlocking as they require S ranks in each chapter, most of the time, and after finishing this game once, there’s no real reason to go back.

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Devil May Cry 5

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 05/10/2019

Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S. Tagged: action, capcom, dante, devil may cry 5, dmc5, hack and slash, nero. Leave a comment

Publisher: CapcomDeveloper: Capcom

Release Date: 03/07/2019

Available On

Devil May Cry is a series PlayStation fans hold dear to their hearts as it helped kick-start the PS2 and sell many consoles. It was something to brag about—a game that had the action that was only seen in a 2D platformer for slashers—and now it’s in full 3D with a new character and an attitude. Thankfully, if this is your first DMC outing, there’s a whole movie explaining the events of the first four games and somehow leaving the Ninja Theory DMC reboot completely out of the fold.

You play as three different characters, Nero, Dante, and V, who are hellbent on stopping a demon king from unleashing hell on Earth. It sounds pretty generic, but it’s a solid continuation of the story from a game that’s over 10 years old. It picks up after the events of DMC4 and has a few plot twists that are just decent enough to keep you hooked. However, the story is kind of slow going, and it’s not as meaty as games that are currently out, but it’s really more for DMC fans, but as a standalone game, it makes no sense. You really have to understand and know the events from previous games to really care, as they are not explained.

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DMC has always been famous for its thrilling, fast-paced combat and stylish scoring system, and they are in full effect here. Each character plays differently, with Dante having the most robust and deep combat system. He can switch between four styles like before Gunslinger, Trickster, Swordmaster, and Royal Guard, and these four styles must be switched up to keep the style gauge going up. Each style has different attacks and a special attack, such as the Trickster style, which lets Dante dart around and dodge, the Royal Guard allows him to block, and Gunslinger unleashes a ton of bullets. My favorite weapon is the new Cavaliere, which is basically a motorcycle split in half. Yeah, a motorcycle. It’s a heavy weapon that’s super slow but incredibly powerful. I do have to mention that his weirdest weapon is Dr. Faust which is a cowboy hat that he throws that uses up red orbs, but gives red orbs in return if the enemy is hit.

V is definitely different from the other two, as he never directly attacks enemies. His three shadow creatures do, as he has a bird for projectiles, a Jaguar for melee, and his Devil Trigger is a big creature called Nightmare. V can stand off in the distance and attack the shadows while he reads from the poem Dante’s Inferno and charges his devil gauge, which allows him to summon Nightmare. The creatures can’t do a final blow on the enemies, so V has to charge in and take the final hit. His levels are honestly easy, as if you stay back far enough, enemies will leave V alone, and his creatures only get knocked out for a bit and can be revived faster if you stand by them.

Nero is probably my least favorite character to play since his combat is really dumbed down and his Devil Breaker arms feel pretty useless. They give you a slight edge, but they break so quickly and you run out so quickly that you are reduced to his revolver and sword, so I easily felt overwhelmed by enemies and couldn’t do crazy combos like with Dante or even V. I died more using Nero because I felt he just lacked something that the other two had.

Outside of combat, there’s nothing else to do outside of collecting orbs, buying skills, and items, and then replaying again with your newfound abilities to get them all. The environments get repetitive and get rather dull towards the end, as you are mostly spending time in a creature “tree” called Qliphoth, and it’s just endless hallways of red and black and blood and weird tree stuff. There’s not much to look at here, and I would have liked to have seen more varied levels like in previous games. The game is also rather short, ending with 20 missions in about 8 hours. The game isn’t nearly as difficult as previous games, but it can get hard, and you need to remember boss patterns and master the dodge button to get good scores in each level.

Overall, DMC5 delivers exactly as expected: great combat and interesting characters, even if V has no background and is rather dull, but I loved seeing these guys on screen, and I only have to scold that weird Michael Jackson dance scene towards the end of the game. Yeah, it was pretty cringy. There’s no ultrawide support on PC despite the RE Engine supporting it, and there are many bugs still present as I frequently crashed towards the end of the game, but it looks damn good and the voice acting is really great as well. DMC5 is a fantastic action game, and fans will love what it has to offer outside of Nero’s lacking combat and the dull, repetitive environments.

