For example, Resident Evil.

I remember watching commercials for Resident Evil 2, before I even owned a PlayStation. I knew it was a Big Game. Thinking back to my early PlayStation library, getting RE2 was a real eye-opener. It showed me that games could tell stories, that content could be gory and adult, and that cutscenes could be worth watching. I jumped when the zombie arms smashed through the window in the police station corridor. I collected keys shaped like chess pieces. I finished the game and considered it a genuine accomplishment.

Then I jumped back to the first Resident Evil. Similar fun, cheesier tone. "Master of unlocking" and all that.

I was there for the release of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. I was angry when Resident Evil: Code Veronica launched as a Dreamcast exclusive... then angrier when the PS2 port came out and I found out that I couldn't get past the mid-point boss fight in the airplane. I enjoyed most of the GameCube remake of Resident Evil 1, but by this point I had largely moved on to Fatal Frame for my survival horror. And Disaster Report, but that is best not mentioned.

RE Dead Aim was good, for a light gun game. RE Outbreak was terrible, for any kind of game. I never picked up RE Gun Survivor or Resident Evil Zero. I probably would have liked Zero at least as much as Nemesis or the Cube RE, but it just seemed less than necessary.

Because there's now this creeping mediocrity in the RE games, best defined by adherance to game elements that should have long been abandoned. Capcom must have been aware of this, the idea that Resident Evil as a franchise was standing on a precipice... and that most gamers were expecting it to jump right in and complete the transformation into pure crap. Much as did Crash Bandicoot, Sonic, and Tomb Raider.

So Capcom did the right thing and reinvented Resident Evil. And for Nintendo, of all companies. Resident Evil 4 is the overhaul you've been waiting for, the game that redeems the franchise and rewards the faithful. I beat Dead Aim, dammit, and this is my reward.

I started playing RE4 Saturday night around 9 or 10pm. (I prefer playing these sorts of games at night.) And I didn't stop until 6:30am. That's how gripped I was. In that time I got all the way to the Castle. Which, actually, I thought was a bit of a letdown. The outdoor environments and enemies are so good, I wanted to stay with them rather than enter the Dr. Doom castle and fight monk enemies.

RE4 finally lets you play the one classic moment that previously always popped up as a non-interactive cutscene: when the hero(es) find themselves in an enclosed area, surrounded by hordes of enemies piling in through the doors and windows. ...You're in a village, under attack by the hynotized? mind-controlled? infected? villagers that are totally not zombies (rolls eyes). You can try shooting them through the boarded up windows, or shoving furniture in front of them, but eventually they'll bust through. Then they push in the door. Run up the stairs and they will follow you. The outside group will prop up ladders against the second story windows (you can push the ladders away, but they'll just pick them up again.) To get through it, you have to shoot like crazy and just endure it. It was glorious.

Even though they improved so many things (better controls, smarter enemies, true aiming on different body parts, 3D environments, no annoying loading doors, nicer map, more ammo), there's still some bits left in to remind you you're playing a Resident Evil game. Green herbs, first aid sprays, typewriters as save points, and a light puzzle here and there. It's nostalgia done right.

And then there's this crazy merchant who sounds like a pirate. He shows up at "safe" points on the map to sell you upgraded weapons and buy the gaudy treasures you've collected. He's the most obvious gamey concession in the whole thing... a weird presence who has yet to be explained and is blatantly incongruous with the rest of the setting. I'd almost rather hero Leon Kennedy mail order new gear and have it drop from the sky... if the merchant's pirate accent wasn't so funny.

Although the game is going to great lengths to avoid the usual T-Virus infection plotline - in fact, the opening movie mentions that Umbrella has finally been shut down by the government - there is clearly still some mutationin' goin' on. Initially, the villager enemies seem like angry rural mob fodder... tossing farm implements at you while speaking real Spanish at each other. But it doesn't take long before one of them turns into a Spaghetti Head: the human head explodes and an ugly worm thing with spiky tendrils pours up out of the neck. Still keeps the host body though. You can actually encourage the development of a Spaghetti with accurate headshots. However, I would rather not spawn Spaghetti Heads, so I've been re-teaching myself to aim for the kneecaps.

Although this was originally a Nintendo GameCube exclusive, Capcom has since announced a PS2 version. Most commentators find it hard to believe that they will be able to compress a game this beautiful down into a PS2, and I would have to agree. I suppose it is possible with sacrifice. It will be interesting to see if the baselined PS2 version will outsell the GameCube version. If the PS2 port happens, we won't see it until 2006.

This is probably speculation, but the bits where Leon uses his video phone to talk to his mission supervisor... the screen looks a lot like an unfolded GBA SP. Suppose that at one point - back when Nintendo was pushing the GBA/Cube connectivity thing (pause for emotional sigh) - suppose that the original plan was to have the CO talk to you via a connected SP? Just a thought. A technogasmic, quasi-immersive thought.

Best part: I left my car's dome light on during my entire Resident Evil 4 eight to nine hour session. I didn't realize it until Rhon (who stayed up to watch most of the game; it is that good) looked out the window at 5 in the a.m. The car started up fine the next day.