Go Fanboy - Everyone Has A Favorite

Each of the Resident Evil games have held some kind of significance with me, with the exception of two individual titles, which we'll get to in a minute.

Resident Evil reintroduced the survival horror genre in ways the Alone In the Dark series couldn't even imagine; Resident Evil 2 kept up this horrifying pace with great aplomb and vicious new enemies; and Resident Evil: Code Veronica presented an advancement in the series' graphic engine, as well as in storyline and presentation. The only two that didn't really do that much for me were the miserable Resident Evil: Survivor, a pitiful House of the Dead wanna-be with no control; and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, which, strangely enough, wasn't that bad a game, but didn't really do anything for me either. It just seemed like a filler title instead of an actual entry in the series, and that's weird, because there was plenty of suspense involved in it.

The plot went a little something like this. You're in control of Jill Valentine, one of the STARS officers who survived the original nightmare in Resident Evil. Jill's getting ready to vacate out of Raccoon City so she can report her findings with the mysterious Umbrella corporation that created the zombie madness to begin with. But leaving town's not quite that easy, as the town is still infested with plenty of monsters and zombies that want to eat you alive. However, there's a new threat that's hot on your tail, and that's the Nemesis. A mutated freak with a big fat set of teeth and strange tubes surrounding his body, he's an Umbrella creation hellbent on destroying any member of STARS- and Jill's the last remaining survivor, or so it seems. So even if she does survive the terrifying creatures in Raccoon City, can she stop the Nemesis?

Now Capcom has ported the game over to the Dreamcast, releasing it alongisde their other $20 survival horror game, Dino Crisis. So how's the port hold up? Well, although the game itself hasn't really changed that much at all, it actually has enough to recommend its discounted purchase. Here's the breakdown...

Visuals:: Although I prefer Dino Crisis' fast-moving presentation any day over this game's, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis still has a nice portover to its credit, with refined graphics that look way better on the character models and some of the environments. It's not as high quality as Code Veronica, mind you, but they still look better than they did in their 32-bit incarnation. Otherwise, the same FMV clips and intro stuff that was in the previous version made the jump here. A good port-over, although, with time, this could've been as spectacular-looking as Code Veronica. But then Capcom would have to charge more than $20, huh?

Audio:: Nothing has really changed here. You've got the same bunch of voice acting that was put into the previous port of Nemesis (complete with a little hokeyness on the side), the same sound effects, and the same compelling music bits thrown in for good measure. It's not bad, it's just that it's nothing really new. At least it's not screwed up, either, so I'll go ahead and give an OK for this department.

Gameplay/Control:: Well, it plays like Resident Evil, and that's good enough for what this game's supposed to be. You can pick up items and choose from the selection menu pretty handily, spin around to take out attackers with shotgun blasts with ease, and interact with items just as well as before. I would've preferred a bit more random placement of items, as that would add more freshness to the game. As is, though, Capcom didn't mess with the formula, and if you like Resident Evil, it works. The challenge is up there, but, of course, it depends on how much you played the game on the Playstation. If you've beaten it to death, you won't find much to come back to here, besides seeing Jill's cool tube-top/mini-skirt outfit in 128-bit. If you've never played this before, you'll like this ride.

Extras:: Like Dino Crisis, the extras are limited, and available immediately from the start. You can take on the mercentary time-attack mini-game right from the start instead of earning it, and there's plenty of new costumes to dig through in case you're tired of seeing Jill walk around town in such a skimpy outfit. Past that, no VMU features, no new goodies, nothing. But at least the $20 price isn't a pain in the butt.

Overall:: Although I prefer Dino Crisis to this game (more suspense, plenty of dinos, and a hell of a finale), Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is still a pretty good Dreamcast game, and it shows Capcom still has a lot of care for Sega's machine. The game still packs a good amount of scares, and the Nemesis shakes things up enough to warrant at least a good look, if not a full purchase. Just don't put him too close to the Christmas tree- he might eat it.