The Last “Great” Game That You’ve Played.

I find that there isn’t too much to talk about in the Nintendo world that isn’t 3DS related at the moment. I mean, we’ve all heard rumors about what we can expect to see from Nintendo and its new console, but other than that we’ve been left in the dark, put in an almost pre-E3 rut state. Meaning that, hey, we got some time to kill.

So In honor of E3 approaching, I would like to draw up the following question. What is the last “great” game that you’ve had the pleasure of playing, and what things did it do to set it apart from the rest?

The last “great” game I played, would have to be a title by the name of Resident Evil 4 (the Wii edition mind you.) I remember going into the game with hardly any knowledge on the series; the only thing I knew was when I was younger, one of the games gave me nightmares for a week; shout out to my wonderful elder cousin, for letting ten year old me play an original resident evil game in a dark room, downstairs by myself and with no night light in sight.

But skip to the present, and the game I had the opportunity of playing a little less than a year ago, Resident Evil 4. This game was a twenty dollar pick up, that I decided to get based on a random video review I stumbled across for it, in an attempt to find a good Wii game. (This was around the time where I was craving something that wasn’t made by Nintendo.) But anyways, yeah, I watched the review, and it seemed like a good game to gamble on.

So I pop in the game for the first time, struggling for about the first half hour as I was trying to trying to get the controls down. And you know what, looking back now, those first 30 minutes were probably the only bad parts of the game for me; because after that, I knew how to use the controls and it was smooth sailing!

I mean, I was hooked! I got to shoot zombies in the face, and slash any in arms reach of me! I was creeping around trying not to engage a horde of them, while at the same time, looking for bullets and herbs to survive and progress further in the game. It was just such a pleasantly new feeling and an absolute rush for me; I was scared and excited at the same time.

One part of me wanted to turn on the lights and set the controller down, while the other, well, he just wanted to kick ass and take names in the pitch black aura that was my basement. That is one thing about playing this game is, it’s a game that has a certain tone to it, and its setting is crucially important for full enjoyment. I mean, how many other games are played best in the dark with the intention of getting you all uppity and terrified every time you open a new door?

Another thing that was really great about Resident Evil 4, was the controls adapted to its Wii port. I mean, it was the first time I ever saw a Wii game actually take advantage of the console’s motion controls for the better of mankind, and in an exciting and new way! Reloading with a downward shake motion of the Wiimote, the use of your knife with a swing of the Nunchuck, it was just pure genius to make use of the controls like that! I know it might sound like something that anyone could have come up with, granted anyone could, but it was a rarity to see controls used right on the Wii at that point, even now you wonder what some games were trying to do with their motion controls. But not in Resident Evil 4; no other games made it such a natural thing, and the controls just became second nature.

Notice how I haven’t talked about the story or graphics in this game at all? It’s by mistake and design simultaneously. Coming into this, I wanted to talk about the story and graphics of course, but my love for how fun Resident Evil 4 was to play, versus how it appeared graphically and how good the story was, totally overshadowed both of the those categories. This does not mean I didn’t enjoy the visuals, they were better than most Wii games I was used to. And this doesn’t mean that I didn’t find the story intriguing, it had good pacing, and I was really in to the whole virus outbreak that took over Leon/ taking care of the president’s daughter/ stopping Los Illuminados part of the story.

It just means that a great game for me at the end of the day, comes from how it plays, and my enjoyment in playing it. Everything else is a perk, and an added incentive to continue playing; they're great to have, and make the experience that much more enjoyable.