Recycling cans is cool. Recycling water is a bit strange, but I guess it could work for the environment. But recycling games? It's a concept that's hardly new, as some developers have been churning out ports with lightspeed efficiency... and poor results. Capcom is the latest victim of this, churning out their Resident Evil series for GameCube owners to no avail. The first Resident Evil was excellent, a nice revisioning of the classic game. Resident Evil Zero was equally impressive. But then came Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, basic ports that never rose to the occasion and basically just existed for nostalgic purposes.

Now comes Resident Evil: Code Veronica X, which first made a stop on the Dreamcast four years ago and then went to the PlayStation 2 to snag a few other likely gamers. The game itself is one of the better Resident Evil entries out there, with plenty of shocks and next-gen chills to keep you on your toes as the tormented Claire Redfield. But this could have been said of the game four years ago - now, in the day and age of Devil May Cry and Fatal Frame II, it seems like old news. Very old news.

The game puts you in the shoes of Claire as she finds herself harbored on a mysterious island loaded with tons of dead things. It seems that the Umbrella Corporation has captured her during her quest to find her brother Chris, who had gone missing for some time. Part of the game puts you in her shoes trying to solve the mystery; the other half puts you in Chris' shoes, trying to locate her and stop whatever's on the island.

The game has your typical Resident Evil controls, and they seem a bit outdated. You can walk forward by pressing up, backward by pressing down, and change direction by pressing left or right, turning your character. This was cool back in the day, but now it seems somewhat limited in terms of control, and also quite a pain in the keester if all you're trying to do is escape from some really bad zombies. Or worse. The game has a novel story to it, even involving some familiar elements from the original Resident Evil to spice things up, but it's nothing really new here. It's like watching a colorized rerun of the Frankenstein movie. Glossy, yeah, but generally the same old thing with just a touch to it.

The game features decent graphics but nothing to take overwhelming use of the GameCube's capabilities. The sound is equally average, with good sound effects but nothing really worthy in the usually corny dialogue and presentation. It's just run-of-the-mill stuff, gone is the innovation that Capcom brought forth with the Resident Evil 1 rebirth. If only they had stuck to this formula, we would have something to turn our heads again.

I know I sound like a broken record saying "it's the same old thing" while I cheer on the return of retro gaming, which is basically the same old thing over again, but there's a difference between a game that remains fun between its first and 50th play and a game that wears out its welcome within a couple of tries. Code Veronica X falls in the latter category, failing to really get any sort of attention besides that of those people who haven't played the game yet. Those who haven't can dig in, but otherwise just skip this and pull out the Dreamcast for old time's sake.

Our Final ScoreBad

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