Capcom, creators of the wildly popular Resident Evil series of survival horror games, invites Nintendo Wii owners to take a trip down memory lane this holiday season with the debut of Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil 0. The second release in the Archives series (the first was a port of the GameCube's Resident Evil remake) will have players killing zombies and collecting herbs on December 1st, 2009.

A prequel to the original game, Resident Evil 0 highlights the events before the STARS team's arrival at the mansion. Medic Rebecca Chambers is forced to team up with a convict marked for execution in order to find out why the dead are returning to life. Basically, if you ever wondered about the origins of the T-Virus, this is it.

It's easy to bag on the Wii for the amount of shovelware and ports that get approved for the system, but this is one instance where a re-release of an old game feels warranted. Resident Evil 0 was a game that a lot of people missed out on (it was a GameCube exclusive) and since the Wii's market penetration rate is far more impressive than the 'Cube's ever was, it seems likely that this title will find a receptive audience. Of course, other Mature-rated Wii titles haven't fared well, but this is Resident Evil...

This new version of the game features reworked controls and gameplay that will take advantage of the Wii's motion-sensing capabilities and will retail for the discounted price of $29.99.

Click past the jump to check out the new trailer.