How to keep your Gamecube warm...

Play Resident Evil 4's Mercenaries a lot

One of the main reasons why Resident Evil 4 works is because Capcom has made squeezing the trigger of a gun the most pleasurable of experiences. The combination of sound, the recoil animation and the way old men clutch their faces like a weeping toddler makes it feel so right. It's the gaming equivalent of scoring a goal or reading on the toilet: pleasurable, comforting and endlessly enjoyable.

Now, the obvious way to make this sensation part of your everyday life is to continually replay RE4. The only problem with this is Zeldaprobably won't come out until some time aroundAugust and by then you could well have completedRE4 over 65 times. It's a great game, but there are only so many times you can get chased by a giant stone midget before it starts becoming stale.

Instead we recommend "Mercenaries"- it's the minigame you unlock on first completion. It's all about racking up a high score by blasting as many peasants as possible against the clock. It allows you to play not only as Leon and Ada, but as Hunk, Wesker and Krauser too, so trying to achieve a five star rating for all five characters should make the spring and summer just fly by.