Nintendo plans horror film promotions for Resi Evil 4

A number of promotions including television programming sponsorship on the Sci-Fi channel and a two week horror film tour are being planned by Nintendo to support the launch of Capcom's Resident Evil 4 in March.

The horror title, which was the best selling console game in the USA in January, is set to launch in the UK on March 18th - and is currently GameCube exclusive, with a PS2 version unlikely to emerge until the end of this year at the earliest.

Nintendo, which will distribute the Capcom-published title in Europe, has agreed to a month-long season of sponsored programming with the Sci-Fi channel to support the launch, including a "Teen Scream" themed weekend from March 18th to 20th.

In addition, the company has announced details of a film tour titled "Evil Evolves", which will run in London, Leicester and Leeds from March 10th to March 26th, and will feature classic horror films such as Alien, The Exorcist and The Wicker Man as well as giving audiences a chance to try out Resident Evil 4 itself.

Resident Evil 4 sold over 300,000 copies last month in the USA, and has achieved widespread critical acclaim - consistently scoring over 90 per cent in reviews, and becoming one of the top-ranked games of all time on sites such as Metacritic and Gamerankings, which aggregate scores from both print and online game reviews around the world.

"We are delighted to have a fantastic title like Capcom's Resident Evil 4 exclusively on the Nintendo GameCube," commented Nintendo UK product manager Rob Lowe. "This game presents us with an exciting opportunity to cater to more mature gamers, showing that Nintendo is dedicated to bringing high quality entertainment to customers of all ages."

You can find more details on the "Evil Evolves" tour here.