The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return: Review
System: Wii
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
MSRP: $29.99

The title of The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return is a flat out lie. Oh sure, there’s plenty of dead on hand, but if you’re expecting them to populate a house of some sort, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. But then, I suppose Non-Descript European City of the Dead and Derelict Research Facility of the Dead just don’t have the same ring to it.

Aside from maybe Namco’s Time Crisis series, The House of the Dead (HOTD) series has always held a special place as my favorite lightgun games for one simple reason: Zombies. I’m not sure what it is about the undead that is just so dang fun to blow apart. Maybe it’s the fact that there’s no guilt to be had in the act of blowing a zombie’s torso to pieces. I mean, the thing’s already dead. You’re not pre-emptively extinguishing its life. If anything, you’re doing the world a favor by putting it down. It’s like community service but on a post-apocalyptic scale. And there is certainly no shortage of service to be performed here. You’ll shoot short zombies, tall zombies, fat zombies, skinny zombies, axe-weilding zombies, power saw-weilding zombies, security guard zombies and even ninja zombies. Yes, you read that right. Ninja zombies. Let us all revel in the awesomeness. So if zombies really aren’t your bag, you’d likely do well to steer clear of this as there’s a whole lot of zombie shootin’ and nothing else.

Really, this game is intended for the series’ faithful fans as it contains ports of previous console versions of HOTD 2 (from the Dreamcast) and HOTD 3 (from the Xbox) and little else. HOTD 2 has an “Original” mode, which slightly resembles Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles in that you can earn upgrades such as a larger clip of bullets or additional health markers. HOTD 3 lacks “Original” but features an “Extreme” mode which requires more precision shooting but also allows for the ability to block. Other than that, everything is pretty much just as it was in the arcade originals including the branching paths and so-bad-it’s-hilarious voice “acting.” The graphics remain unchanged as well, so what might have looked pretty decent back in 1998, doesn’t really cut it nearly a decade later. Good thing it plays better than it looks.For my taste, HOTD 2 is still the better of the two games here. The environments are far more interesting to look at and it’s also significantly harder. HOTD 3’s characters employ the use of shotguns which, obviously, pack more of a punch and have a larger hit radius than the pistols used in HOTD 2. It may not seem like much of a big deal, but the upped difficulty makes for a longer-lasting game. And when you can tear through each one in about half hour, any sort of longevity is welcome. But really, if you’re a fan of the games, the real reason to pick this up isn’t for new features, it’s for the chance to be able to dual-wield at no extra charge. It seems like such a simple thing, but given that I always wanted to save my quarters for more continues at the arcade I would rarely dual-wield there. Here, since players are given a finite number of continues (if there is an unlimited credits option I haven’t found it) you’ll need all the extra firepower you can muster.

Combined with the fact that HOTD 2 & 3 showcases some of the best IR support yet on the Wii, it makes for quite possibly the best arcade experience available on the system. Though, I must admit, it feels slightly awkward just using the remote on its own. If you have the Wii Zapper or some other gun “shell” at your disposal, you’ll feel even more at home. So is it worth 30 bones? Well, that depends on how much you love blowing apart the undead. For me, it’s the perfect pick-up-and-play game. I get zombies, some good action, all wrapped up in a tight package that’s still as frantic today as it was nearly ten years ago.

By Stewart Smith