12. Resident Evil 5 (Switch eShop)

Although the game can be a drag if you're playing on your own thanks to some ropey partner AI, we recall enjoying our co-op playthough of Resident Evil 5 immensely back in the day and it's now on Switch to enjoy, too. Having a pal along for the ride neuters the survival horror somewhat, but also sidesteps the alternative horror of a bumbling, incompetent AI partner.

RE5 turns the action up to 11 and while it's not as fresh as its predecessor, it's still a blast as long as you have an actual human friend to lock-and-load alongside you.

11. Resident Evil 0 (Switch eShop)

Beginning development as an N64 game, 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 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.

10. Resident Evil Revelations 2 (Switch eShop)

An episodic entry featuring Claire Redfield and the return of Barry 'Jill Sandwich' Burton from the original RE, 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.

9. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (Wii)

A pleasant serving of light-gun shooting action with a big old side dish of reheated stories and narrative gap-fill, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles mixes retelling various events from Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil Code: Veronica with new scenarios set several years after. For a Wii title, it's got some fine visuals and there's plenty of meat for fans to chew on with series favourites Leon S. Kennedy (the 'S' stands for 'Sensational hair') and Claire Redfield.

8. Resident Evil Revelations (Switch eShop)

This began life on the 3DS before getting ported to other platforms (including Wii U). The compartments of the cruise ship Queen Zenobia were a necessary design concession when the game ran exclusively on handheld hardware, and this gave Resident Evil Revelations something of a unique flavour in the modern RE era, recalling the contained spaces of the Spencer Mansion from the first game, although here the 'mansion' was floating.

Despite some disappointingly blobby enemies and a slightly laborious scanning mechanic, Revelations (or 'Revelaitons' as the famous box spine misprint called it) 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. 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.

7. 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 game. The 'X' version featured some extra cinematics when the game 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.

6. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (Wii)

As with all the very best Hollywood franchises, the makers of the Resident Evil series 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.

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 'Previously on Resident Evil' refresher for anyone who wants to jump in at a later point in the series.