Resident Evil 4 Remake’s Mercenaries References The Original’s Iconic Wii Box Art

Resident Evil 4 remake‘s Mercenaries mode includes a nice little nod to one of the original release’s many many box arts – in this case, the US Wii release.

Considering how beloved the original Resident Evil 4 is, it comes as no surprise that the remake is chock-full of references, not only to the 2005 classic but to the series in general. Some of the references are well-known like Krauser’s Operation Javier scars being more visible to tie into the Darkside Chronicles while others are a little bit more subtle, like the Del Lago lake easter egg. Then there are some that only the most die-hard Resident Evil fans will take notice of.

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One thing that Resident Evil 4 has become known for over the years is its many re-releases, from originally starting off as a GameCube exclusive, to eventually making its way to pretty much every console, each with its own cover art. Well, unless you’re in the UK, then you just get the same red forest image. As spotted by Twitter user TheSphereHunter, the recently-released Mercenaries mode manages to pay homage to the box art of one of these covers.

window.arrayOfEmbeds[“1644787468804427776”] = {‘twitter’ : ‘"n<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">I really like how Leon&rsquo;s character select image in Mercenaries is his classic Wii box art pose. ud83eudd13 <a href="https://t.co/3V0um8G5aB">pic.twitter.com/3V0um8G5aB</a>n&mdash; Suzi Hunter (@TheSphereHunter) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheSphereHunter/status/1644787468804427776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 8, 2023</a></blockquote>nn"’}; window.arrayOfEmbedScripts[“twitter”] = “"<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>"”;

As you enter The Mercenaries mode and pick your character, you might notice that Leon is pulling a recognisable pose. Well, it sort of looks like he’s just aiming to the untrained eye, but as TheSphereHunter points out, it’s actually a reference to the pose that Leon originally pulled on the box art for the US Wii release, as well as eventually the cover art for the PS4 physical release of the game. I told you guys, Resident Evil 4 has had a lot of box art over the years.

Everything about the way that Leon is positioned is a direct reference to how he’s stood in that piece of key art, from the position his gun is held in, to where he’s facing. Again, it might just seem like he’s getting ready to aim, but there are too many similarities for it to be a coincidence instead of a purposeful choice.

This isn’t the only time that Capcom references some of Leon’s most well-known poses. As pointed out by Twitter user TightBodzilla, almost all of the Leon models that can be unlocked in the game have recognisable poses from Resident Evil 4’s history. The classic Leon model is even doing the exact same thing as this Mercenaries easter egg.

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