So it’s a port of the last 2 House of the Dead games on the Wii. I’m annoyed that Sega still hasn’t in some way brought back the original one (I’ve read that the Sega Saturn version had more characters). Has anyone played this yet , and can comment on how well the Wii-Mote works for it(Don’t own the Wii Zapper)?
My girl’s hooked on light gun games, so hearing that this is A) fun and B) forgiving would be great. We played the hell out of RE:UC, but eventually got bored cos of the ludicrous boss fights.
I’m hooked on this as I was on Saturn, Dreamcast, and Xbox. The wiimote works very, very well, much more like the original light guns did on the arcade cabinets. Actual position tracking for flashlights, just moving offscreen to reload, that kind of thing. Calibrate before the game(or during, you can pause and recalibrate at any time, thank you Sega), start game, kill zombies. No hassle to it, really, but I wish it would have been adapted to widescreen.
It’s amusing seeing the graphical difference in 2 and 3, the very start of a generation and the mid-end of it. 2 is a much more cartoony look overall, with detailed bosses. But 3 is a more realistic look, with more cartoony bosses. Both work though for the feel, 2 is a b-grade zombie movie in every way, acting, zombie looks, bystanders(I know it’s just the Japanese phrasing, but “Don’t come, don’t come! Aiiieeee!” still sounds horrible in English). 3 has better acting and a more serious feel, with a little cheesy one-liner added in.
It’s as unforgiving as ever, I’ll say that, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I do hope HotD1 is stored away somewhere as a hidden feature though. I know sega loves hiding previous hotd games in current ones, though i’d expect at this point they’ll want to put it in HotD4’s wii port. And if it does, I’ll have no issue dropping $30 more on a series I’ve probably spent $200 on by now, not including quarters at arcades :P
Sadly Sega said in a preview in Nintendo Power that Hod 1 is not going to be in the HOD 2/3 port, I can’t remember the exact reason though.
Hm I did not know about a HOD 4, is it arcade only for now?
edit: Found the mention about Hod 1 in NP. Sega said that they felt the graphics weren’t good enough to be worth it for the port.
Can you use a second wiimote to play two-gun style? That was always the arcade party trick when you wanted to show off to your mates.
Does that mean it’s pillarboxed? If so they lost a sale. :(
Finally got my copy today and managed to get thru both games. Has anyone else noticed on 3 that hitting the weak points of bosses doesn’t seem to register if you do it the second they appear? I don’t have the zapper but just using the Wii-mote feels like a world of difference compared to the DC version. The loading times are abit annoying, seems to be only in HoTD2.
Now we just have to hope that sega releases Hotd 4 with 1 at some point. And I really want to play a typing of the dead sequel.
If you are into the genre (which for me is all of hotd 2/3 and Ghost Squad) you should look into acquiring the reasonably priced Nyko Perfect Shot if you can find it.
I paid extra for my 2 (a few bucks), and they were a huge part of my enjoyment for both games, especially for 2 player action. My Zapper, on the other hand, is still around only because I’m not sure what to do with it.
But it blows the wiimote on its own out of the water.
I picked up the Nyko off of Amazon, and I’ll second that recommendation. Took a while to get here, but it feels right. I’ll probably pick up a second one.
My only complaint is that they didn’t put in anything for the strap, otherwise it’s 100% awesome.
For anyone looking for the perfect shot cheap, the two lowest prices I found for it were on WalMart’s site for $19, and on HSN.com for $14. HSN did charge about $6 of shipping though.
That’s about what I paid off a (non prime) amazon vendor. It’s annoying considering it was originally retailing at 14$, but I can’t imagine playing these games without them.