So, for someone who has never played any of the RE games and is somewhat skeptical, would this be a good play for me? I've heard it's fantastic, and the pricetag is nice..

I picked up the game, and gave it about an hour's worth of play.  I've gotta say, it's been rather hard for me to get into the Wiimote controls - quite close to the point where I'm not finding it as liable a play option as I thought it would be.  Veterans are going to have to adjust to the camera not automatically moving along with your targeting reticule; you'll need to work some double-lobe activity to move both the analog stick and Wiimote in conjunction with each other.

And then there's the freaken quick-knife feature, where you don't need to hold the "C" button to ready the knife - you just make a quick swipe with the Wiimote by itself, and you'll automatically swing the knife.  The problem is that it's sensitive to the point that you might move your Wiimote by accident, and you'll stop and swing when you don't really want to.  Thrice I was trying to run away from a pack of attacking villagers, placing my Wiimote hand down away from the screen to rest, and Leon stops and swings the bloody knife at dead air.  And the attackers got the jump on me.

It's for that reason I just stated above why I'm thinking this may not be a liable play option in the long run.  Even if I adapted to the targeting reticule camera and quick-knife, I wonder if my arm could, what with holding the Wiimote up for such long periods of time, 'gun' at the ready.  Already I'm longing just to plug in the Gamecube controller, set myself in a comfortable in-lap position, and be done with it.

Some other notes of interest:

Sadly, they've axed the Easy and Amateur modes that were evident from the Japanese version; just like the Gamecube U.S. release before it, this version starts you off on Normal and ONLY Normal.  This seemed like an odd exclusion; wasn't one of the marketing points of the Wii version was to make it accessible to even casual gamers?  Unless the easier modes become unlocked after beating Normal..... which would make no sense whatsoever.   

The graphics do look about the same, but the resolution was bumped up considerably.  It's MUCH sharper looking to the point that you can even tell the difference on a standard definition set.  Load times are about as fast as the Gamecube version, and the QTE scenes do seem to transition a hair faster.

So far, I'm not wholly impressed with the new Wii controls.  Your mileage may vary, but personally, I'm having a very tough time getting used to it.

This seems like a particularly odd move to me.  I'm sure Capcom didn't want to add unintentional screen shake in, but bounding boxes could have been implemented to correct this.

At any rate, I just discovered that I am apparently getting this game tomorrow against my wishes from GameStop.com.  You see, a very long time ago I pre-ordered Umbrella Chronicles with free shipping and apparently sometime between then and now the geniuses over there decided to use the same SKU for RE4 Wii.  I'll probably just return it to my local GameStop store, but I may buy it again sometime in the future when the price is lower.

Angela, I agree that the controls aren't exactly what I wanted, but I have yet to have that knife problem.  My complaint is that you have to hold down B to shoot with A.  I keep trying to hold Z and shoot with B.  Why I'm doing this, I'll never know, but that's got me hurt/killed more than it should've.  Do note that the back of the box has the Wii retro controller... so, if you must...

Another peeve I've just discovered.  If you want to play with the Gamecube controller (and, presumably with the Classic Controller), you first need to have the nunchuck connected to the Wiimote when you boot up the game.  Then you need to DISCONNECT the nunchuck for the GC controller to detect.   You need to do this everytime you turn on the game.  Lordy.

Wow, it sounds like the GC game might be better simply because of the controls! I checked out IGN, and this is what they said:

"The visuals aren't as impressive as they once were, true, but Wii owners do walk away with improved controls that enable a greater degree of shooting speed and accuracy, a true 16:9 widescreen mode and all the content extras of the PS2 build – all for a bargain price of $29.99. If you played the GameCube original, consider the Wii game the ultimate collector's edition..."

Notice they said "improved controls" and I really wonder what they mean by that? Anyway, once people get farther into the game let us know what your new impressions are.

cheers,

-avatar!

Around chapter 1-2 or 1-3 or something, the game's controls finally started working for me.  I say that I like it.  Yay for head shots!  It comes more recommended than the GCN version, IMO, but I think it is one of those where you'll have to try it for yourself to see.