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Resident Evil 3: Nemesis – 19 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 05/07/2019

Posted in: Gamecube, Nintendo, PC Reviews, PlayStation (PS1), Retro Consoles, Sega, Sega Dreamcast, Sony. Tagged: adventure, capcom, horror, nemesis, raccoon city, resident evil 3, scary, Sega, Sega Dreamcast, zombies. Leave a comment

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

Release Date: 11/17/2000

Available On

Resident Evil has been more about tense action, inventory management, and puzzles than horror. RE3 polishes up the already not-so-smooth gameplay of Resident Evil and ports it over to the Dreamcast to make another buck off of it. RE3 doesn’t really have much of a story, but the tense action, puzzle-solving, and always-looming Nemesis boss make this one of the tensest games of the era.

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You play as Jill Valentine (the star of the first game) and are back in Racoon City this time to try and find out what happened during the outbreak. Being a direct sequel to the second game, you visit a few familiar areas, and some Easter eggs are tossed in. Outside of running around collecting ammo, healing items, documents, and various things of that nature, you solve puzzles and mow down armies of the undead and genetically modified. New enemies crop up that are freaky and challenging, and the only boss in the game is Nemesis, who is a tough monster, and choices are thrown into the game depending on where the story goes. These choices impact where you start in locations and how you approach fighting the Nemesis. One choice kept the Nemesis from chasing me around town, but I was going to have to fight him early on. You can totally avoid fighting him in most cases, but he becomes stronger the less you fight him.

I honestly recommend playing this game in easy mode the first time, as you get tons of healing items and weapons at the start, as well as infinite save ribbons. This mode should be used first for another reason, and that’s to learn the layout of the game. Resident Evil is a game where enemy location, map layout, and puzzle-solving are a must before attempting harder modes. Now with all that said, I do find earlier Resident Evil games tough outside of just combat, as without a guide you can get lost and frustrated quickly as puzzles are obtuse, and there might be objects you saw hours ago that you have to go back and get, such as the Downtown/Uptown maps in this game. It’s imperative to write things down if you don’t have a guide, as you will run around for hours trying to find that one item that you can’t remember.

The story and characters are nothing special, but the voice acting is surprisingly decent for its time. We don’t learn much about Umbrella outside of someone going in and trying to pop off the supervisors throughout the city and cover up the T-virus outbreak. There’s no character development or anything like that, so you’re mostly paying for the action. The visuals are rather nice, but at this point, the pre-rendered backgrounds were getting tiring. The Dreamcast version is a slightly smoother PlayStation version, but there’s not much of a difference. I would have liked to have seen more modes, better visuals, and new content for a new $50 release, but what we get is mainly for newcomers.

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I highly recommend RE3 on the Dreamcast. At this point, this is the definitive version of the game and the best the series has to offer up until this point. Don’t expect a deep story; have a guide ready, and you’ll be in for a good 8–10 hours of intense action and fun.

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Capcom Puzzle World – 7 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/18/2014

Posted in: PSP, Retro Consoles, Sony. Tagged: capcom, classics, playstation, psp, puzzle world, Sony. Leave a comment

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

Release Date: 2/6/2007

Available Exclusively On

Here we have another collection of games that are almost completely worthless. Capcom was never well known for puzzle games, so why not just stick these in another larger collection? All we get are two lousy puzzle games and one good one. Buster Bros. has three variations! The game stinks as it is; why do we need three? The only worthwhile game is Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. BlockBlock is just a Breakout rip-off and is less fun.

Honestly, even Puzzle Fighter looks like crap on the PSP. These games were poorly ported, and with such a small selection, who would want to buy this when the back says six games? I played the entire collection in less than 30 minutes and was done with it. Buster Bros. consists of shooting arrows straight up that are supposed to pop bouncing bubbles. It’s extremely difficult and no fun at all. Puzzle Fighter is a gem/Tetris hybrid that many may be familiar with. Chibi Street Fighter characters punch each other when blocks fall. Your goal is to chain colors together and drop the breaker block to set the chain off. Your blocks, which you broke, then fill your opponent’s wall. It’s a lot of fun, and this is the only game I could go back to. However, there are more fun variations of this game (Puzzle Kombat from Mortal Kombat: Deception/MK3 for DS).

There aren’t even any great extras like in other Capcom collections. The game is just dull and boring, and even if you bring a friend along ad hoc, you’re just going to waste their time as well. If Capcom were to have included some newer puzzle games from their catalog or just added these to other collections, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. As it stands, there’s not much to really say about these three small games. It’s not worth the money or your time, even as a rental. Just stay away from this and enjoy your memories of them instead.

Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded – 8 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/17/2014

Posted in: PSP, Retro Consoles, Sony. Tagged: capcom, classics collection reloaded, playstation, psp, Sony. Leave a comment

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

Release Date: 10/24/2006

Available Exclusively On

These classic compilations from publishers are hit-and-miss. They can either be amazing (Midway Arcade Treasure 2) or complete crap. Reloaded falls kind of in-between. Here we have some great Capcom games like Street Fighter II, 1943, Ghost & Goblins, and Knights of the Round. On the other hand, we have multiple versions of one game, which is completely unnecessary where other games could have been. Do we need two versions of 1943? Three versions of SF2? 3 versions of Ghost & Goblins? No, we don’t. Instead, just give us the superior versions.

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Ghost & Goblins includes the original NES version, an arcade, and then the superior Super Ghosts & Goblins for SNES. Just give us the SNES version! I don’t care about the other two. For Street Fighter II, we get the original arcade version, Champion, and Hyper Fighting. Just give me Hyper Fighting! I honestly don’t know what Capcom was thinking. If it’s not multiple versions, it’s duds. SonSon isn’t all that great, and I didn’t care much for Vulgus. There are better Capcom classics that could have taken their place.

Thankfully, there are other features inside the game that are nice, such as save states like in emulators, and your scores are tracked. You can also use these score “coins” in the slot machine to unlock extras such as cheats, art, and other things. Local multiplayer is a nice addition to games like Street Fighter and Knights of the Round. Infrastructure would have been much nicer, but given the poor software sales, it would have cost too much money to keep servers going.

The games themselves are nicely emulated, with no slowdown. The screen is nicely fitted to the PSP’s widescreen without looking stretched out and grainy, so I give it credit for that. You have to take each game with a grain of salt because some of them are over 20 years old. Don’t come in expecting innovative new ideas and amazing graphics. These games are fun to play as a weekend rental, but only people who grew up with them will truly appreciate them. I just wish there weren’t so many duplicates and so many duds.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – 8 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 10/20/2013

Posted in: DS, Game Boy Advance, iOS, Mobile Reviews, Nintendo, PC Reviews, Retro Consoles, Steam Deck Unknown, Steam Deck Verification, Wii. Tagged: ace attorney, adventure, capcom, ds, Nintendo, pheonix wright, wii. Leave a comment

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

Release Date: 10/12/2005

Available On

For almost 10 years, I have been dodging Phoenix Wright, but I can’t fight it any longer. I know all about the characters and what the game is like, but I had no clue that the story was this deep and interesting. Honestly, Phoenix Wright’s biggest flaw is the lack of gameplay, frustrating puzzles, and sometimes no clues on what to do. Despite that, you are going to play this mainly for the story and characters.

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Phoenix Wright is a new attorney straight out of law school. You start out with your first trial and get the trial contradiction puzzles nailed down first. You are presented with a court record that keeps track of all the evidence. Witnesses will take the stand, and you need to press each sentence in their testimony to point out inaccuracies. Wright and the prosecutor will go back and forth with the judge, and once you’ve pressed every statement, you need to find the contradictions. This is where things get frustrating. Sometimes it’s pretty obvious, and it feels good to nail their false statements, but 60% of the time I had no idea what to do. Most of the statements would be very vague and do not give you many clues as to what evidence can catch them in their lies. However, each case and witness vary. Sometimes testimonies will be restarted, and you need to find new contradictions. It sounds confusing, but it is both fun and frustrating at the same time.

Once you finish a trial or are on a new day, you need to investigate. This is the other half of the game. You go from place to place, examining the area for clues, talking to witnesses, and sometimes showing them stuff to get things out of them. This can also be frustrating because you won’t have any idea where to go or what to show. On top of all this aimless frustration, there’s hardly any gameplay. You are reading about 80% of the time, and the gameplay just consists of selecting things. Later on, you use the mic a bit, but other than that, it’s mainly just a point-and-click adventure at heart.

That’s not to say any of the games aren’t fun. The story and characters are gripping, and the five cases you end up solving are very interesting. Each case will take about 2–3 hours to complete, so there’s quite a bit of playtime here. I just wish they weren’t all played out the same way. Do a trial, investigate, do a trial, investigate, talk, talk, talk, examine, show some evidence, and talk some more. Point-and-click adventure fans will love this game, but if you want action, you’re out of luck. The trials tend to get heated, and it’s pretty fun to watch everything unfold. The stories have twisting endings and will leave you hanging all the time, but you won’t want to stop playing.

