Capcom’s GameCube exclusive was a big deal back in 2005. Hailed as one of the best games ever, its mix of horror and puzzle solving cemented the series as one of the all-time greats.

It’s since had an HD overhaul and enjoyed a re-release on the Nintendo Switch. So let us hark back and get all spooky with this gorefest.

Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil games, if you’re new to this series, began life on the PlayStation in 1996 and was created by Shinji Mikami and Tokuro Fujiwara from Capcom.

In Japan, the series is called Biohazard. Upon its release, the survival horror title was a landmark experience.

Although it’s since aged atrociously, it’s fun to look back at some of the most horrendous voice acting ever recorded.

It was a big hit, though, as there wasn’t anything else like it on the market. And that paved the way for various sequels, with Capcom honing Resident Evil 4 as a Nintendo GameCube exclusive.

And although there’s still a lot of dodgy voice acting, my word did they create a terrifying and engrossing video game. To this day it’s getting adaptations and HD remasters.

And the reason for that is simple – the game is fantastic. The third-person shooter doubles up as a survival horror and puzzle game of sorts.

You star as mop-haired hunkster Leon S. Kennedy, a goddamn mighty American special agent charged with saving the US president’s daughter (video game plots aren’t always so great).

Some weird cult has kidnapped her and Leon has to take his hair to some random place in Europe, which appears to be possibly in Spain.

Once he arrives he meets a horde of lunatics out to kill him. His response? Heroically battle his way through the hellish nightmare whilst making action-hero one-liners.

On the face of it that sounds rather basic, but the reality is this is an incredibly intense and scary game – personified by the vile regenerators that have a bloodcurdling sort of snigger thing going on.

Resident Evil 4 is bloody relentless. On your quest, you’ll find many beings like that. But primarily you go up against angry villagers who are cursed.

They’re not zombies, but they’re certainly infected with some virus – as you shoot them, regularly you’ll see bits of deformities and insect like growths burst out of them. Lovely.

The relentless carnage does let up every now and then as you meet the friendly Merchant, who lets you level up your weapons – that’s one of the most fun bits to the experience as you have to choose what to power up carefully.

And it’s all to the sound of some fabulous melancholic music.

It’s worth rembering Resident Evil 4 was a major departure from the previous games.

In fact, the third-person perspective with a zoom over Leon’s shoulder when aiming was revolutionary. Endless copycat titles sprung up using that afterwards.

These development choices didn’t come easily. Initially intended for the PlayStation 2, work began in 1999 but was heavily delayed… and eventually shifted to a completely different games console.

Although a Nintendo exclusive, it quickly ported across to various other consoles and to the PC – you can now play it on most modern systems, including the Switch, Xbox One, and PS4.

Arguably, it’s still the best Resident Evil Game. The franchise rumbles on quite violently, with Resident Evil 7 seen as something of a return to form – 5 and 6 were, apparently, a bit disappointing. We’ve not played those.

But we can heartily recommend you give the fourth entry a go. It’s some spooky stuff!