Introduction

Mother****er!  This ain’t your daddy’s Mario game.  The princess is definitely in another mother****ing castle, replaced by a big breasted stripper named Varla Guns.  House of the Dead: Overkill does everything in a big, over-the-top way.  Does the “Grindhouse” look and arcade lightgun style work for this made-for-Wii Sega reboot of the HOTD franchise?  

Story

The story is pretty basic, but given the nature of the game, it’s just about all you need.  In this prequel to the original House of the Dead, straight-laced white guy rookie AMS Agent G (yes, from the original) pairs up with foul-mouthed black Bayou City detective Isaac Washington to chase down crime lord Papa Caesar, who is responsible for the mutant outbreak.  You quickly meet Varla Guns, the stripper out for revenge for what happened to her crippled scientist brother Jasper.  Sound like a cheesy Tarantino movie?  The game plays like a huge send-up to this genre at every turn.  The game is broken up into chapters with cheesy drive-in movie titles like “Papa’s Palace of Pain” and “Scream Train” which are each set up by an overly dramatic narrator, and a vintage soundtrack resonates throughout.

The story plays out over 7 chapters.  Each of the 7 chapters contains a different style or theme, from hospital doctors and nurses, to football players and circus clowns to hobos and rednecks.  At the end of each chapter, you have a boss fight with some sort of super mutant.

Gameplay

Gameplay is simple.  Shoot the mutants (and other assorted things).  The Wiimote works perfect for this lightgun-style game, with the B button used to shoot and the A button to reload.  The nunchuck is not used.  You start off with a basic revolver, and try to survive wave after wave of mutant attack.  The game is “on rails”, meaning that you are turned side to side and moved from room to room in a pre-determined manner.  Pointing the Wiimote at the screen reveals an aiming reticule, and you can move it off the side of the screen to move the camera slightly in that direction.

As you progress through each level, you can blast away at mutants by targeting various body areas.  Shoot them in the legs and they’ll stumble down.  Blow their arms off.  Or get a killing blow headshot.  You get points along the way, with bonus points going towards multiple kills without missing a shot, or for saving civilians along the way.  There are also pickups you can shoot at, which will give you a boost in health, or grenades to throw.  There’s also “slow-mo-fo” icons to shoot to temporarily make things move in slow motion.  And there are golden brains to collect as well.

You are scored at the end of each level based on how well you did, the accuracy of your shots, and so forth.  You can “continue” if you die during a level, which will cost you half your current points.  Points lead to cash, which you then can use to upgrade your weapons in the gun shop prior to the next level.

I found the general gameplay to work very well.  The Witmote is the natural control device for this type of game, and it just would not have worked on another console.  It was natural and easy to pick up, and no, my arm didn’t fall off after a half hour.  There is support for the crossbow shell, but I didn’t even try.  Come on, you’re wielding guns, after all.  There’s also a two-player local co-op mode, where players can join in at any time.

The graphics were very well done, some of the best you’ll see to date on the Wii.  You could see every limb fly and each shot-specific blood splatter.  The only issue I had was occasional single frame freeze-ups.  The better your weapon, the easier it is to blast the mutants to pieces in fast succession, and the more noticeable this issue is, but I never found that it seriously affected my gameplay.  They really did cram alot of action in, and I could imagine that such issues might be taken care of in a future sequel, as things tend to do throughout a console’s lifespan.   I’m sure it will be mentioned in most reviews, but while noticable, it was not much of an issue with me.

Extras

This game is built on extras.  Given the arcade nature of the game, with replayable levels and points and high scores, the “extra” content is just as large as the main story mode.  During story mode, you don’t make enough cash to buy all the available weapons or to upgrade them all to max.  It was designed with replays in mind.  Also, after you finish the 7 chapters of the main story mode, you unlock the Director’s Cut, which lets you play the chapters over again with longer levels and more difficulty.  Defeat both story mode and Director’s Cut and you unlock duel-wield mode.

There are also 3 mini-games available.  “Stayin’ Alive” is a game of survival against continuous mutants.  “Victim Support” has you rescuing civilians.  Lastly, “Money Shot II” is a competitive shooting gallery type game for high scores.  There is also a ton of things to unlock, such as concept art and music tracks.

Too bad the U.S. didn’t get the special release that Australian fans got, that game with two Wiimote gun shells modeled after the AMS pistols they carry in the game.  I did get a mini-sized comic with my pre-order from Gamestop called Prelude to an Overkill, which I think Amazon customers received in digital form.

Conclusion

The overall design and presentation of this game make it a success.  The “Grindhouse” feel works really well.  You look forward to the cinematics between levels just so you can see the interaction between characters.  The straight white guy and the Samuel L. Jackson clone black guy are very reminiscent of formulatic movies like 48 Hours, and the voice acting is supurb.  Little touches like direct and indirect references to movies like The Birds, Pulp Fiction, and so on round out the vibe.  Pop culture nuances turn an ordinary arcade shooter into something more memorable. 

Even the profanity ends up playing a part in the plot.  And as I alluded to at the beginning, there is quite a lot of profanity in the game, as well as allusions to incest and so forth.  Definitely not for the Wii soccer mom to pick up for little Billy to play after school.  But anyone that says that the Wii doesn’t have mature-oriented titles needs to play this one.  It absolutely earns it’s M rating from the first minute.

Overall I’d say this game was a worthy launch on the Wii, and I’m looking forward to seeing the inevitable sequel.  My only complaint outside of the occasional framerate issues is that you can probably play through the main story mode in 4-5 hours.  Although there is a ton of replayability factored in, that alone might make some people balk at the $50 price point.  If you are one of those people, definitely give it a rental.  But to me this type of title is worth buying almost as a reward to developers that break the mold a little.  Strong sales of quality third party titles on the Wii like this one would only mean more and better for the future.

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