Resident Evil 5 Wii: Capcom has no excuse *Updated*

The Wii has Resident Evil 4 one of the highest rated games of all time, only with control unlike any of the previous versions. The Wii remote allowed for immersive control with aiming and interaction that was miles ahead of any other game like it. The graphics were a straight port from the Gamecube game and thank goodness since the PS2 version lacked many of the details the GC had.

Now we have Resident Evil 5 hopefully coming by the end of this year in Japan (2009 in the US) for Xbox 360, PS3 and......not the Wii.....yet. If you remember Capcom when asked if they would bring RE5 to the Wii, said that it would depend on how the sales of RE4 and Umbrella Chronicles performed on the system. Well here we are almost 10 months after the release of RE4 and 6 months since UC and both games have sold over 1 million copies each: Umbrella Chronicles sales and Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition sales

So both games seemed to have passed the "wait and see" test from Capcom. The question is now, when are we going to be getting Resident Evil 5 on the Wii? A version of the game should be coming out on the Wii sooner or later with all the support from fans and the overwhelming demand for this game that has been seen all through out the Internet. No doubt you've seen on forums the words "RE5 would be so awesome with the Wii remote" or "I wish Capcom would make RE5 for the Wii"......these have not been just a few requests, these are requests of literally thousands(almost 60,000 petition signatures) of people hoping to be able to have the freedom of aiming and control in RE5 like they could on RE4 Wii.

So is the graphics issue the only thing holding Capcom back? Is time and also resources an issue as well? Capcom is always making new game announcements so for it to be a resource issue is a bit of lame excuse. Now they do have many games they are working on with RE5 on the 360 and PS3 being a big one, so time might really be one of the hurdles for Capcom. So that leaves us with the actual development of the game for Wii. Would RE5 really be that hard to put on the Wii?

Lets compare the Gamecube version of RE4 with RE5 and see if there really is that huge of a difference in graphics that a Wii version couldn't be possible even though the Wii is about twice as powerful as Gamecube:



The top photo is the actual character model of Chris Redfield in RE5, with the bottom being Leon from the Gamecube version of RE4. I'm not really seeing a huge difference in detail. I'm sure that Chris has more polygons but not really a large amount more than Leon. The texture work will be better in RE5 than RE4 was on Gamecube, but then again so could the Wii version since it has about 3 times more memory than Gamecube that can be used for much more detailed textures.




Resident Evil 5 has great lighting, shadows and high resolution graphics. Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube had many similar effects minus the high resolution 3 years ago. A Wii version would still not have the HD but it can improve on ever aspect of what the Gamecube was doing back then. All RE5 on the Wii has to do is look close to it's big brothers in Standard Def and thats something I'm positive that it can accomplish with the right amount of effort using the Wii's extra power, extra memory and the unique architecture that Factor 5 has said makes the Wii able to do almost all the effects of the PS3 and Xbox 360.



Resident Evil 5 just plain looks like Resident Evil 4. You've got the same behind the back and to the left third-person view, the main character holds and aims his gun in the same way in both games, and in all the videos that have been released for Resident Evil 5 even the animations have been almost exactly the same! An example of this is when an enemy is killed in RE5 he drops to one knee in the exact same animation as RE4 when the Ganados were killed. All these things really make the case for RE5 to be on the Wii in my opinion. Telling me that Capcom will never do it or that it is just to hard to port over is really just a lame excuse. It can be done and RE5 on the Wii can look extremely good if seeing what Capcom was able to accomplish on Gamecube is anything to go by. Take down some of the polygons on the enemies (you can hide missing polygons really good with nice textures), bring down some of the lighting effects if need be and run it in standard definition and call it day.

Did I mention that the Wii is currently the worlds top selling console? The fans want it and the fans will buy it if you bring it to them. What more reasons could you possibly need Capcom?

*UPDATE* 7/23/08

Sega of America president Simon Jefferey in an interview concerning hardcore gaming on the Wii let slip that Resident Evil 5 was coming to the Wii. He said: "Resident Evil 5 (he then pauses for a moment) when that happens on the Wii it's going to help."

Jefferey tried to backpedal his statement after the interview but I've found more evidence:

Christian Svensson, Corporate Officer/VP of Strategic Planning & Business Development of Capcom had this to say when asked about the Resident Evil 5 Wii slip up in the "Ask Capcom forum":

"Simon's a friend of mine... but I don't think I've spoken to him about anything like that.

No comment beyond that really. Interesting clip that slip aside though. Simon's a really smart guy. I have a lot of respect for his work at Sega and his prior work at Lucasarts."

Link

Hey guys I don't know about you but that is looking like a very strong hint that RE5 is in development for the Wii. That is definitely not a denial, and usually when Sven talks like that it means something is happening concerning that subject (for the Wii in this case) and he can't say anymore about it or it will interfere with Capcom's future plans. If Resident Evil 5 was announced right now for the Wii, how many sales would that take away from the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions which are almost finished? From a business standpoint I can understand if Capcom plays it quiet until after those versions are released, and then they may announce RE5 for the Wii.

There's a light at the end of the tunnel it seems....

*Update* 4/2/09

Reggie recently asked Capcom why Resident Evil 5 is on the Wii, here is the original question and response from Capcom:

Reggie:

“Why wasn’t ‘Resident Evil‘ and other key Capcom releases that are in the marketplace now… why wasn’t there a Wii execution?”

Capcom:

“Both ‘Resident Evil 5‘ and ‘Street Fighter IV‘ were designed for high-definition graphics systems using Capcom’s current in-house engine called MT Framework. To get ‘RE5′ or ‘Street Fighter IV’ out on the Wii, we would have to create all-new versions of both of these games, which is something we’re not opposed to doing. So the intention of both ‘RE5′ and ‘Street Fighter IV’ was to go for graphical showcases, which is not what the center of the bullseye Wii is aiming for. However, we do have a lot of ‘Resident Evil’ action happening on the Wii and hopefully we will have more in the future.” - Chris Kramer, communications director, Capcom

Link

Capcom clearly said they are not opposed to making "ground up" versions of Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter IV for the Wii. Does this mean that it will happen? I think that yes it will. Capcom should have been making Resident Evil 5: Wii Edition a long time ago if you ask me. It would probably be a lot better on the Wii (with the control alone) and if they made it from the ground up, they could easily take out the forced co-op missions that detracted from some of the experience of RE5 on the other systems. Make it work Capcom, or at least give us Resident Evil something with Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition controls.

Is this really so hard to ask?