Resident Evil Gaiden is a Resident Evil video game featured on the Game Boy Color handheld console, and is the only one in the series so far which features Barry Burton as the main character. Although the word Gaiden suggests it is a "side story", the game is not canonical. It was developed by the now defunct company M4 Ltd.

Plot

Story

After the events in Raccoon City, an underground anti-Umbrella organization forms to put an end to Umbrella. Leon is sent to investigate the ocean liner Starlight which is rumored to be carrying a new Bio-Organic Weapon (BOW) developed by Umbrella, but eventually contact is lost with him.

The player takes the role of Barry, who is sent to complete Leon's mission. After discovering that everyone on the ship is a zombie, he finds a girl named Lucia. Barry runs to the deck which Lucia is on after hearing her screams and finds her being chased by a BOW which is the cause of the infection. After fighting and escaping the BOW, Lucia is kidnapped by the BOW

Barry then finds Leon unconscious and wakes him up. Barry and Leon cooperate to find Lucia. They find her being held by the BOW. They fight the BOW and save her before hearing an explosion. The ship starts sinking and fire is spreading throughout the ship. Barry runs to communicate with their headquarters to send them a helicopter while Leon and Lucia activate the sprinkler system.

After they activate it they hear Barry trying to sell the girl to Umbrella. Leon and Lucia find Barry threatens Leon with a gun to give him Lucia. Lucia goes with Barry and they both escape on an Umbrella submarine and leave Leon on the sinking Starlight. Leon goes to the engine room and damages the BOW before he destroys the ship and evidence of the outbreak.

In the submarine, the captain asks Barry to give him Lucia. He then finds that she has a parasite which will mature in 10 days and create a new BOW. He threatens Lucia and asks them to remove the parasite. The captain agrees and they remove the parasite.

The parasite manages to escape the jar which it is held and infects everyone on the submarine. They discover the BOW inside the submarine and they escape from it sealing it in the bay. Barry takes the submarine and heads to the near-sunk Starlight to find Leon. There they find Leon but it soon turns out that it is the BOW and it attacks them. After the fight they find the real Leon and they run over the deck where the helicopter is. There they fight the BOW before Leaving the Starlight.

The game ends with Leon's neck bleeding green from a small wound.

Characters

• Leon S. Kennedy: Ex-Raccoon Police Department police officer, Leon is now part of an anti-Umbrella group. He is sent in first to investigate the mysterious ocean liner Starlight.
• Barry Burton: Formerly of STARS, Barry has been sent to the Starlight to find out why HQ lost contact with Leon, and to find evidence about a new BOW developed by the Umbrella Corporation.
• Lucia: A mysterious young girl found on the ship, she has the newly developed Umbrella BOW inside her body.

Gameplay

Gaiden is the only game in the Resident Evil series that changes the gameplay from third person view to an overhead view. When encountering a zombie with no means of escape the player needs to aim for the zombie and enter the battle zone. This is where the gameplay changes, the player goes for over-the-head view to first-person view.

The enemies have bars under them where the A button is needed to be pushed to damage the enemies.