At TGS 2011, part of Capcom's booth was set up as a reproduction of a part of a ship. Its inside was so dark that I could barely see anything. In this creepy environment, I played a new demo of Resident Evil: Revelations for Nintendo 3DS.

In the demo I controlled Jill Valentine, who found herself on a bed in a mansion (in other parts of the game you control Chris Redfield, too.) I quickly concluded that this is easily one of the best-looking games on 3DS. The fully-voiced cutscenes, models, and textures are all stunning. It is worth noting that you can adjust the depth of the 3D effect in the game's settings, and - at least in Japanese version - choose the language (English or Japanese) of the movies. The music is, as far as I could hear, ambient and atmospheric; it is somewhat similar to that of the original Resident Evil or its GameCube/Wii remake.

Many aspects of the game reminded me of the early installments of the series, especially the original Resident Evil. You are in a mansion (although in other parts you are in a ship or a snow mountain), only one or two enemies appear at the same time, it requires several shots from a handgun to kill one enemy, and enemies don't seem to leave ammo.

What most impressed me was the control scheme. It is more streamlined and sophisticated than the latest game in the franchise, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D. If the controls aren't to your liking, the extension slide-pad will be supported. Jill still moves like a tank when using the default settings, but she can strafe while pressing the L button, as in Mercenaries. She's also finally learned to reload while walking. Like many modern console FPS/TPS titles, the D-pad is mainly used to change main and sub-weapons, the latter of which are assigned to X. You can use sub-weapons such as a knife and grenades without aiming.

Pressing up on the D-pad attaches or detaches your Bioscanner (a.k.a. Genesis), a new feature in the game. It doesn’t do what Nintendon’t, but, like the scan visor in Metroid Prime, it is useful in searching for items, enemy weaknesses, and clues. I hope this item will ameliorate a problem with older installments, which is the fact that you sometimes had to tap the action button randomly to find items and clues.

Some RE fans may be concerning themselves about camera control without a second analog stick/pad. In Mercenaries you can pan the camera around by dragging your thumb on the touch screen, but releasing your thumb turns the camera back to its original angle unless you are aiming. In contrast, the camera in Revelations does not turn back after panning around, which makes controlling it via the touch screen much easier.

Resident Evil: Revelations demonstrates once again that Capcom seems to be the most reliable supporter of the Nintendo 3DS. As a huge fan of the Resident Evil franchise, Revelations was my most anticipated game at TGS. This new demo makes me anticipate its release even more.