The last console of the current generation to get ports of Resident Evil Remake, Resident Evil 4, and Resident Evil 0 happens to be made by the company whose underappreciated Gamecube console gave them their debuts. With all three on Nintendo Switch, these games come full circle from their Gamecube roots, unmistakably home to Resident Evil’s second great run of games. The hook this time being you can play them in portable form.
There’s been plenty written on these games over the years and countless reviews, so we’ll be covering all three in the one review.
We start with the chronological start of the Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil 0. Setting up the events of not only the original Resi, but the fate of Albert Wesker as well, this prequel sees S.T.A.R.S. team member Rebecca Chambers stranded on an Umbrella train alongside convicted murderer on the lam Billy Coen. Being an Umbrella train naturally means something horrific isn’t far away, and the pair team up to tackle leech-like parasites carrying the T-Virus, zombies, and a rather large and irate scorpion among other things.
The twist to Resident Evil 0 is that you can ‘zap’ between Billy and Rebecca at any time, sharing inventory when they’re close, sending items across to get around obstacles, and getting each other out of scrapes. It’s the embryonic version of the co-op action found in Resident Evil 5, albeit in single-player form. It’s an interesting change to the formula, but it’s applied in a messy manner. Juggling items between two characters can become a massive pain during sections where they can’t interact close enough to exchange, meaning you’re stuck with whatever is in that characters inventory for a bit.
It fills in some story for the rest of the franchise, and it has that same melodramatic cheese factor as the original games, but it’s clearly the weakest of the bunch we have here. It’s a curio in the more traditional style of Resident Evil, but still a welcome, enjoyable one.
Unfortunately, it’s not the greatest port, as load times are painfully long, and given how many small spaces you’ll move between, it really knocks the pace out of whack. It’s not the only guilty party as far as below-par ports go here.
Next up is Resident Evil Remake, perhaps the greatest ever remake of a game. It respects its origins, but revitalizes them in new and exciting ways. Revisiting the Spencer Mansion is simply wonderful no matter how many times you go through it. The classic haunted house setup, filled with Fulci-esque undead (that now may come back to life again as even more lethal ‘Crimson Heads’) and an assortment of nightmare creatures spills out into a melodramatic conspiracy story that fully indulges in its inherent cheesiness. It’s among the best games in the series, plus the fixed cameras and pre-rendered backgrounds mean the game stands the test of time visually.
The biggest, and most welcome, change to the original story is the introduction of the tortured Lisa Trevor, a tragic, disfigured monster, her howling and moaning echoing off the walls long before you see her. She has a fascinating back story, and it really enriches the overall lore of the Spencer Mansion.
With the more recent version of this port and that of Resident Evil 0, there are alternate control schemes to suit more modern audiences. It’s a little touch, but it opens these games up to a wider audience, even if it can be just as fiddly as the original control setup at times. It’s certainly the more suitable way to play on the Switch in portable mode. The frame rate can be a tad choppy at points, and though it’s rarely a grievous issue, it’s a strange fault to have when this is a port of a remaster of a 17-year-old game that worked perfectly fine before.
To go a little deeper on the Switch versions benefits, it’s amazing how well suited these two games are to the portable mode, it allows for a greater focus on the games themselves and the relatively sedate pace of 0 and Remake make for engrossing experiences to be enjoyed in short bursts or lengthy sessions.
Resident Evil 4 is a different beast. The rebirth of Resident Evil as a more versatile action-orientated survival horror, and the first to abandon the Umbrella plots for a new breed of zombie terror via the Las Plagas virus. If Resident Evil before this game was a European style zombie nightmare, then Resident Evil 4 brings a bit of folk horror to the party. Resident Evil 2 co-protagonist Leon Kennedy returns as a special agent searching for the President’s daughter in rural Spain. Of course, there’s some weird cult shit going on, and you’re quickly determined to be a threat to the village’s operations, evoking the likes of Texas Chainsaw and The Wicker Man.
It’s no secret at this time that Resident Evil 4 is a stone-cold classic. Sure, its controls feel a bit dated in a very different way to Resi 0 and Remake (some modern remapping would have been nice as a side option, and it’s a shame motion controls didn’t return from the Wii version), but its D.N.A. is so entrenched in every third-person shooter that’s come since, that it feels warmly familiar, yet unlike anything else. The siege against the Ganados, the boss fight on the boat, the first dread-inducing rev of a chainsaw, and that knife fight are just some of the memorable highlights of a stellar action horror game.
Compared to the other two games, it doesn’t fit the Switch’s portable mode quite as well, but it’s easily the most stable and polished port of them all. Plus it’s an absolute cracker of a game so that helps.
All three games also come with all the extra content found in other recent ports, but it’s a shame that the technical side doesn’t match even the baseline of them. The Switch versions are not cheap, so to have issues not found in previous ports and charging more for the inconvenience takes the shine off having these games on the Switch in the first place.
It’s cool to have more Resi on the go, but there shouldn’t be with caveats.
Resident Evil 0 Score:
Resident Evil Remake Score:
Resident Evil 4 Score:
Resident Evil Remake, Resident Evil 0, and Resident Evil 4 review codes provided by the publisher,
Resident Evil Remake, Resident Evil 0, and Resident Evil 4 are out now on Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.