Darkside Chronicles official, Resident Evil, RE0 Wii-makes US-bound

After days of teasing major game announcements at its Resident Evil 5 launch events tonight, Capcom saw its surprise spoiled by Famitsu. Widely circulated scans of the Japanese magazine identified the publisher's big reveal as Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles for the Wii. Developed by Cavia (Bullet Witch), the game will be a sequel to the studio's on-rails shooter Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, supporting up to two-person play.

Now, Capcom has officially confirmed that Darkside Chronicles will arrive in North America this coming winter. Judging by the publisher's proclivity for the January-March quarter--see RE5, Lost Planet, Street Fighter IV, and Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop--the "winter" window points to an early 2010 release for the game.

Based on Resident Evil 2's story, Darkside Chronicles will follow series protagonists Leon S. Kenney and Claire Redfield as they run another zombie gauntlet in a single-player or two-person co-op campaign. Like the original, the game will be a first-person on-rails shooter, but it will be enhanced with a new Wii Remote-based "evade" mechanic.

Though little was revealed about the game's plot, Capcom promised it will answer many questions left unresolved in The Umbrella Chronicles. And for those wanting to bone up on Resident Evil lore, Capcom has also announced that Darkside Chronicles is the first of three new Wii games in the horror-survival franchise. "New" might actually be an overstatement, since the other two are the first of a Resident Evil Classics line, which will see GameCube hits ported to the Wii. The first two titles in the series will be Resident Evil--itself a remake of the 1996 PlayStation original--and the prequel, Resident Evil 0, both released in 2002.

Due stateside later this year for $29.99 each, the two Resident Evil Classics were previously announced for release only in Japan, where they are titled Biohazard and Biohazard 0. Both will feature reworked controls, which feature the Wii Remote's motion-sensing capabilities.