Ace Attorney is a fun adventure game with great characters and stories, but there’s very little gameplay. What’s here is the frustrating puzzle of finding contradictions between witnesses’ testimonies and your evidence. Outside of that, you will wander aimlessly during investigations, trying to figure out what to do and where to go. Phoenix Wright is a great step in the right direction for the DS, but it needs more to make it truly amazing.

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Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 10/08/2013

Posted in: DS, iOS, Microsoft Consoles, Mobile Reviews, Nintendo, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 4, Retro Consoles, Sony Consoles, Switch, Xbox One. Tagged: capcom, ds, ghost trick, phantom detective. Leave a comment

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

Release Date: 1/11/2011

Available On

The last great game I remember playing where you were a ghost was Geist for GameCube. Ghost Trick may not be an action-packed shooter, but it does have an interesting story with whacky characters and fun mechanics. You are trying to solve a murder mystery for yourself. You wake up as a ghost out of your body and need to find out who killed you and why. As you play through the 17 chapters, the story unfolds more and more and starts out as a gripping story until the very end, where it just falls apart and becomes hard to follow. Despite that, the game has great art and animation and is worth a playthrough.

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The main mechanic is playing as a ghost and being able to rewind time, change people’s fates, and manipulate objects. When someone dies, you can talk to their core, where you find out a little about them. You can then rewind time to 4 minutes before their death. Once you see the clip, it plays out again, but you must manipulate objects to prevent their deaths. This is a really neat mechanic and very original. These are all puzzles, and they get harder as the game moves on. One person may end up dying from a trap that was set up, and you have to stop one part of that trap before the person is killed. When you are in the ghost world, time stops, and you can see all the objects you can hop to. However, you have a limited reach, so you need to manipulate other objects to get closer, such as knocking stuff down, opening things, and various situations like that. The puzzles end up becoming multiple screens, and you sometimes have to travel to whole new areas mid-puzzle. You can travel around via telephone lines, but you must be on the phone when someone calls at a critical time to trace the call. This is all really neat and fun, but after a while, it kind of gets stale.

I hate to say this because this is a one-of-a-kind game on the DS. It uses the touchscreen in a unique way, but all you do is solve these ghost puzzles. There’s more talking than gameplay, which will bore impatient people. Some cutscenes can go on for nearly 20 minutes. When you do start playing, you are constantly interrupted with overly drawn-out dialogue to tell you what to do. A lot of the time, the puzzles can be nearly impossible to figure out or require constant trial and error. The occasional puzzle is thrown out there that is different—some are timed and some aren’t. Towards the end, you get to play as two different ghosts; one has the ability to swap objects. This adds another layer of depth and difficulty to puzzles, but most can be figured out after a few tries.

I actually got really attached to the characters, which is surprising. For the long length of the game (nearly 20 hours), the characters were well developed, but the big flaw was revealing everything in the final 3 chapters and then adding another complete twist at the very end to overcomplicate the story. It all flows perfectly fine until the end, when it just falls apart. It gets so confusing with all the characters and details you have to remember; they should have spread it out more. Despite this major flaw, this remains one of the most story-rich games on the DS. There are many puzzles in the game, and it is well worth a purchase, but the impatient may not like it.

Overall, Ghost Trick is a unique game with original game mechanics that are repeated way too often. The story and characters are great and memorable, but the story falls apart towards the end and gets convoluted. There is also zero replay value because there’s no collecting and no extra endings. Once you beat the game, you are done for good. I also didn’t like the poor balancing of puzzle difficulty and the high level of trial and error. If you can look past all this, you are in for one of the best games the DS has to offer.

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Resident Evil: Code: Veronica

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/28/2013

Posted in: Book Reviews. Tagged: books, capcom, chris redfield, claire redfield, code veronica, novel, resident evil, umbrella, video game. Leave a comment

Publisher: Pocket Books

Author: S.D. Perry

Release Date: 12/1/2001

Pages: 256

MSRP: $7.99 (Paperback)

Recommended Audience: Young Adult

The last, and final, book in S.D. Perry’s Resident Evil novelizations is about the Dreamcast and PS2 classic Code: Veronica. Claire Redfield is captured by Umbrella and gets stuck on Rockfort Island during a zombie outbreak. She has to find a way off the island, but this is only half the book. The last half is her being stuck on an umbrella research station in Antarctica. She and a fellow Rockfort prisoner named Steve set off through horrible scenarios to find freedom, but the Ashford siblings don’t make it easy.

