Games of the Abstract: Zombie Revenge (1999)

 

Developer: Sega / Data East

Publisher: Sega

One to Two Players

Arcade / Sega Dreamcast

 

Released around the time of The House of the Dead 2 (1998), this is what happens when you take the light gun game franchise to the beat-em-up genre, the results of which, honestly, is not as refined as one would wish, if however with a lot of charm to it which overcomes some game play aspects which could have been revised. Starting as an arcade game, and being ported to the Sega Dreamcast, this is a spin-off to the original franchise, which would continue into the 2010s, in which its central villain, the definition of a stereotypical anime villain (with his hair and brooding alone), wishes to get revenge on his parents being the experiments of the military through setting about the zombie apocalypse, a reoccurring theme of the franchise, with members of the AMS (stalwart protagonists of this series) needing to stop him.

Beyond references, including the last level beginning at the Curien Mansion, the setting of the first 1996 House of the Dead game, this is a side story which could be viewed as its own narrative. The undead have arisen and whilst there is an emphasis on melee attacks, this emphasizes prominent use of firearms in a beat-em-up setting, a novel direction to have taken. With its own separate button, firearms can run out of ammo but with enough around from each slain enemy, their emphasis make them integral and to be lean onto. They lock onto the nearest target until the sight goes red, getting a powerful shot that can cleave a mere zombie down instantly, and you can even juggle enemies in the air with shooting them over and over for a combo.  

Whilst there is a lot to work with – power moves, tactical rolls – the biggest issue with the game is that you could have refined the interesting mechanics for this hybrid, and there are moments which could have been improved more, for the combat and also to be fairer. There are also moments where the game dangle additions that would have made these even more entertaining only to be slighter in their appearances, such as the few novelty weapons you can pick up between standard machine guns and shotguns. Most of them, weirdly, come in one level, where you can get an industrial drill you can impale zombies on, a gasoline can which (with a flamethrower nearby) you can create patterns of fire using a heat source, and a few additional weapons, only to never return and be that over-the-top in content again. The only thing remotely close to this section afterwards is when a certain annoying type of enemy being introduced, like the flea men in the Konami Castlevania series but in dapper suits, allows you to nick their hatchets and throw them like boomerangs that do not come back.

Thankfully there is a lot of proudly over the top content here. It is a cool concept, using a gun as your primary striking move in this genre, with the potential to combo with bullet and fist, or knocking the enemy down and getting a head shot in. The trio of AMS agents you can play emphasizes this fact – your stock male lead that is balanced and the female lead is weaker, but best with firearms, to give an example of this. Then there is the really idiosyncratic character of Rikiya Busujima, making up the trio, speaking entirely in Japanese even in the English dub and based on actor Yusaku Matsuda, by way of a patch of skin on his face that looks like the Osamu Tezuka character Blackjack, who also has no jump but runs in a sprint instead and does a power shove that sends zombies onto the floor.

What keeps the game immensely rewarding is also its goofiness. The game’s sense of camp is found in that you will have only one person here to rescue, a woman, and she becomes a post-credit gag, or how one of the bosses, among a gallery of grotesque monstrosities, is a hulking missile launching goliath whose weak spot detaches and starts running around, a little gremlin trying to saddle your face if you are not playing duck season on it back. House of the Dead as a franchise is fascinating in general here and in the main series games, in terms of horror in any media, as it is legitimately morbid in terms of mood, revealing in fears of mortality and the uncanny in the undead, only to contrast this with an optimistic heroics of its lead and the humour (intentional and unintentional) of its over-the-top set pieces. It can conjure some horrifying enemies here, like the giant head which for its laser attack produces a tiny figure on the tip of its tongue, yet also is ridiculous, such as those flea man like creatures mentioned before or how a set piece involves having to stop a train, by pulling a single giant leaver down enough times, like this is an action blockbuster. The only real shame with the game is moments where the merging of genres does produce flaws, such as how, whilst possible to avoid, that enemies are able to use guns can lead to you losing a life instantly if trapped, especially zombies with shotguns.

This was a one-off, where this melding of genres could have gone further with improvements, but House of the Dead focused on the light gun origins rather than ever trying this again. (Instead, of all things, we got Pinball of the Dead (2002) for the Game Boy Advance, and I would be remised to not mention the Typing of the Dead spin off that encourages superior typing skills). The disappointing thing about this not getting a follow up is that, unlike some polygonal beat-em-ups, this avoided over pitfalls of the transition of the genre into three dimensions, so there was a solid structure this game could have followed up from in a hypothetical sequel. I do come to what we got with some disappointment – mainly that, next to another game like Dynamite Cop (1998) that also got a Dreamcast port from the arcades, this could have been more ridiculous and more fairer than it turned out to be – but there is enough here for those with the patience for it in the rare area of horror themed beat-em-ups.