Games of the Abstract: The House of the Dead - Overkill (2009)

Developer: Headstrong Games

Publisher: Sega

One or Two Players

Originally released on: Nintendo Wii

 

Until Scarlet Dawn came to the arcades in 2018, the House of the Dead franchise went dormant in terms of the main light gun game franchise from Sega, ending after House of the Dead 4 (2005) and not returning until thirteen years past. Today's title was one of two exception, a spin-off that was in the hands of British developer Headstrong Games, a subsidiary of Kuju Entertainment from London who was allowed to take their own spin on the game. Sega's zombie shooting franchise was given to them to go into a different tone, with the advantage that in the seventh generation of consoles, there was also a push for motion controls that allowed light gun genre to get resurgence. Alongside the Sony Playstation 3 having the move motion controller, which would follow on into the Playstation 4 and virtual reality, the Nintendo Wii when released in 2006 and becoming a huge success became a bastion for certain genres to be able to shine or resurface in a new generation. Even if it lead to a scourge of cheap plastic tact, it allowed for a practical way to bring the likes of this genre, or guitar rhythm games or even fishing to the console, even if something which would become abandoned over the next generation in general barring virtual reality itself.

There is also the context here, with this gorier and more adult take on House of the Dead, that for all the times Nintendo have lived up to the image of Disney in the video game world, they have had adult games on their console since the Nintendo Entertainment System, and with the Wii, this console which broke through to a wider non-gaming audience with its motion controls nonetheless brought up Madworld (2009), the first two No More Heroes games, and even Manhunt 2 (2007), an insanely controversial Rockstar Games title which, for all the issues around it include nearly being banned from the United Kingdom, managed to get a Wii release with added motion controls. Overkill itself is full blood and guts to the point, if you get your combo of kills high enough activates a "Goregasm" mode, before you even get to the number of uses of the f-bomb you would never hear from Mario.

The other thing that needs to be established, as The House of the Dead: Overkill ran with this aesthetic, is how the developers Headstrong Games decided to take influence from the "neo-grindhouse" movement in genre filmmaking. Neo-Grindhouse is a curious term, as in reality, grindhouses were just independent cinemas in the United States, such as the notorious 42nd Street in New York City, which "grinded" out films twenty four seven, and the exploitation films they showed and influenced Neo-Grindhouse was actually a variety of genres and sub-genres. It all truly stems from Grindhouse (2007), the tribute to this era of cinema which was meant to be a huge project by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Originally meant to be the pair making a quick pair of fake exploitation films put together in a double bill, like those in the original era, it escalated into a large scale event which brought interesting in the idea of "Grindhouse", a three hour production with fake trailers shot by the likes of Edgar Wright and Rob Zombie. The film, when released, was not a box office success, so bad that originally in the United Kingdom the films were split off for cinema release, Death Proof (2007) and Planet Terror (2007), and we never got the original release until physical media. The issue with Neo-Grindhouse is that the genre does not really reinterprete the films which were shown at these cinemas, but the version that the Grindhouse film played with. It became its own aesthetic inspired by the history, that of the faked scratches and damages of old prints, the enticing sizzle of film trailers which promised more than some films ever promised, or as Overkill plays to in one great joke, the missing film reel concept inspired by cases where, if the film was not kept together or a projectionist cut out a scintillating section from the film prints, you got a piece or sequence missing.

