Whenever I'm around an arcade, I will gladly forfeit a few quarters to blast some Zombies in the face with any of the House of the Dead games. Since arcades are getting harder to find, I was excited to see the Wii's light gun like capabilities put to good use with the House of the Dead 2&3 combo pack. Even more recently I was excited to see the new Wii exclusive story based House of the Dead: Overkill.
Overkill is a unique version of House of the Dead, as the censors have taken a vacation on cursing, yet sticking true to the gore fest that is House of the Dead. Each level starts with a brief bit of back story about a mad scientist named Papa Ceasar as well as the games protagonists; Agent G, Detective Isaac Washington and eventually Varla Guns. The narration, cut scene presentation, storyline cheesiness, dialog, and even the grainy “film” feel in game all seem to pay tribute to B horror films, especially the ultra-campy Grindhouse series. You wouldn't know this by just playing single player, as it limits the campy dialog and in game bantering with player two.
Speaking of sound, there are quite a few er, “unique” music tracks that can be unlocked by progressing through the game, now with increased necrophilia. Unfortunately the sound levels seemed a bit wonky on occasion while playing, which was somewhat distracting. Player two was overpowered by player one in most of the gun battles, and even one side of the dialog was oddly quiet in game. I turned on subtitles to try to get the full effect of the back-and-forth bantering between the players, but the subtitles only apply to the cut scenes, not in game dialog.
If you're like me, you expect some quality gore shots with your zombie, mutant, and undead media. Overkill is no exception to the rule - If you shoot an enemy in the arm, they'll be missing arm. Shoot them in the chest and pieces go flying. Shoot them in the leg they'll fall over and shoot them in the face and get a fountain of blood. Since the damage brings a variety of deaths, be creative to take mutants down for maximum variety. Bonus items are also scattered throughout level, like gold brains. By collecting these you'll unlock art, videos, and music – this works best with a friend, since one person can hold back a horde, while the other takes aim at the items.
So the game looks good, but how does it play? By using the Nyko Perfect Shot Wii remote attachment, or the Wii Zapper, the shooting works very well. As an on-rails shooter, the nunchuck isn't used at all, so the Wii Zapper is a bit bulkier than necessary, but using no attachment is very uncomfortable, and may cause a bit of wrist cramping after just a few levels. Sure you and your co-op partner may not look as cool holding a WiiZapper in your living room as the guns from the arcade - just shut the blinds.
Multiple successful hits in a row give you combos that eventually lead to a "Goregasm", which boosts your score on the in-game leader boards, and just sounds so cool to achieve. While it would have been nice to have online leaderboards, punching your name in to replace all of the Agent G's on the list is still a pretty good feeling. The score is also a nice way to force the other player to keep up with you in a non-aggressive way, as combined co-op scores earn you money, and more spots on the leader boards. Earn money to buy and upgrade weapons for use in the game, the bigger weapons create more effective and interesting enemy kills.
How much depth do you expect from a game like House of the Dead? Hopefully it's not more than about 3-4 hours worth, because that's all you'll really get from the story mode. After you complete the 3 hour game, you unlock a "Directors Cut" of the story, which allows you to play through a second time with a slightly amped difficulty which requires players to cover each other while inevitable reloads happen. There are more bonuses for saving civilians and more gold brains to collect with a sprinkle of a few more enemies. There are even a few mini games which can be played with up to 4 players, and include target shooting, saving survivors, and a survival horde mode. All of this adds up to a pretty decent showing of the first original House of the Dead console title.