Play Resident Evil Gaiden Online

Summary

Resident Evil Gainda​n for the Game Boy Color feels like a curious experiment in handheld horror. I wander through top‑down corridors that flip into frantic first‑person shooters, the reticle sliding side‑to‑side as you time your attacks—an idea whispered by Shinji Mikami himself but executed by M4. The three playable protagonists each trek the same maze, scavenging keys and items while the limited handheld save points make every dead‑end feel tense.
The game's birth is a piece of publisher politics: after Virgin Interactive impressed Capcom with a Dino Crisis demo, they nudged the tiny British studio M4 to build a proof‑of‑concept port. Capcom liked the concept, left M4 mostly on their own, and asked for the sliding‑reticle combat reminiscent of the ’87 RPG Dungeon Master. Even though the Game Boy Advance had just launched, the team stuck with the older hardware to avoid the cost of re‑programming.
Critics were split—graphics were called drab, while puzzles earned nods for staying true to the series. Years later Retro Gamer crowned it an underrated classic, reminding us that Gaiden’s quirky mechanics and surprising depth still make it stand out among the GBC’s library.

Storyline

Resident Evil Gaiden (often just called Resident Evil: Gaiden) drops you onto the luxury liner Starlight, where Umbrella is rumored to be transporting a new Bio‑Organic Weapon. Leon S. Kennedy, operating for a secret anti‑Umbrella organization, is dispatched to the ship but contact is lost as soon as he boards.

Barry Burton is sent in to locate Leon and quickly discovers the crew turned into zombies. He meets an orphan girl, Lucia, who can sense the BOW’s presence. After a series of explosions, betrayals and a shocking reveal that Barry has been manipulating Umbrella to extract a parasitic BOW growing inside Lucia, the trio fights the shapeshifting monster aboard both the ship and an Umbrella submarine.

In the climactic battle the real Lucia is rescued, the parasite is removed, and the Starlight sinks. A final shot shows Leon’s neck oozing green blood, implying he is the BOW in disguise, while Lucia, now powerless, is offered a place with Barry’s family.