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Review: Use your Wii to blow away zombies on House of the Dead: Overkill
It's not really news that the essential problem with the Wii is that it has no balls.
While the 360 and the PS3 serve up graphics and sound that make even some PCs weep, the Wii is basically a gimmick controller slaved to a box that leaves you embarrassed it's connected to your 52-inch plasma.
But what can be done?
The kid loves his Mario fix, the wife will actually play "golf" with you on it, and even your mom and dad will bowl a few frames when they drop by. You're stuck with it, no matter how far from the state of the art it is. Now, however, you can take your "family" console and, thanks to Sega, fill it full of zombies.
Yes, House of the Dead: Overkill (Sega, $50) lets you take the gimmick controller, point it at the screen and squeeze off shot after shot of zombie-dismembering virtual lead. This is gameplay so primordially macho that not even the Wii's limitations can inhibit the fun of it.
The format of Overkill is familiar to anyone who has ever put quarters into an arcade light-gun game. Zombies pop onto the screen and the player shoots them. It is a "rail shooter" in that the player has only limited control over where the camera points. The "story," the look and the levels (spooky mansion, monster-infested hospital, etc.) of the game are out of the grindhouse days of B-movie horror flicks, only with far more F-bombs. The player scores for head shots, consecutive hits, shooting powerups, defending civilians and clearing levels. Scores earn money to buy new guns and upgrade old ones.
There have been other "light gun" games for the Wii, but this is the one that it's worth buying a light gun to play. Turn down the lights, turn up the sound, and it's like being back in the arcade after school.
Better, actually, because most light-gun games at the arcade didn't have 52-inch screens, and the ones that did cost a dollar to play. With Overkill, you can knock down zombies, save civilians and groove to the retro soundtrack all night without a single trip to the change machine.
By squirrel at 5:50 PM ON 02/20/09
Embarrassed to connect your wii to the tv.... I'm a proud owner of the wii. Using free hand aim to control crosshairs on screen beats using a joystick moving that crosshair around any day. And if it's so embarrassing to play the wii then why is nintendo outselling both microsoft and sony nearly every month, and why can you hardly find a wii on store shelves, and why do everyone you know has one...
If it's so embarrassing for you to play your wii give it to someone who has been looking for it since it's release and still has no luck.
And if you think the wii can't handle high graphics like the xbox and ps3 well Resident Evil 4 sure came close.
If you wanna blame someone for the lousy games thats been released on the wii point finger's at the 3rd party game development companies. They are the true ones to blame.
By Psylon at 9:46 PM ON 02/20/09
Gonna have to side with Squirrel on this one.
Whereas the 4th Q 2008 holiday line up for the Wii was embarrassing (Wii music? really?) the Wii is continually proving that it's not just about better graphics. The difference: Better games. Wii games are fun to play, intuitive, and just plain different. When was the last time you bowled at your house?
Sony used to eat Nintendos lunch when the Ps1 was around. Why? The 64 was supposedly twice the system that the 32 bit Playstation was. And yet they seem not to have learned from Nintendos mistake, and it's costing them dearly. I was the biggest Sony fanboy in the world, until they crapped out the user unfriendly ps3. I mean, how sad is it when Nintendo has no killer aps for the HOLIDAY SEASON, and they STILL are sitting on top of the world. How much evidence do you guys need? The Wii might not be graphically superior. But Neither was the PS1.
Glad to know this game rocks. I'll have to pick it up.
By Roger Workman at 11:21 PM ON 02/20/09
Ditto what the first two posters said. Just because Nintendo had a different philosophy in designing the Wii (innovation vs. horsepower alone), doesn't mean it is the lesser system. Mr. Baker's bias is appalling, quite frankly.
By Harry Dresden at 11:27 PM ON 02/20/09
I for one am not embarrassed for owning a Wii. "Gimmick controller?" Ha! Give me a break.
By Thogar at 12:23 AM ON 02/21/09
Count me in with the throngs of commenters who chose the Wii over the other 2 because I wanted innovative, intuitive gameplay. The PS3 is pure crap and I'll be damned if I'm giving Microsoft more of my money just to wiggle my thumbs.
The only limitation here is the author's intelligence. His article reads like it was written by a disrespectful 12-year-old. Sci Fi Wire continues its nosedive.
By Pete at 12:36 AM ON 02/21/09
Eric, you embarass yourself.
Don't quit your day job... unless this is your day job, then please quit your day job.
By Anthony at 1:16 AM ON 02/21/09
I agree with the above posters , like I say on other game boards graphics mean nothing without good game play. My favorite games on both the PS3 and 360 are the PSN/LIVE downloadable games that have cartoonish type graphics for the most part but have tons of fun game play. The Wii is a great system that has a lot of stupid developers making games for it. They should smarten up and look at games like Mad World and The Conduit and start to put out good games because it can easily be done with this system. The controller is perfect for FPS games and Adventure style games...also RTS as well and you have already seen with some of the sports games what a good dev can do with these controls.
By PsiHawk at 10:50 AM ON 02/23/09
Umm... guys... listen to yourselves.
He's writing a column. As a writer his job is to illicit responses and generate buzz about his article.
Showing your passion for your Wii... (which I also share) is the point.
I do however get the message that one thing tat makes the Wii and all of Nintendo's game systems a little limited is the lack of any 'violent' games.
Nintendo takes the high road with the systems and typically does not put out games that have too much gore, blood, sex violence.
While a great system, I would enjoy being able to play "Mortal Kombat" And get the same great gory lethal finishing moves that you see on other systems... that get 'cleaned up' for the Wii.
Visit mobile.syfy.com/wire on your mobile device.
PsiHawk:
Umm... guys... listen to yourselves. He's writing a column. As a writer his job is to illicit responses and genera...More »