The novel really lets you know Claire’s personality and her growing attachment to Steve. I also love how Perry puts across just how psychotic Alfred and Alexia Ashford are. These guys think they are above all beings on Earth, and there’s some awkward hinting at incest throughout, which is probably a subject Capcom rarely touches on. Honestly, Veronica is more about a few large carrier zombies than them barreling through a ton of regular ones. These fights are brief but enjoyable to read, but I always loved when the siblings came in because they were just sick and twisted.

Of course, Claire and Steve end up getting separated a lot and having to solve strange puzzles similar to the games. They wind their way through the island, the mansion, and the research facility, but the book doesn’t end on a happy note. What does the Resident Evil story do? With this being the final book, I can’t help but notice that every RE story ends with the bad guys losing and the main characters barely escaping. It’s starting to become cliché at this point. However, Veronica was probably one of the better RE stories due to its darker themes, so this is forgivable in this book.

One thing that drives me nuts about Perry is that she always has this awkward sexual tension between the characters; you just want them to go for it and completely stop. It gets annoying after a while. Her RE novels are also not very sophisticated; they are just fun popcorn novels while they last. These aren’t memorable or something you will talk about for years to come, but they are something to tide RE fans over until the next game comes out. Veronica is no exception and is just as good as all the previous six.

Resident Evil: Revelations

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 11/15/2012

Posted in: 3DS, Microsoft, Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Retro Consoles, Sony, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified, Switch, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One. Tagged: 3d, 3ds, capcom, chris redfield, g virus, game of the year, jill valentine, Nintendo, outbreak, resident evil, revelations, survival, zombie, zombies. Leave a comment

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

Release Date: 2/7/2012

Available On

Revelations is the first Resident Evil game on 3DS and is probably the best portable RE game ever made. Not to mention, probably one of the better, more recent Resident Evil games. The controls are solid, the story is at least a little interesting, and the monsters are awesome. Of course, the game has great 3D effects and a lengthy campaign. Hop aboard Queen Zenobia as Jill Valentine and find out for yourself.

You start out as Jill Valentine aboard Queen Zenobia, which is a derelict ship that possibly holds answers for the T-Abyss virus that the terrorist group Veltro unleashed into the ocean (or will unleash). The game has an over-the-shoulder perspective like RE4 and 5, but when you use your weapons, the camera goes into the first person to utilize the 3D effects. It works well, and you can move around while aiming by holding L. There are many different weapons in the game, and you can find custom parts to upgrade them. It really makes a difference when facing tough enemies, but not every custom part is easy to find. Some are hidden away, needing certain keys, but this is grouped into a major issue with the game (I will explain later). The shooting feels great and is really solid. The weapons vary from various machine guns to shotguns and pistols. Each type of weapon shares the same ammo pool, but each weapon is different in range, fire rate, and damage.

The exploration is a lot like early RE games because it is claustrophobic and you are stuck on a ship the whole time. This felt a lot like the mansion in RE1, but I prefer the more open adventure feeling of the later games. This leads to constant backtracking, but Capcom tries to skirt this by blocking off passages or making new ones available via keys. I find these ships confusing to navigate and am always lost until later in the game, when the last few chapters are linear and more cinematic and you only have one way to go. It would help if the map system didn’t stink so much. It is in 3D, but you can’t turn it the way you want, and there are no lines that divide sectors. Half the time, I couldn’t tell if I was on the bottom floor or the top floor and just had to run around guessing. The mini-map is more detailed, but why not the full map too?

This is probably the worst thing about the game, but sometimes the enemies can be tough, and too many spawn. This is a close-quarters game, so having 10 enemies spawn in one hallway is a disaster and leads to frustrating deaths. Not to mention the extremely tough final boss, who is a lot like Nemesis. The game does have a pretty good dodge feature where you push the analog nub towards the enemy at the right moment. This can ease tough boss fights, but finding their weakness is key. The enemy designs are awesome, and some are almost Silent Hill-like. They are creepy and gross, and they stray away from the human zombies that we are used to in this series. It is a nice change and should be introduced more often.

