Of course the first thing modders did for the Resident Evil 4 demo was put Leon in a thong

A shirtless Leon, pixelated below his abdomen, from Resident Evil 4.
(Image credit: TrieuPham / Capcom)

The Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw Demo hasn't even been out for a week yet, and already the modders are hard at work. I imagine you, hypothetical reader, are thinking something along the lines of 'I bet they've tweaked some of the damage values on the guns, maybe implemented some hasty bugfixes'. You couldn't be more wrong. They've put Leon in a maid outfit and replaced his gun with a banana. Long live PC gaming.

You read that right. The Maid Leon mod (description: "The S in Leon S Kennedy stands for Serve") from a creator called flopityflips is a technical and artistic achievement that's been freely downloadable since yesterday evening. It does, well, exactly what you think it does, replacing Leon's rugged leather jacket ensemble with a searingly kawaii maid outfit, the image of which I will take with me to my grave.

(Image credit: flopityflips / Capcom)

But if maid Leon isn't your thing—and you're not into the (probably best not to open this at work) Thongs Leon mod that puts our hero into a pair of stylish budgie smugglers—there's a few other oddities to spice up your next Chainsaw Demo playthrough. For example, why not try out Banana Gun and Spoon Knife? That one, too, does just what it says on the tin, replacing Leon's standard handgun with a gleaming banana and his knife with a spoon that, if I'm being honest, seems too big to eat with.

Not all of the mods are quite this ridiculous. It barely took any time at all for a modder named Praydog to get the demo working in VR, for instance. I don't think anyone has yet tried to use any of these other mods in the VR version, mind you, which seems like it highlights a real lack of frontier spirit to me.

On the one hand, a full-on remake of RE4 feels totally unnecessary to me, but I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't excited to play it when the full version releases on March 24 anyway. I have to hand it to these modders for managing to get these things done before the game is even really out. I imagine mods like these are a drop in the bucket compared to the deluge that will follow the game's full release.

Joshua Wolens
News Writer

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.