The House of the Dead

"I didn't see why we needed to disturb the zombies, but it was fun!"

Ah zombies. Can't live with them so you shoot them. But after a while you do wonder why decaying humans are so hard to kill. Shouldn't they just fall apart? No you jerk! They have altered genetics! That means their genes were ALTERED! And now they're SUPER STRONG ZOMBIE PEEPS!!! I hope I've cleared everything up for you. Now for some crap about the game itself. In THOTD (It means the house of the dead you jerk) you play as one of 2(wait..wrong review) AMS agents. Those agents are *flashy disco lights) Rogan! The guy with the goatee and the brown trench coat! And G! That guy in the suit that doesn't say much! You have to..um..I think..you have to investigate strange happenings at a mansion, but it turns out that all that is wrong is a bunch of zombies created by the mad scientist Dr.Curien are running around killing Scientists. It's no big deal, but since you have time to spare you check it out and the zombies aren't too happy about that. A few seconds into the game you run into Sophie who I think is Rogan's wife or something and luckily nice mister Hangdman from down the street flies her off to a fabulous mansion to shut her up. Wait a second! That's not good! It's actually quite bad! So you run into the mansion and stuff happens then you leave. Good stuff.

Gameplay 9.1

Classic light gun gameplay at it's best. You use your sixshooter (shoot outside of the screen to reload. duh) to shoot the friendly zombie and it dies. However the unfriendly zombies (now that I think of it..those friendly things in the white coats weren't zombies were they?) will often take many shots to kill. Just be sure to shoot them in the head! It causes more damage don't you know? Well you do now! There are many types of mean zombies for you to kill like the shirtless blue guys that die in one hit, the shirtless blue fat guys that charge at you and take a few hits, the blue guy that wears a shirt and dies in two or three hits, the muscular shirtless blue guy that can take quite a few hits before falling, the little guys with claws and hats (I'm not joking), the big shirtless pink zombies with sledge hammers and the list goes on. While playing you might want to stop the scientists (people in white coats) from dying. The might give you a medipack or show you an alternate route, but whatever you do DON'T shoot them! For some CRAAAAZY reason you lose health when you do! I don't see you losing health for shooting zombies and they're people too! Anyway the game is divided into four stages (or ''chapters'' as they call them) each with a boss at it's end. Just let me warn you. The second stages boss is MUCH harder than the rest of them for some stupid reason.

Graphics 6.7

Ok so the games graphics aren't great. The textures are a little jagged, the characters aren't smooth, and nothing is all that realistic, but THOTD IS a few years old so I can excuse the sub-par graphics. The zombie killin' gameplay more than makes up for it!

Sound ?

I've played this game many times, but I still cannot comment on the sound. The reason? It's a pretty quite game that just can't keep up with the arcades loudness. I can sort of hear the zombies moaning and the guy yelling ''RELOAD!'', but everything else is almost unnoticeable. Too baaaaaaad...

Control It depends...

It all depends on the Arcade's machine. I'd give a brand new machine a 10 for control because everything is perfect. The guns are 100% accurate and.. well that's all you really need. However most light gun games I've played HAVEN'T been quite as pleasant. I don't know what people are doing, but I frequently encounter sticky triggers and off aim guns. Also too baaaaaaad...

Replay 7.2

Shooting zombies is fun for the whole family! But for how long? A while! Discovering alternate paths and trying to beat your high score (did I mention that you can find items in crates (ex: Golden frog) that improve your score?) will keep you playing for while. It's even more fun with a friend (or enemy. or cousin. whatever.)! Just make sure both guns are in good shape.

Overall The House of the Dead is a tasty treat that's fun to eat! Stuff! Lalalalala!

Score: 9.3

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/08/02, Updated 07/08/02