RE Gaiden has a decent story. S.T.A.R.S veteran Barry Burton has to track down a new Bio Organic Weapon or, B.O.W. which is housed at the Starlight cruise ship. The ship is headed to Europe, presumably to Umbrella Headquarters. What’s worse is that old Leon Kennedy went to investigate and has since lost contact with S.T.A.R.S. It’s up to Barry to disable the new B.O.W., save Leon Kennedy, and rescue a young survivor and new character, Lucia. The story is well played out with a good number of cut scenes. When Barry hits new locations he’s updated by HQ on where to go next. Cut scenes can be pretty lengthy to help, eh…flesh out the story.

The top-down perspective could have worked better in RE Gaiden. The environments hold up well on the GBC despite its lackluster color palette. Players can explore environments with the help of an icon box that shows whether a door is locked, open, or if there’s an item available. Players have access to traditional RE weapons – handgun, shotgun, assault rifle, grenade launcher, and rocket launcher. The cruise ship is even a cool local, with tons of rooms to search.

The visuals include shadows that darken an area, which would normally be an opportunity for a scare. But developer M4 and Virgin Interactive threw that out the window and opted for a combat system that resembles most free throws in basketball games. Players can aim with their weapon by holding B and moving a cross hair over a zombie. After your aim is ready the game turns first-person while a moving bar at the bottom moves left and right. If you hit the A button while the bar is over a small red zone, the zombie is hit with max power. Hit anywhere else and the enemy takes less damage. More zombies on screen at a time add multiple hit bars. Players can generally only shoot one bullet per slide of the moving bar. Timed button presses don’t make for any gameplay tension and ruins an attempt at a scare factor.

Besides gameplay there are a few annoyances in RE Gaiden. The game shadows many of the areas and makes the title way too dark. Even with a direct light source the game is difficult to see. The music is pretty bad with chimes that loop every few seconds.

Resident Evil Gaiden doesn’t deserve the RE name. The lame battle scheme and overly dark visuals don’t make for a great play experience. Ditch this one and spend your money elsewhere.