House of the Dead:Overkill

[357 Lobster]

The first thing you'll probably notice about this game is not the well done visuals, the cheeky 70's style music, or extremly cliched characters. No, you'll probably notice how quickly and repeatedly Detective Washington drops F-Bombs. Seriously he says it over a hundred times. No joke. It's pretty funny at first, and well, remains pretty funny throughout. The script is very tounge in cheek and genuinely funny. Anyhoo, the game itself revolves around standard, arcade style shooting. Just like previous games in the series, all you do is blast zombies away with a variety of weapons from your standard pea-shooter to shotguns to machine guns, all upgradeable. Your enemies, being zombies, are vulnerable to head shots. Most of them anyway. Occasionaly you'll face down some football players wearing helmets, some are riot cops with shields that can only be blown away right before they swing at you. While others are just your run of the mill nurses, rednecks, clowns, carnies, and bums. Some will carry weapons as well. Bonesaws, hatchets, and even broken bottles. They'll either try to smack you with the weapon or just throw them at you. At the end of each stage you fight a boss each with their own weak spots and method of attack to keep you on your toes, but in all honesty, they're all VERY easy. Even a total noob will smite most of these bosses without breaking a sweat. Pretty sad really because this game is short. At about 7 stages, each clocking in at around a half an hour each, you can finish in a dedicated day or two. Throw in the co-op multiplayer, and you'll really tear through the game. Luckily after you finish the main game, you unlock the "Director's Cut", which is the same basic game, same bosses, etc, but each of the stages are extended in a sense. For example, in the first level, you start inside the Mansion, while in the "Director's Cut", you start in the courtyard a few feet from the front door. Also more rooms are added to the levels. As far as the graphics go, they're over-all pretty impressive. The zombies look fantastic, the environments look very good, and the lighting is great! There's soft "bloom lighting" all over the place and I love it. The game also has a scratchy film over it to make the game look like an old 70's Grindhouse feature film. Given the game's script, setting, and characters, this couldn't be more appropriate. Same goes with the music. Very funky and upbeat, and again, appropriate. There's also a few multiplayer minigames that are fun, but nothing to really write home about. So, there it is. House of the Dead:Overkill is very fun, very short(saved by multiplayer and "Director's Cut"), funny, and genuinely hard-core game that deserves every bit of praise it's recieved and should not be ignored by the Wii's adult user base. Especially when you consider it's only around 20 to 30 dollars on ebay or Amazon. You like blowing away zombies and hearing alot of swearing? This is for you.