Keepers is a weekly segment in which I discuss games I’ve played that I’ve seen fit to keep after playing. I generally sell a game that I’ve finished, so the only reason I keep one is because I plan to replay the game some day. Classifying a game as a “keeper” is generally a badge of merit.

Yes, I mean all five (actually six) of the Resident Evil titles. I have copies of all six on their original platforms, and they’re all great in their own ways. I’ll admit that I find the even-numbered titles to be the best of them, but my Resident Evils is like my childrens. I love them all.

The first Resident Evil looks horrible by today’s standards and has dialogue that isn’t quite as well-written or performed as the dialog in most porn movies, but I spent the majority of a recent flight crammed into my little airplane seat playing the DS version. I’ve got to say – the game is still fun, and it’s damned hard. When you’ve got a limited number of typewriter ribbons to save the game and you’re playing in the admittedly short chunks of time that you typically have on a portable game console like the DS, having limited saves makes for a really difficult game. But the DS version added a lot of nice stylus puzzles, and some weird tacked-on knife fighting bits that keep you on your toes.

Of course, I still have my original copy of Resident Evil for the PS1, but with a portable version available, I may never sit down again for the PS1 version. On the other hand, I very well may go back and play Resident Evil 2 on the PS1 for… what? The sixth time? Depends on how you’re counting, I guess. The initial game is one that you can play through four times: twice with each character, since there are two nearly-identical missions. After those initial four plays, I think I went back through once or twice immediately, one time completing the game with only 6 saves and using no first aid sprays so that I could unlock some weapon or uniforms or something. I think I replayed twice after that, years later.

Resident Evil 2 is arguably my favorite of the series. The scare factor is just through the roof, and that’s what I love so much about the game. Resident Evil 3, on the other hand, is the bastard child of the series. Whereas RE2 had a “Nemesis” that appeared only in the game’s second mission, RE3 has his retarded brother who follows you around, moaning “STARS!” instead of “BRAINS!” In RE2, the Nemesis was one of the best parts about the game. In RE3, it’s just kind of dumb.

The game that should have been named Resident Evil 3 is the one they ended up calling “Resident Evil: Code Veronica X”. It was the first Resident Evil game for the Playstation 2, and it had a better plot, better graphics, and better game mechanics than the other games. At times, it even featured limited 3D, mediating the series’s much-maligned camera angle issue. I only wish you could have set the difficulty level lower. That way, I might have actually finished the game. Code Veronica is the only Resident Evil game I’ve not completed. Yeah, I’m discounting Resident Evil 0, Umbrella Chronicles, and the other spin-offs.

When Resident Evil 4 came along, it changed everything. It was a bit of a reboot for the series, replacing the mindless flesh-eating T-virus zombies with parasite-infected Las Plagas villagers and Nemesis with chainsaw-weilding crazies with burlap sacks over their heads. It reintroduced Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil 2, and turned the series away from its survival horror roots. Still, it was an excellent game.

Resident Evil 5 gave us co-op. I’m nearly finished with the game, and I can tell you that the best thing about it is the co-op. I first played alone on my PS3, and then tried the co-op with my brother while I was visited him on the East Coast. I can tell you that the game is about seventeen times better when played co-op. When playing single-player, the AI partner you’re given is idiotic to the point of absurdity. At least the PS3 trophies have funny clever names like “It BELONGS in a Museum”, “They’re ACTION FIGURES!”, and “Master of Removing”. If you get those references then you can renew your geek card.

Even with my complaints, I’ll be keeping every one of these games. I can only hope that when Resident Evil 6 is eventually released, they bring back some T virus zombies, just for old times’ sake. The flesh-eaters are always the scariest ones.