Product Description

Resident Evil: Gaiden is a combination of the survival-horror and first person shooting genres featuring well-known characters Barry Burton and Leon Kennedy. It features three playable characters: Barry Burton, Leon Kennedy, and the new character, Lucia. Dramatic slide-show animations provide background. The challenging gameplay includes finding keys, putting out fires, and switching on power generators, and also features all of the mind-bending puzzles that players have come to expect from the Resident Evil series. As players explore, they will view their character and surroundings in 3-D isometric view. Once battle takes place, the action shifts to first-person mode. With strong graphics and a detailed storyline, the game offers an unusually deep experience for the portable console.

The story begins inside the hideout of the legendary S.T.A.R.S. elite attack force as one of the original members, Barry Burton, discusses a distressing problem with a mysterious elderly woman. A new type of B.O.W. (Bio Organic Weapon) has been developed by the insidious Umbrella corporation and it is believed onboard the luxury cruise liner, Starlight. The Starlight has already begun its voyage to Europe and now rests somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic. Leon S Kennedy, the star of Resident Evil 2, was assigned to eliminate the B.O.W. His last communication confirmed that he was aboard the Starlight, but he hasn't been heard from since. Barry can't figure out why a poem he learned as a child suddenly has returned to him: "I loathe the ocean and the secrets it holds, forever deep, dark and cold." Have the horrors of Raccoon City returned?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20853 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Avalon Interactive
• Released on: 2001-12-14
• Platform: Game Boy

Manufacturer's Description
The ultimate survival horror series finally sees the light of day on the Game Boy Color. The player controls 3 unique characters (Barry, Leon and Lucia) as he desperately tries to survive aboard a luxury cruise ship that is host to an overflow of undead passengers and the Bio Organic Weapon (B.O.W).

Customer Reviews

Resident evil; the legacy continues
So finally here it is. Capcom has brought out the latest installment of the resident evil series and yet its not on a 32 bit format or even a next generation console. No, the grimey, gore gotten game has been bunged onto a tiny cartridge and placed onto the game boy colour.
You have the opportunity to play as Barry (the cool guy from the original game), Leon (the amazing cop from res2) or this new chick who's the new heroine in the game, Lucy.
The set is a large tanker which is carrying some 'sensitive' materials, this of course being the dreaded T-virus which has been in use for so long now, that it should be made a word in the English dictionary. However, the bio organic weapon, or B.O.W for short, has gotten lose yet again and our hero's are the only ones who can stop it. Won't Umbrella ever learn?
The graphics really do push the game boy advance to its limits. Obviously they won't be as complex as anything the ps2 can stock, but that have coped with that aspect pretty well. The atmos does feel dark and evil and this is accompanied with some fantastic sound effects. The game boy can really push that sound chip to limit with an amazing shot gun crack.
The gameplay is decent, especially for a hand held console and it'll keep you playing all through Cristmas. It can be a little slow at times, but thats what adventure horror is all about. There are some really good cut scenes too. Not in FMV of course, but there are some great pictures accompanied with text to hepl tell the story. One advantage to this is that there'll be no more nativity style acting like we're used to in the other games! There are plenty of bad guys to kill, lots of rooms and different areas of the ship ( including a submerine!) to explore.
For any of you who own a GBA, you'll be able to knock this one on wide screen for some amazing graphics and extra large characters, and those of you with a GBC will also be able to experience something quite simular. I really hope that capcom make a version for the GBA, as there will be the possibility of better sound and graphics, but at the moment I'm gonna keep playing this little gem...

You can't blame them for trying.
The Resident Evil series is firmly associated with Nintendo (for the moment, an online Resident Evil game is in the works for the Playstation 2), so it was obvious that a Gameboy/Advance edition of the game would emerge. And so it did, in the form of "Resident Evil: Gaiden", I have broken down a review of the game below.

PLOT:

(+) A nice addition to the series that invites two of the fans' favourite characters on a very original survival horror experience. The idea of setting the game on a ship is very cool, allowing for the restricted playing area (which is actually quite large for a Gameboy game).
(-) The plot "suprises" are a bit obvious.