Neo-Grindhouse was a genre I hated back then, and whilst I may be softer and may be able to appreciate the genre now, I will still argue it is entirely a period of cinema, though films were still being made afterwards, which felt to exist in the midst of Grindhouse's hype and into the early 2010s. It became the concept where fake grain effects were digitally included even on micro-budget films as much as it led to the likes of Hobo with a Shotgun (2011) or Bitchslap (2009), a sub-genre which never came to the mainstream cinema barring Machete (2010), which was a fake trailer by Rodriguez himself which he expanded into a full feature with a sequel. They are not really recreating the old films, and Overkill copies this with the bombastic trailer announcer per cut scene, with levels set up like individual films around the same characters, an Agent G from the franchise's AMS team of heroes paired up with an African-American cop from a Blaxploitation film named Isaac Washington, the later on a revenge mission against Papa Caesar, the crime boss who has gotten hold of a superhuman formula that turns people into monstrous zombie-like entities, that G wants captured alive.  There is as well with this genre the ironic sense of political incorrectness without skirting too far over the edge, as gore is one thing, whilst a few of this genre skirted around edginess but with a sense of ironic distance, such as this opening before the game starts with live action footage of fully dressed pole dancers gyrating to music, or how it plays to its more transgressive jokes such as who the actual end villain is and his relationship with his mother being beyond Oedipal to even being too much for Sigmund Freud in the sexual tension.

The Neo-Grindhouse aesthetic is the aspect which will likely age Overkill the most, as the genre’s ironic streak, based on around perception of exploitation separate from the reality, is going to either be off-putting for not taking anything seriously or something you can appreciate as a very eccentric touch. This is more the case as, played seriously, the original Japanese developed House of the Dead games are ridiculous, but with the factor that the cast of these games care about the potential necropolis Armageddon that they are under threat of. Even for arcade lightgun games, it adds so much even if, by Scarlet Dawn, a set piece involves a literal ladder of hundreds of zombies pulling a helicopter down in the first level transpires and throughout the franchise, including English dub performances, the absurd has been as much part of the games. Thankfully a lot still lands, such as Agent G refusing to say what "G" stands for, the constant use by his improvised partner Washington of the f-bomb and their love-hate relationship, and how there are great moments possible as you can have longer cut scenes for a console game, such as when they are forced to commandeer an ice cream truck to hunt down Caesar, arguing about country music at the same time. Where the ironic side shows some cracks the most, due to how she never really plays a part beyond cutscenes in the original Wii version, is the sole female character Varla Guns, the stripper stereotype in scantily clad clothes and yet a badass which the neo-grindhouse genre toyed with, such as Rose McGowan as the go-go dancer Cherry Darling in Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror with a machine gun leg. In this case, the problem is less the scantily clad stripper archetype which is the issue, but that she contributes very little, [Huge Spoiler] and her fate is literally to become a brain in the jar, the game even poking at the depiction of their strong female character in a fourth wall breaking moment [Spoilers End]. It would only come to the updated version of this game called the Extended Cut (2011) for the Playstation 3 to flesh her out, with levels where she is the lead with another female character as player two, but here she is only a side character out for revenge for the death of her disabled younger brother, the first boss of the game when mutated under the evil machinations of Caesar, and really does not get to be a character you have fun with like the bickering bromance of our central male pair.  

As a light gun game, this keeps the bar high for the series, so Overkill does not feel like a detraction of the franchise but a more lurid and deliberately absurd take on the solid foundations. Only a few concessions are made as a console-first title, that you can spend points for continues, or how when certain enemies can grab you, the player needs to shake the Wii controller side to side to avoid them taking health. Most of the game instead is Headstrong Games, with real praiseworthy credit to them, taking what has been a constant in the franchise and fully succeeding with their own stamp on the proceedings, including what adds to the replay value. Between the ability to upgrade weapons, mini-games, and the "Director's Cut" versions of levels, there is a lot here to work with. And honestly, even as a game you could beat in around two hours on one run is not a bad thing. The main story, the seven levels, is only more longer than most light gun games but nothing feels pointless. Even with the ability to add "extra mutants", as this jokes that "zombie" is a dirty word, it is nice to have a game which never feels padded and the extras are what bring you back alongside trying to improve your runs. Even when it’s abruptly introduces the real villain later, the real cause of the mutant contagion a literal mommy's boy wanting to switch his mother's mind into a younger body, it feels like the deliberate swerve for a joke than a disjointed story choice.

