ut it some freakin’ slack. Resident Evil Gaiden is a Game Boy Color game – and for the GBC, it’s a good show. I give lots of credit to M4 and Virgin for handling the inherent limitations of the GBC’s tiny cartridge and putting out the best survival horror game possible.

OK, the graphics are underdone. There is a good use of color and lighting effects throughout the ship (characters’ appearances are affected by shadows), but there is little in the way of animation. RE Gaiden’s one song (with minor variations) plays throughout the entire game and is alarmingly appropriate.

There are no puzzles to wrap your brain around, but the combat is creative and starts when a zombie runs at you on the overhead map. Much like the old Dragon Warrior games, the combat sequences are lifeless – consisting of a nice image of a mutant buried behind a targeting bar. To attack the creature, you have to time your shot when a sliding icon passes over the drooling beast. Different weapons move at varying speeds and the size of the target is dependent upon the distance between you and the monster. A good solution, I think, and it makes RE Gaiden a handy (pun intended) addition to the Umbrella saga.  

MATTHEW KATO   6 I realize that it's hard for the Game Boy Color to give the console Resident Evil experience, but this is almost inexcusable. There is little here that actually gives you any of the series' goosebumps. Whether it's the annoying music, the need to go to a different screen for combat, or the fact that (ironically enough for this supposedly spooky game) the only real way to see anything is with a light peripheral, Gaiden just can't compete with the franchise's lineage. That's not to say that you can't try to put the genre on a handheld, but like the GBC version of Alone in the Dark found out, it takes a little more effort. Instead of this, I wish that Capcom would have gone forward with the now-scrapped handheld remake of the original using pre-rendered backgrounds, fixed cameras, and other RE staples. It can be done and Capcom knows it.