Light gun shooters aren't as popular as they used to be, but the genre's seen a renaissance on Wii, thanks to such games as Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Ghost Squad and The House of the Dead 2&3 Return. Now Sega's back with more zombie madness with The House the Dead: Overkill, a Wii exclusive monster mash starring everyone's favorite brain eaters. With plenty of headshots, gore and a nice layer of cheese, this will likely be a fine addition to the popular franchise.
Overkill is actually a prequel to the original game. You play as Special Agent G who, along with his partner Detective Washington, goes to investigate strange happenings in a small Louisiana town. However, Sega gave this game a much different appearance than the predecessors, opting to go with a visual style ripped from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's film, Grindhouse. You'll see things through a grainy filter that makes the game resemble a movie from the 60s and 70s. This includes smudges on the screen and other stuff to give House of the Dead that old school vibe.
We don't know much else about the story, but it's not like we play The House of the Dead series for its gripping narrative. We'd much rather point our Wii remotes at our television screens and put bullets into zombies' heads, and Overkill does not disappoint. It's an on-rails shooter that takes you on a wild ride through various environments populated by hundreds of nasty creatures all looking to sink their chompers into your moist brains. You'll respond in kind by using a small arsenal to reduce them to piles of mush, frantically pressing the remote's buttons to unload countless rounds on the hordes. You'll need a fast trigger finger as Sega plans to crowd the screen with up to 30 zombies at a time and terrorize you with humongous bosses. One, in particular, is an ogre with a monster living in its belly, similar to Kuato in the film Total Recall.
You'll also deal more damage to your adversaries, blowing off arms and legs as well as staining a zombie's clothes with its own blood, which is a neat graphical effect. There's also a slow motion feature that allows you to score headshots easier, which should come in handy when trying to dispatch more than one enemy. Of course, there will be times when a zombie latches onto you, and to get him off, all you have to do is shake the remote; you'll shake to re-load as well.
We're always up for killing zombies with our Wii remotes, so we'll happily embrace The House of the Dead: Overkill when Sega releases it early 2009. Now all the company has to do is include the original House of the Dead so we can complete the collection.
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