If this had been longer, the tone would have gotten annoying, and issues that exist like a female lead who feels underutilised would have been more an issue. As well light gun games unless you can innovate in making a version for a longer play length could easily become overloaded in repetition, more so as this, despite its broad tone, is also playing to its own ghoulish take on the premise which plays into a grimier artistic palette. The franchise was already macabre and morbid in its form, but this is as mentioned its own gorier take, where tropes and ideas from the franchise, such as its style of boss battles, come with the sense of a Western developer taking them in their own over-the-top tone of monstrous, with a lashing of blown up heads and blood split when you hit the targets, an aesthetic that could have gotten tedious if the developers did not thankfully create a game long enough for it to instead. Arguably the only thing that feels amiss with the game play itself, not the plot and aesthetic this is wrapped up in, is that two of the bosses are awkward to fight, the female banshee in the second hospital level feeling like an endless loop if you are not already aware of the mechanics, and sadly the final boss being not as good as it should be, with mini-guns brought in, when this for a title originally released on a Nintendo console, whilst not showing it, has the mother of eyebrow raising moments to end a game when someone literally crawls back into the womb. The rest is thankfully completely memorable, going through tropes of horror like the aforementioned hospital, a prison, a swamp, and arguably the best level, a circus which is just an excuse for zombie clowns and running through carnival stalls where everything has gone to hell. This was a project, from its tone to the very idiosyncratic soundtrack, riffing on music from Robert Rodriguez’s own film scores to psychobilly music, which clearly had love put into it as it was being developed, and it succeeds very well.

Tragically Headstrong Games really did not make many games after this, until they became defunct in 2017, this being one of their most well known games of their whole career between being originally known as Kuju London to being Headstrong Games, not making many games after this and almost all licensed titles. This is sad to say alongside the fact that, once the bubble burst for the resurgence of light gun games in the seventh generation of video game consoles, the genre outside of arcade releases have struggled in their number being made or in terms of re-releases of older titles. A shame as, notwithstanding the remake of the original 1996 House of the Dead by Polish studio MegaPixel Studio, this franchise has not had the ability to continue on consoles. Thankfully, after the Extended Cut version which added new missions, one of the franchise's more idiosyncratic touches was continued and is the way you can more easily play the game. The Typing of the Dead (1999) was a very idiosyncratic spin-off which reinterpreted the original House of the Dead 2 (1998) into a typing teacher for the arcades, the light gun replaced with keyboards and having to type words above enemies' heads fast to slay them. It became its own beloved aspect of the franchise, as a sequel and re-adaptations followed over the years, leading to 2013’s Typing of the Dead: Overkill. Based on the Playstation 3 version with the added levels, downloadable content also allowed you to have to type out Shakespeare quotations or pure obscenities, like "pickled pork sword", among the words you had to type, so thankfully even this plays as more additional humour to the material, alongside the fact the original version of House of the Dead: Overkill is also included as a bonus.

For Sega, this entire project has to be admired for a tangent out of their own company, one which yet befits their eccentric history of creative left-turns and inspired decisions even as publishers only, where they were also the ones who published MadWorld for the Nintendo Wii too. It took, sadly, a while after until Scarlet Dawn, and whilst that was a welcomed returned, it is an arcade only title and the franchise is mostly unavailable as so many light gun games are. The exception that I mentioned early in this review in the first paragraph, also coming out in 2009, was Loving Deads: The House of the Dead EX (2009), tragically a Japanese only arcade release which made zombies the leads, a male and female one who went mini-games which brought in a foot pedal for the players alongside the light guns. Games like this are as enticing to consider, and it really the sadness that, in the market place which developed from the 2000s onwards, it was less practical for Sega to indulge in their well regarded franchises in ways like this than focus on those like Yakuza and Sonic the Hedgehog which sold well. Games like Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (2010) thankfully reference the company's rich history, but it I find myself finally reaching games like this they let outside developers work on, and succeed in, and wishing that even as lower budget titles that they let other developers take stabs at some of their cult hits and older franchises, and see if some of that magic came from the experiments.