Yeah, I just got up to Chapter 2-1 myself, and I'll admit I'm warming up to the Wi controls.  Placing the sensor bar below the TV rather than on top proved to be helpful; I can now keep the Wiimote at lap level, with far less strain and movement on the arm -- which also means less accidental swinging of the quick-knife.  Headshots are a breeze, and picking off enemies from afar - even with a short-distance weapon like the handgun - is awfully cool. 

But damn, I love how fast the save files process onto the Wii memory.  It was pretty quick writing to a memory card with the GC original, but now saves are practically instantaneous; you can just about skip back into the game before the typewriter even finishes writing the file!

Yeah, I'm in chapter 3-1 (I think, right at the prison room event) and really loving it.  Still wish pulling B shoots, but I am used to it.  Anyone watch the Umbrella Chronicles video yet?  I look forward to giving that one a shot.  I wish they'd announce more on RE5 for the 360 (oh, and I guess PS3 too).

Picked it up today, just beat the Village Chief.

Having played through hard mode on the GC version several times, normal isn't much of a challenge. Adapted to the controls by the beginning of chapter two. The ability to easily headshot also saves an absurd amount of ammo. Can't wait to play Mercenaries, and the PS2 exclusive content as I haven't played through it yet.

IMO the controls have lived up to the hype. Capcom took one of my favorite video games of all time and made it better without really doing anything.

Have you noticed?  Fallen enemies leave behind far less ammo than in the GC version; before I perfected headshots, I was wondering why my gun mags were getting so empty so quickly. o_O  Capcom undoubtedly took this into account to tweak the gameplay.

Ammo has been consistent enough on drops for me. Been having to leave ammo behind because I have no more room in my case. TMP ammo drop rate seems really high, I at some point had over 500 extra ammo in my case before the Village Chief, and I was on & off using the weapon since I got it. There was a point though, the second time you encounter a chainsaw guy, that I had no ammo at all which was kinda weird. Had to waste a couple incin gren's and hand gren's.

The Village Chief has some move (maybe new?) that I never noticed before. His first form can jump now, apparently. Made for a bit of a surprise when I thought I was safe for a moment to reload and all of a sudden he jumped half the screen towards me and proceeded to make Leon cry. Fought him a bunch of times, never seen this before.

Where's all this headshot love coming from?  In the NGC version, the game starts punishing you for doing headshots by making difficult-to-kill parasites appear from decapitated enemies a short way into the game.  To avoid this unpleasantness, I quickly learned to shoot enemies in the knees, run up close, and perform Leon's QTE attack (kick or suplex) to do a lot of damage without wasting ammo.  Has this changed in the Wii version?

Monsters may or may not spawn Plagus, shooting in the head does not determine whether they appear or not. For regular monsters it's random, for certain other guys (for example, red monks) it happens all the time. You can shoot guys anywhere you want, Plagus will still spawn after the carrier takes enough damage.

Haven't tried your strategy before. Sounds fun. I would imagine it hasn't changed in the Wii version.

I've been playing with the capping in the knees/knife-slashing strategy.  It's tremendously gratifying swinging the Wiimote to slash -- and they've seemed to up the knife's effectiveness as well; I've found enemies going down more quickly with a properly timed slash or two to the face, as opposed to the original's three or four times.

The headshot-lovin', at least for me, stems from the fact that the accuracy of the Wiimote has made it that even killing the plagas is an enjoyable affair.  Being able to nail 'em at a safe distance and with such precision almost makes you WANT to persuade the little bastards to come out.

This makes the seventh time I played through the game and I didn't even know about a suplex.  Usually I shoot them in the head, run up and kick them down, then slash them with a knife until they die.

I've also noticed that I have, at times, an absurdly high amount of ammo (take into consideration I sell every TMP bullet I get because I don't care for the TMP) to having a worrisome low amount.  I'm headed to the island now though.  This was worth the triple dip and $30 price.  Makes me curious how well I'll enjoy RE5 on the 360 (or PS3) though, after getting used to this control scheme.  Kinda hope it'll be compatible with the Guncon 3.

I played it through twice in a row on the NGC.  Loved every minute of it, but more or less had my fill.  I only used the knife for breaking boxes, but if I ever play it again, I might try what you describe above.

