13. Resident Evil Code: Veronica X (GCN)

Originally developed for Sega's Dreamcast, Resident Evil Code: Veronica X followed Claire Redfield once more and was the first in the series to feature fully-3D backgrounds as opposed to the pre-rendered versions in previous games.

This was the first of the 'spin-offs', although it began life as a Resident Evil 2 port before becoming a wholly original beast. The 'X' version featured some extra cinematics when CV jumped ship from Dreamcast onto GameCube and PS2.

Despite not being a numbered entry, this is essentially more of a 'sequel' to RE2 than Resident Evil 3 (which itself began life as a side-story spin-off) and maintains the horror flavour of the first games before RE4 injected the series with a potent dose of third-person shooter action.

12. Resident Evil 0 (GCN)

Beginning development as an N64 game before shifting to GameCube, Resident Evil 0 paired Rebecca Chambers from the first game with escaped convict Billy Coen and came at a time when the old tank controls were getting a little long in the tooth.

Having two characters to control gave an extra layer of strategy to inventory management, with each protagonist having special abilities. You could now drop items on the floor, too. Paradigm-shifting stuff.

The story is really one for series fans and is mostly connective tissue, but there's plenty of excellent old-style RE horror to be had here, and it looks rather nice as well. We reckon it's worth revisiting (it's easy enough on Switch) if you're a series faithful who passed on it back in the day. There's only a finite number of those 'traditional' RE games and even with its faults, this is a solid one of those.

11. Resident Evil Revelations 2 (Switch eShop)

An episodic entry featuring Claire Redfield and the return of Barry 'Jill Sandwich' Burton from the original, we also got to meet his daughter, Moira, in Resident Evil Revelations 2.

Co-operative gameplay was served with a twist; of the four playable characters, only two use firearms. This forces you to approach scenarios differently and gives parts of the game a stealthy flavour.

Although it might lack the prestige of the mainline entries, this is a fine, full-fat addition to the lineup. And as fans of Barry from the original game, it was great to see him return in his new paternal role here.

10. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (Wii)

As with all the very best Hollywood franchises, the makers of Resident Evil won't be satisfied until they've filled in every conceivable gap in between the mainline games with a prequel, sequel or — forgive us — 'interquel'. No, Chris, Jill, Leon, and the gang can't pause to pee without finding themselves in a spin-off or a remake that adds some new bits or REtcons some detail.

Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, is that some of the spin-offs have been quite good. There are plenty that haven't made it to Nintendo consoles, but the Wii did receive arguably two of the best in the form of Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and its sequel.

An on-rails shooter with plenty of interstitial fan service that references the mainline entries and focuses on the quite literally shady exploits of Albert Wesker, it's a fun, arcade-y experience that arguably acts as a fine (*deep voice*) 'Previously on Resident Evil' refresher for anyone who wants to jump in at a later point in the series.

9. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (GCN)

As far as Nintendo consoles go, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis on GameCube version was a bare-bones port of the PlayStation release.

This takes place at the same time as the second game's events, beginning life as a spin-off that eventually garnered a number of its own, and the pursuit of Jill Valentine by the eponymous villain added a delicious dollop of paranoia into a series already bubbling over with tension.

Although OG Nemesis is currently imprisoned on GameCube, Nintendo fans, you can see the ugly brute stalking on Switch via the cloud in the RE3make (not that we'd recommend it).

8. Resident Evil: Deadly Silence (DS)

While the DS doesn't offer the cinematic scope of the TV-bound PlayStation original, Resident Evil: Deadly Silence is a hugely admirable port of the game that kicked off the entire series, serving up an essential part of gaming history in handy portable form.

Beyond throwing in a dedicated knife button and the boon of having your map visible at all times on the top screen — plus the 180-degree quick turn from the later games and optional new puzzles in Rebirth Mode — this is a surprisingly faithful adaptation of the original game in its 1996 pre-REmake guise, with all that makes it special and clunky in equal measure.

That separate Rebirth mode is where you'll find all the touchscreen minigames and new puzzles, serving as a textbook example of DS devs cramming in gimmicks for the sake of it. They're novel and neat in some cases (gotta love a minigame that replicates that bit from Aliens), but totally tangential, tension-breaking, and inserted seemingly at random.

If you only play one version of the first game in the series, REmake is the way to go. Still, series devotees and horror aficionados will want to check out this brighter version of the Spencer Mansion, too. Just stick to Classic mode.

7. Resident Evil Revelations (3DS)

The compartments of the cruise ship Queen Zenobia were a necessary design concession when the game ran exclusively on Nintendo's handheld hardware (although it later jumped ship from 3DS to home consoles like the Wii U - check it out on Switch these days), and this gave Resident Evil Revelations — or 'Revelaitons' as the famous box spine misprint called it — a unique flavour in the modern RE era. It recalled the contained spaces of the Spencer Mansion, although here the 'mansion' was a floater floating.

Despite some disappointingly blobby enemies and a laborious scanning mechanic, Capcom did a great job of cramming the series' tension onto Nintendo's handheld. It looked fantastic, and even scaled up on more powerful hardware, it holds up remarkably well.

Personally, its sequel edges it in a face-off, we'd say, but this is still definitely one to check out if it passed you by the first (or second) time around.