GRAPHICS:

(+) Keeping in mind that this is a title also available for the original Gameboy Colour, this game looks alright, the sprites are small, leaving little space for detail but is accurate in design. The battle scenes with zombies are more detailed and like the cut-scenes, are well illustrated. Characters Leon Kennedy (set to take the lead in Resident Evil 4) and Barry Burton (Resident Evil/Remake favourite who has a small appearance in Resident Evil 3) resemble their Playstation/Gamecube carnations well. The enivornments (all set aboard a luxury cruise-liner, the "Starlight") are well designed and illustrated with suprising detail and mood.
(-) They are still basic though and while lighting does feature and a real effort has been made, the graphics do tend to ruin the one thing that made the series so popular in the first place - the tension.

SOUND:

(+) I was quite impressed hearing the zombies' groans coming from my little Gameboy Colour. Effort has been made to immitate the sounds used in other games in the series.
(-) There's little else, the zombie groans become painful to hear after a while and they do nothing for the gaming experience. Better than nothing though.

MUSIC:

(+) It keeps in the style of the series and is fitting for the game.
(-) I have heard better mobile ringtones. As far as I know there's no more than a couple of "scores" if that's what you want to call them... It will drive you insane after a few hours play.

PLAYABILITY:

(+) Addictive, although this could just be my determination to see the ending. The use of a map is very helpful. The battle system is an interesting and original addition to the series and helps this game move a little, although it can be very hard to evade zombie encounters.
(-) The characters are very slow, sometimes you wonder who the zombies are. Although they move at a realistic speed, there's just a lot of running to do, and getting from one side of the ship to the other can take a while. Getting items and using them (much in the same way as the other Resident Evil games) is very fustrating and confusing as you're given very little infomation about something if you're not sure what to do. It's also a pity that there are Save Points rather than the classic Typewriter/Ink Ribbon scheme that works so well in other additions to the series. I found myself dying often, just before a Save Point and having to go through a lot of the game again to get any further, very fustrating.

REPLAY VALUE:

(+) If you're a hardcore fan, then you'll play it again. Probably.
(-) I couldn't finish this game. I got stuck, I found it very hard, there were far more zombies than there was ammunition/health given.

CONCLUSIONS:

Well, it was always going to happen. With a Gameboy Colour version of "Resident Evil 1" scrapped a while ago, it's nice to see an entirely seperate game that fits neatly into the series. It's just a shame that it wasn't exclusively a Gameboy Advance title - it could have really done with the extra graphical and audio boost. There are some great ideas here and it looks as though a lot of work has been done to make sure this game works in the series (unlike Resident Evil: Gun Survivor or the Resident Evil Movie). You'll know more or less what you're buying by looking at the back of the box when you buy it. So you can't say you're dissapointed with it once you own it.

worth owning for resident evil completists
I'm sure this would not be of much interest to the casual gamer but as a hardcore RE fan I just had to own this. You can buy it either new or second-hand on this site pretty cheaply and also get a used Game Boy Color dirt cheap. I don't think it officially fits into RE continuity, which is a pity as I don't hink it contradicts it in any way, even the much-criticised ending seems to play out in RE4, whether or not this is intentional. And it's great to play as Barry!

The game and console are years old, so the graphics and sound are very dated. the gameplay is sound but if you don't like the old RE style of exploration for key items and having to constantly backtrack then you will get frustrated, but I miss the old Re format so was quite happy. Also this is quite a difficult game in that you really struggle with a lot of zombies to fight with quite little ammo and herbs, but that was the original RE mandate of "survival horror" as opposed to the non-stop killing spree that has now taken over in the series. And don't expect any variety in terms of the enemies, it's pretty much zombie after zombie.

I think it would be great for this game to be updated and released on another platform and offically tied into RE canon. I don't understand that just because "gaiden" translates into "side story" then that implies that it is not in line with continuity, but as I say that is the general understanding I think.

I think the latest review goes back several years so I expect that if anyone reads this then it will be for the same reason I researched this, to see if as a hardcore fanatic this is worth buying - so I would say yes it's worth ago and was fun to play for its relatively short lifespan