Spring may not yet be the new winter, but this week is going a long way to disproving the belief that the early part of the year is a wasteland for video games. With two major releases at your local retailer and two other notable downloadable games, the drought seems to be pretty rainy.

The 800-pound gorilla of the week is this Friday’s ‘Resident Evil 5’ on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. (The game may actually hit EB/Gamestop Thursday; call ahead to check.) The second in the “more action, less suspense” revamp of the long-running survival horror series moves the action to Africa and gives you a female sidekick not named Jill or Claire.

The game isn’t the first ‘Resident Evil’ title to have online multiplayer, but ironically Valve’s ‘Left 4 Dead’ on the 360 actually captures the feel of the old ‘RE: Outbreak’ games better than it appears RE5 will. Again, that’s mostly due to the stylistic break RE4 made when it revamped the series four years ago.

Wii owners don’t need to feel left out in the rain. While they’re not getting RE5 (yet), the ultraviolent ‘Madworld’ arrived in most stores Wednesday.

Published by Sega and developed by Platinum Games (pretty much the old Clover Studios), ‘Madworld’ liberally borrows plot elements from ‘Escape from New York,’ ‘Running Man’ and ‘Manhunt’ as you’re in a city…prison…place and have to fight your way out for a game show. You even get color commentary from comedian Greg Proops (“Who’s Line is It Anyway?”) and actor John DiMaggio (Bender from ‘Futurama,’ Marcus from ‘Gears of War’).

Unsurprisingly considering the developer’s past games (‘Okami’ and ‘Viewtiful Joe’), the hyperstylized visuals are the first thing you’ll notice: all black-and-white, except for the vast amounts of crimson blood. It’s like the scene in ‘The Tingler’ gone haywire. Of course, being a Wii game it requires hand gestures to complete some of the more vicious attacks, but as long as you have the wrist strap on feel free to flail about.

On the download front

\* Monday saw the release of ‘Gradius ReBirth’ on the Wii, via the WiiWare service. It may be a brand-new title in the sidescrolling shoot-’em-up series, but it sure resembles its Super Nintendo ancestors. Power-up your ship — the Vic Viper — and hit the fire button until your thumb hurts.

It’s $10, which is kind of steep for a shmup that’s missing any kind of multiplayer. It’s especially egregious when you realize ‘R-Type Dimensions’ on the Xbox 360 cost only $5 more and featured both revamped and old-school graphics and co-op gameplay (either local or online).

\* Peggle, the puzzle game that combined pachinko with pinball and Breakout, swept PC gamers and is now available on Xbox Live Arcade for $10. Across the 55 single-player levels, you have to launch ball upwards to try to knock out the orange pegs before running out of ammo. The game offers 55 single-player boards and two types of multiplayer, with the promise of expansion packs.