Capcom released an updated version of Resident Evil 4 Mobile Edition for Apple's iPad device, appropriately retitled as "Resident Evil 4 iPad Edition." Check out the next post for somewhat brief impressions of this update.

[Resident Evil 4 iPad Edition gameplay]

There are not many gameplay differences between Mobile Edition and iPad Edition. Capcom has added a Chapter 0 into the game for gamers to practice playing the title before the real chapters begin, as well as an interesting "History of Resident Evil" section for gamers to read brief and incomplete descriptions of Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and Resident Evil 4. Resident Evil Zero and CODE: Veronica plot summaries are missing for whatever reason. This is less exciting than it sounds and no new information is revealed. Those two additions were also made to an update to the original Resident Evil 4 Mobile Edition, which can be downloaded from the App Store, so you do not need Resident Evil 4 iPad Edition to see them.


[History of Resident Evil]

The iPad is backwards compatible with iPhone apps, so both Mobile Edition and iPad Edition run on the iPad perfectly. The iPad Edition, however, will natively display on the entire iPad screen with enhanced visuals. The Mobile Edition will run in the middle of the iPad screen in its native size, but there is an option to double the size, which will pixelate the visuals and make it look blurry. Hence, the iPad Edition is the version truly meant for iPads and Capcom's justification to create the 6th version of Resident Evil 4 (or was it 7th?).


[Resident Evil 4 Mobile Edition running on the iPad in its original size]

The visuals have been improved and actually look nice for a handheld title, but in spite of the iPad being a considerably capable visual platform, the title still looks noticeably worse than the PlayStation 2 version of Resident Evil 4. The audio improvements seem overall negligible and can probably be attributed to the iPad's hardware itself. The game's content is still cut down from the original, so you will not get the full Resident Evil 4 experience here.

The controls are also as broken and frustrating as ever, with the make-shift touch ball still relatively imprecise and unresponsive. Aiming is a bit easier on the iPad because the size of the screen allows the player to see the action more clearly, but this small benefit isn't a result of improved game design. The strength of the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch lies in their touch screen, so it's amazing how, even in this iteration, Capcom stuck to the broken control scheme that obviously does not fit on touch screens without a stylus.

I purchased the game for $9.99 (on sale) and feel I paid too much for it. A change in the control scheme would have done this decently nice looking game a lot of good. I hope Capcom actually isn't working on an iPad upgrade of Resident Evil Degeneration, but if they are, I hope they focus more on controls and gameplay improvements rather than visuals, which do little to add to the overall product. We'll have to wait until Biohazard Portable on the PSP before we get another truly worthy handheld Biohzard product. Until then, stick to the DS and PSP for portable survival horror.

The Biohazard fanatic inside me wanted to get excited, even for this, but seeing as it still had the same controls as the iPhone edition it did nothing for me.

It's funny, but Biohazard The Missions absolutely destroys anything put out on these more powerful mobile devices. A remake of that would suffice. It's a shame both Missions games (RPD/Mansion) weren't re-released.

It seems weird to me that Capcom could get a virtual d-pad so right with Street Fighter 4 on iDevices but get it so wrong with this and Degeneration. Have to assume both were outsourced to different companies?

Seems like RE4 is on everything these days.

....Except the Xbox. XD