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Back in the day, stepping into a coin-op arcade and dropping a few quarters into one of the House of the Dead machines, was pure, unadulterated fun. There was a story, and sometimes a disembodied head would pop onto the screen and shout something that no one could ever understand over the din of ski-ball, shrieking kids, and every other arcade game. No one cared. Picking up the light gun – that was always chained to the machine with a cord just a little bit too short for comfort – was a way to tune out the surroundings and blast zombies until the life bar ran out.
Sega has resurrected House of the Dead for the Wii—but it's something different. If you remember those light-gun games of yesteryear, let go of your preconceptions. The House of the Dead: Overkill is both something more powerful and more juvenile than the arcade game of the late 1990s.
What could be more perfect than a light-gun shooter for the Wii? The Wii remote just begs to use its point-and-pull-the-trigger talents on blasting zombies, so House of the Dead for the Wii is ideal. Nothing is more surprising when holding a Wii remote than loading up the disc to see the stripper in the opening titles, wrapped in bullets and gyrating around a pole, complete with video close-ups on her breasts. Then the stripper (who turns out to be Varla Guns, one of the game's main characters) points her own Wii remote at the screen. It is surprising but impressive that Nintendo allowed House of the Dead: Overkill to be released on the Wii. Hopefully it means Wii owners will get a lot more choice in the games they can play.
House of the Dead: Overkill is still a light-gun shooter on rails, and that's what a House of the Dead game should be. But it presents everything, from the opening video to the menus, in the style of a low-budget horror flick from the 1970s. The movie trappings—dripping in irony—are great, and transform sub-par voice acting from a drawback to a selling point. Likewise, the graphics are limited by the Wii, and therefore will feel decidedly last-generation to an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 fan, but the characters' wooden movements during the cut-scenes play into the whole low-budget horror-flick vibe.
Once you get into the action, you shoot zombies. Oops. According to the game's story, these creatures are actually mutants—byproducts of a misguided attempt to create super soldiers. It seems silly to reuse such a hackneyed plot for a game that doesn't need a plot, but there it is. So you kill zombies. A lot of zombies (…I mean mutants). They rush at the screen in waves, or jump out of doorways and from behind counters to slash, bite and maim—making you shake them off by shaking the Wii Remote. And you shoot them, sending splashes of blood everywhere and scattering limbs to the four winds.
There are seven episodes, each with its own theme, ranging from the bayou mansion to a carnival, train, and prison. Each can be played discretely, ends in a boss-battle, and—including the cut-scenes—takes from 10 to 20 minutes apiece to play. Like all great light-gun shooters, the real goal in House of the Dead: Overkill is a high score. Make consecutive kills without missing or getting hurt and you get massive bonuses to your score, leading up to the “goregasm” in which an American flag flutters patriotically in the score box as you lay waste to armies of mutants.
Beyond just getting your name on the high-score screen, higher scores earn more cash, and more cash purchases better guns. The starting AMS Magnum (pistol) has to be unloaded into enemies to take them down, but better guns like the hand cannon or automatic shotgun can effortlessly splatter multiple mutants. The more you play, the better weapons you can purchase, and the better you'll perform. There are also tons of pick-ups scattered around the game, ranging from grenades, health and slow-motion activations that make play easier, to golden brains that can be shot and hostages that can be rescued, for cash. Special accomplishments award cash, like making a certain number of limb shots or killing a critical number of mutants.
You have to play through the basic game at least once, but the real game is in the “Director's Cut,” where each level is a little longer and there are a lot more mutants to kill. In the basic game, dying detracts from your score (hence your cash), but in the director's cut you get continues to keep things going. In every case, getting a really high score involves learning where everything is, from the power-ups that briefly flash by to the mutants who leap out when you think you should be reloading. That's why the game is so short, but with so many unlockables to encourage replay. Light-gun-style shooters are about perfecting play, not reacting on-the-fly to randomly occurring zombies.
The upgrades are a really big deal, but ultimately undermine the play. Trying to survive with the basic pistol puts players on the edge of their seat, wrist aching with tension as they try to cover the next mutant to leap out. Playing with the fully-upgraded automatic shotgun had me lounging back, beer in hand, offing mutants with a slight flick of the wrist. And dual-wielding was like never needing to reload. The soundtrack enhanced the experience, with great tracks to unconsciously sway along to, much to the detriment of good aim.
For all the monster-hunting mayhem and swanky '70s style, the plot is dismal, painful, and fortunately skippable. The writers revel in humor that will be right up your alley if you can't get enough jokes about crack whores and think that gratuitous pissing is plot development. House of the Dead: Overkill also has the most unnecessarily disgusting ending ever, and not disgusting in a horror-movie sense—more in an “I can't believe they actually went there” sense. If nothing else, the game is at least indulgently self-aware of how low-brow it is.
Aside from the sometimes painful story, the game suffers technical problems that detract. I didn't mind the occasionally wonky sound levels for dialog as much as when the game froze on me in the middle of a goregasm. That sucked.
The main game can be played through alone or with two players, but there are three party-style mini-games that can play up to four players. They aren't much to speak of, but make a fine five-minute break from Wii Sports if you've got a crowd together.
However much the game developers really should discover the slightest hint of maturity, shooting zombies (… I mean mutants) in House of the Dead: Overkill is really enjoyable. It's brilliant, mindless, repetitive shooting fun that only gets in its own way when it tries to be funny or deep.
Fun Factor: Mindless zombie- (I mean mutant-) blasting thrills.
Game Length: Supremely short.
Difficulty: Easy, but all reflex play—not for the clumsy.
On the Negative Side: Humor by that 4th grader who ate boogers, technical glitches.
Bang for Your Buck: Expensive, unless you plan on shooting the same mutants every day.
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