I give the quick-knife credit for its new auto-targeting feature, especially when it comes to breaking open boxes and barrels and the like.  It's incredibly handy to not have to position yourself before slashing at an object, as the game does it for you.

I haven't yet dipped once. RE4 completely escaped me. Even with all the talk of it being different, I had lost all interest. It might be time to get this for the Wii.

Ryu, at the risk of sounding like a graphics whore, is it difficult going from the 360 to this?

heheh... I had just started disc 2 of the GC version when realized I could do a 180 by pressing down + B. I had read the manual before starting the game but somehow overlooked that move. It made the first disc's worth of gameplay a little more intense as it was difficult for me to watch my back.

I'd say that RE4 is the closest thing to 360 you're going to get on any of the previous gen systems. The shock should not be too big.

Agreed.

And Jay's inquiry made me think of something... I could always appreciate quality graphics within the parameters of each system specifically.  Meaning, I could see countless hi-res PS3 and 360 games and then go back to PS1 and still be impressed with the graphics in, say, Vagrant Story.

No, not difficult, but definitely noticeable.  I mean, Twilight Princess through component cable at 480p was hard to appreciate graphically after having the 360 through VGA.

One thing I forgot to ask you guys:  How do the shooting gallery mini-games work in the Wii version?  Are they super easy with the remote, did Capcom crank up their difficulty, or what?

I didn't try it during my first time playing through the Wii version.  Good question!  I would think they didn't though.

btw, the Handcannon ftw!

They're a total blast now, if you'll pardon the pun.  Super enjoyable, what with the accuracy of the Wiimote -- quite a bit easier, as no, the difficulty remains untouched.

With the rapid-fire portions, at least.  The sniping weapons in this version still rely on an analog stick control scheme, so aiming is accomplished using the nunchuck.  It can actually be a bit more difficult, since the nunchuck's analog is a little less minute-sensitive than the GC controller.

I'm saving up for the Chicago Typewriter myself -- which is gonna go just lovely with Leon's new mafia outfit.  ^_^

I've never tried the Plagas Removal Laser; I'm working my way through Professional now to attain it.

I've never tried the laser either, so I'm definitely going to go through Professional soon.  The Chicago is nice, but the handcannon is so freakin' powerful!  There is a special animation that goes along with the mafia outfit and the Chicago; for PS2 you hold R1 and press X.  The first three times he does the same simple animation, on the fourth he does an extravagant one.

I'll play through Professional after [laying through again on Normal with the super-suped up Handcannon.  I'll try and earn my bottle caps this time.

Does anyone know how to get rid of duplicate saves?

Nice; I'll look forward to that when I pick it up in the future.

I'm not sure it's possible, as individual save files are now treated as one system save on the Wii memory.  Therefore, deleting the system save will wipe out all the files.

I guess the best you can do is simply overwrite duplicate saves with files you actually want to keep.  I've got four open so far; the finished Normal Round, a new game+ on Normal, a Professional Mode work-in-progress, and a Separate Ways file.  I reckon I'll have one more as a finished Professional Round, once I complete it.

Yeah, I emailed Capcom about it and that's what they said, Angela.  Thanks for the help!  How's professional mode treating you?

Not so bad, actually.  Enemies do inflict more damage per hit, but if you're like me, this won't matter much; I almost always want to do a perfect run of each area, and not get hit even once.  Can't tell you how much I've used the handy "restart from the most current point" feature. ;) Actually, I haven't even gotten to Mendez yet -- and as I recall from the GC original, boss battles were one of the toughest aspects of Pro.

A bit of advice to make Pro Mode a little easier.  Beat Separate Ways first to unlock the armor costume for Ashley, then start your Pro game.  Absolutely no harm will come to Ashley when she's in that armor. o_O

Oh neat, I'm glad they at least let you start a Pro game with the other costumes.  Of course, I have a handcannon I'd like to be using more.

This is what made the GC version so great for me.  I absolutely loved being able to master each room.  I may have taken double the time to beat the game as other people, but damn if I wasn't having a great time.

Reading some of these comments, makes me wonder how much time people have spent on RE4... so, how much time have you spent on it? (Heh, maybe the amount of time people are spending on the game is truly the scariest part

cheers,

-avatar!