The biggest pain is that it rekindled my intense hatred of random battles, but there are several other tiny little things that really just grow in aggravation. The menu and inventory interface is beyond terrible, especially when all the large lists only display on the top screen and force you to use the cursor pad. The repetitive, unskippable dialog grows more irritating each time. (Just healing at town requires hitting “A” about seven times with a long pause in the middle.) It all just seemed about padding and level grinding, and my fascination wore off. I got bored and realized there were a whole bunch of other games out there just waiting to be played.

So now I’m in the doghouse because I don’t have any new pokemen to trade with her and I’m busy trying to make sure that Abe Lincoln must die instead of capturing a glameow or evolving a pengo.

I love the Wii based controls. My nunchuck hand sits limply in my lap most of the time and my remote arm rests on the arm of my couch. Perhaps its just my style of play untainted by another control scheme, but I can’t imagine a better way to play this game. I think I feel more physically connected to the game. It is as if it heightens the tension.

The game is such a rush! Within the first few minutes of play my head was cut-off by a chainsaw wielding dude wearing a burlap sack over his head. I made some incredulous exclamation. My wife laughed in shock. I’d argue that this version of RE4 is the first game to justify the Wii since Zelda and Wii Sports.