The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return (Wii) Review

Arcades may not be as popular as they once were, but it could be argued that the experience they offer is not dissimilar to that which has made the Wii so successful. When the Wii Remote was first shown, much was made of its ability to point at the screen. Since then, the most obvious and common implementation of this function has been using the pointer to shoot at the screen like a light gun; House of the Dead games have always used this type of setup – so an attempt to bring these arcade favourites to the Wii’s old and new audiences was always going to happen. So it would seem that the House of the Dead 2 and 3 Return is a good fit for the Wii, but does that matter when these games are so old?

The House of the Dead (HotD) series began in arcades in 1996, while House of the Dead 2 and 3 originally came out in 1998 and 2002 respectively. It’s safe to say that if you have these games on any other format you can stop reading now because you don’t need to buy this version – they’re essentially the same. Yours truly is not in the same boat – this is my first time playing either game, so you’re getting an opinion as if these considerably old games were actually new!

The first thing to hit home is that the visuals on HotD2 are appalling, as you’d expect for a 10-year-old game! That said, there are plenty of 10-year-old games that remain perfectly playable despite their aged visuals (just check out the N64 section on the Virtual Console for proof of that). HotD2 however takes a few hits in terms of playability because of its visuals. The scratchy look, repeated textures and lack of colour means enemies and objects blend into each other with little contrast, and since you have to be quick with your trigger finger, this can be a bit detrimental to your shooting ability. HotD3 fares noticeably better though. The visuals are crisp and clean and you can easily see what you’ve got to shoot, even in the darker sections. It’s not flawless however, as there is some slowdown in places. Jokes have been made of the Wii’s hardware prowess, but there’s nothing at fault with the Wii’s hardware here – this nothing but a quick and dirty port.

The game’s audio barely deserves a mention – but I am obliged. The music and sound effects are repetitive and will be stuck in your head after only a few levels. The voice work is corny (possibly intentionally?), and just bad, really bad. It’s right up there with the original Resident Evil in my opinion, so that’s saying something. Needless to say, the quality of the script is terrible so the story is most definitely skipable as well.

Considering the price (around $70 retail), and the fact that two games are included, you could perhaps get past that all though, right? If you enjoy the gameplay? Well, that all comes down to how much you enjoy mindless shooting. Despite their visual differences, different levels and pointless stories, at their core, both games are almost identical. You move through the levels on rails (you have no control other than earning/choosing set pathways – more on this later), and when the camera stops, you blast the zombies, creatures and whatever else (wait, not the humans!) that get in your way. Each of the creatures of course have their own weak points, attack patterns and such, to mix things up, but the games remain extremely predictable.

Thankfully, with shooting at the core of the HotD experience, the Wii-remote serves as quite a precise ‘gun’. There’s a calibration option, however there really is no need for this if you’re not using a gun shell. The remote is accurate right from the get go. You reload simply by flicking the remote away from the screen. This works well, however when giving it the ‘parent test’, I noticed some beginner players may have difficulty quickly relocating their cursor on screen. This is obviously not a problem for experienced players.

The basic difference between the two games lies in the branching paths aspect touched on earlier. In HotD2, your path is determined by actions you take(or don’t take) within the level. In HotD3, you get to choose your path before beginning some of the stages. In this respect, HotD2 requires a more skillful approach, but HotD3 offers an easier way to see the entire game. This approach is mirrored in the games as a whole, as HotD3 is definitely the easier of the two games.

While HotD2 is the harder of the two, both games are certainly beatable, and beatable in a short amount of time. It could have been shorter if you were allowed infinite credits (as in the arcades, provided your pockets are full), but here, credits are limited and set before the game begins. As you play more, you can increase the amount of credits you start out with. This increases longevity, but making you play the same levels over and over again only really serves to emphasise the lack of variety. It has been said that both games are short in terms of amount of levels, and this is true also. But, considering again the lack of variation (other than visually), more levels wouldn’t do much to rectify that situation.

The games are pretty much based on a play it, play it and play it again pattern. The first time you play you’ll get killed quickly, but the next time, you’ll remember a few of the patterns and you’ll progress a bit further, and so on and so on. In this respect, getting really good at the game can be quite rewarding.

Much of this review has focused on the game from a hardcore perspective, but it was mentioned how this game fits the ‘casual’ Wii audience. The perfect test of this was to let my wife have a turn at the game. She played a two-player co-operative game with her friend, which was an obviously enjoyable experience for them both (I myself found it hard to keep track of my cursor in co-op!) Perhaps I’m getting too old to see the cursor, or becoming too discerning to enjoy simpler games? Regardless, this game is certainly pick-up-and-playable by almost anyone, but how much you enjoy it will be determined by how much you like shooting, and how slowly you’ll get bored of it! Despite enjoying their stint with the game more than myself, the final verdict from my wife and her friend was the same as mine. This game is short, and only really good for a quick blast here and there. Any more than that and you’ll probably become tired of it real quickly.

Considering the price, is it good value? I’d be more inclined to say it’s good value if you’re paying for the NTSC version, as that’ll cost you a lot less than the PAL version will! $70 is not a budget price in my opinion – it’s a ‘sale’ price for regular games. $50 or less is budget price, and this game is probably only worth $30. For most, I think you could get away with hiring it out once – and possibly a couple more times when you have a get together with your mates.

Now that Sega has a couple light gun games out on Wii, I’m hoping they’ll skip the obvious Virtua Cop pack, and try and innovate with the Wii Remote’s pointing ability, as that’s what will really attract both the casual and hardcore Wii audiences.