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Releases Reviewed:

Resident Evil Degeneration offers just a couple of buying options, but there are a few variations on them.

There are the standard Blu and DVD options. There was a Wal-Mart exclusive packaged with a shirt (white with the title printed on it; nothing spectacular), but I saw that offered only for the DVD and have not seen many available since the initial release. There is a steelbook Blu and a Blu Figure Box with a monster statue.

The standard Sony Blu is a single disc release.

Video:

1.78 widescreen 1080p: It's very clean and clear with excellent detail. I'm quite pleased with the quality.

Audio:

5.1 Dolby HD: It has terrific clarity with good surround sound immersion but not as much bass rumble as I might have expected.

Packaging:

The case is standard plastic.

An ad and a couple of previews play before the interface.

The interface is a plane crash scene with effects and music and an industrial looking menu bar.

Extras:

-Pop-Up Trivia Track: This one includes graphics as well as text. It gives a variety of facts from real life info to movie trivia, backgrounds on bit characters, concept art, and such.

-Picture In Picture: As the movie plays you can watch the animatics or storyboards with an occasional motion capture shot thrown in although those tend to be too brief and sparse to be very interesting.

-The Generation of Degeneration: A lengthy behind the scenes segment gets into deciding the story, motion capture, the animation process, and things like that. Make sure you turn subtitles on for it.

-Character Profiles: These offer very short bios with video montages or still galleries. They cover Leon, Claire, Angela (the new girl), the G monster, and several others including Hunnigan who fans of game 4 will recognize.

-Voice Bloopers: A group of "bloopers" is actually more than that. These are more like short spoofs made up of humorous unused dialogue and clips edited to go along with them. There are 4 with a play all option. They include a funny bit about getting paid, zombie stalkers, a love triangle, and other goofy things.

-Leon Interview: The Leon interview is not what I expected. I thought it was going to be the voice of Leon as if the character were getting interviewed. Instead it’s a mock interview with the guy that performs Leon’s motion capture actions. While not what I was hoping for it’s still pretty amusing and worth checking out.

-Trailers: There are 5 Degeneration trailers with a play all. They include ones shown at Comic Con and on Tokyo Game Show.

-Resident Evil 5 Previews: There are 2 previews of the upcoming Resident Evil 5 one of them fairly lengthy. I’m increasingly excited about the release of this game!

-Previews: Lastly is a set of previews for other shows.

Other Editions:

The standard DVD offers the same specs and extras as the Blu as far as I can tell with a few exceptions. The lack of an HD presentation is a given. I also haven't seen the trivia track or the picture-in-picture features listed in the DVD extras.

The steelbook version of the Blu (which appears to be a Wal-Mart exclusive) offers a second disc that includes a recap of the previous films (which would have to mean a look back at the live action movies since this was the first animated one) and a preview of “Afterlife.”

The Figure Box monster looks very cool, but details on the package are way too vague for me to even consider getting it at the current asking price. Best guess is that this is the standard Blu with the figure added.

Final Thoughts:

There is a little bit here for the Resident Evil fan, nothing I would call “amazing” (except maybe the outstanding presentation quality) but enough to be fun. The steelbook option is a bit pricey for what it offers in my opinion. Other than that the choices should be obvious.