The game also has some pretty awesome gameplay change-ups where you use a turret to fight off a giant monster, carry wounded team members, swim, and do various other things that change up the pace. Revelations is a fun roller coaster ride that is full of surprises and will keep you entertained throughout the entire 10-hour campaign. Once you beat that, you can do co-op missions where you fight off hordes of monsters, but some sort of single-player mission mode would have been nice. Revelations also look fantastic with visuals that fully utilize the 3DS hardware.

Overall, Revelations is fun with great visuals, 3D effects, and awesome gunplay. The monsters look good, and the story is decent but nothing memorable. The gameplay is changed up often, and there is a nice long 10-hour campaign. If you love Resident Evil, then this is a must-have for any 3DS owner.

Reviewed On

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

Release Date: 2/15/2012

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Marvel vs. Capcom has been a fan favorite for a decade. This version is an excellent portable fighter with a huge cast of AAA characters, tight controls, and a good number of modes. Online play is what will keep you coming back for more, but the fighting engine has a few issues that most hardcore fans will hesitate to admit.

The story is pretty much a dead throw away. Galactus is a supergiant trying to destroy the universe, but Marvel’s and Capcom’s are colliding, and that’s about it. It sounds kind of like Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, right? Ignoring the lame story, you will probably dive right into arcade mode, and the first thing you will notice is the 40 odd characters. They are all here! On Capcom, you have Frank West, Phoenix Wright, Amaterasu, Chris Redfield, Albert Wesker, Tron, and tons of others. Marvel’s side has Dr. Strange, Electro, Spider-Man, Wolverine, X-23, Thor, Hulk, She-Hulk, and more. These are all awesome characters, each with their own unique moves, hypers, and combos. The game is built off a 3-on-3 engine, so the game gets really hectic. I wish I could only use one character, but you can’t do it. Pick three of your best because each works off the other in tandem.

The way the game uses all three characters is pretty crazy at first. Newcomers will be overwhelmed by the overly complicated combos and controls. I had more fun with the simple control scheme because, no matter how much I practiced, I just couldn’t truly master any character. Even if you go into mission mode, you will probably get stuck on every character somewhere. The button combinations are just ridiculously complicated, and this goes for most Japanese fighters like Soul Calibur. The simple controls shrink everything down to special moves on one button, combos on another, etc. This was more fun because I could pull off crazy combos without much effort. The Vita version has a third control option, and this is using the touchscreen. This is probably for children because you just tap away at the enemy, and your character automatically pulls off combos and hypers, but it is usually the same combo over and over again.

Hypers are both cool to pull off and to look at, but not so fun on the receiving end. Some combos can go in the 50+ range if you pull off a hyper. Depending on how many of the 5 levels your hypermeter is, you can do some serious damage. Have it high enough, and you can pull off a super hyper that uses all three characters. These will almost wipe out your entire health bar. There are a lot of technical terms in the game that will take a few hours to get used to. There are jump cancels, super jumps, and all sorts of lingo that only hardcore fans will take to heart.

After you spend some time button mashing in the arcade mode, there is a whole Heroes and Heralds mode that is kind of like a campaign mode where you slowly conquer areas. You get a hit list sheet, and if you get five in a row, you get an A rank card. These cards have abilities that will be equipped with your fighters. The cards take a while to learn to read and understand what each ability does. Some will let your character auto-block, or at level 2, hyper, you can jump-cancel automatically at the cost of a bar. It’s all pretty in-depth and complicated, but with some tinkering around, you will get used to it.

The online mode is where all the fun is, and it is just as fun on the Vita as on the consoles. There is not much to say here but that it is online. Watch out because you will get your butt handed to you by most players. In terms of other modes, the game doesn’t really have any, but the online mode should keep you busy for quite some time. The visuals are pretty stunning, with lots of effects and great-looking character models, and I didn’t experience any frame rate hits.

Overall, UMvC3 is a great package on the Vita, especially with Cross-Play on the PS3. The graphics are great, and the controls are tight and responsive, but the touchscreen controls are disappointing. I would have liked to have seen some mini-games or maybe a few extra modes just for the Vita, but as it stands, this is a pretty good PS3 port. If you love hectic, in-depth, and complicated fighters, then look no further.