PixlBit

(Due to the photo service I used for photo embed now charges for 3rd party photo sharing, I’ll be unable to share any screenshots of my playtime at the moment. Hope to fix soon)

With word of the Nintendo Wii’s Shop soon to be shutting down I’ve found myself playing my with Wii a bit more than usual. Though it is one of the prime systems I’ve hooked up to my current one and only GameRig set up (GameRigs Two & Three are torn down due to space limitations) I must admit that it’s one of the fewer systems I’ve played often. Most of the love goes to the PS4 Pro, PS3, Xbox One and Xbox 360. But during this Octoberween I decided to show some love to my Wii in more ways than one. Not does one game reside on this machine for my Top 5 Octoberween game titles for this year but two, with the second game only made playable by unspeakable, unholy and unorthodox means. But I digress for let me focus on my number 2 pick for this year. Years ago I mentioned this as a possible game idea when I had merely entertained the notion of Top 11 (and now Top 5) writes ups of each game. They instead got just a one paragraph treatment. So I figured why don’t I revisit this title given I’ve recently acquired it a few months back into my collection. I speak of none other than Sega’s The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return for the Nintendo Wii.

 

I must confess that as the console gaming generation has passed further and further into the future, some game series have either fallen by the wayside or mostly forgotten overall. It’s even worse when certain game genres also bite the dust due to either hardware advances/limitations or the fact that the genre itself has become too niche to warrant continuing by game developers/publishers. Motion controlled gaming and Survival Horror first pop into mind though I’m sure both could be argued to the contrary. But I must admit it’s been awhile since we’ve seen the likes of many light gun shooters out there in the gaming world? Not since the last gaming generation have we seen such beasts of gameplay. When was the last time we saw a continuation of the Time Crisis series? Virtua Cop? Lethal Enforcers?

Sure there have been some off and on over the years but it might seem that during the 8^th gaming generation we haven’t seen much of those games have we? So I felt compelled to retry the genre again this year, but instead of trying out some of the titles that require the use of a PS Move controller or possible Kinect title I chose the tried and true wiimote style of shooting found on the Wii. The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return seemed like an excellent fit for this year given my finding of the gaming earlier this year and it’s easy pick up and play mechanics imparted with the use of the wiimote.

For those unaware, The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return consists of two classic titles from the House of the Dead Series found in arcades from Sega. HotD 2 was originally only found in the arcade before it was ported over to the Sega Dreamcast and Microsoft Windows, along with an unofficial release as an unlockable bonus game in The House of the Dead 3 on the original Xbox. HotD 3 only saw release on the Xbox and Microsoft Windows before being ported to the Wii and eventually to the PS3 with move support. I would’ve originally wanted to play HotD 3 on the PS3 but lacking full Move controllers, and the lack of HotD2 had me choose this compilation on the Wii overall for reasons I shall now go into.

I was a big fan of the original HotD when it came out in arcades. It’s campy zombie horror story, the cheesy voice acting, the stilted animations of player characters and NPCs, right down to the gothic soundtrack over the top weird science involved in it all. The first game was all in good fun. I can remember playing this game with both guns and trying to beat the game with only $5.00 in tokens. I was so excited for the sequel to come given I lacked the funds to get the game on the Sega Saturn (a mixed blessing depending who you listened to). When the second game did drop at my local arcade, I was more than happy to try it out and relive the fun all over again. It seemed not much had changed in HotD 2, the story, voice acting, stilted animation and gothic soundtrack all seemed to be in place.  But instead of a mansion it was now in a whole city, Venice Italy to be exact. I couldn’t have been happier and was read y to see if I could beat this game as well with $5.00 in tokens.

Then I played it.

I don’t know what happened with this game but I could’ve sworn that the gun calibration was all off. I couldn’t get the sweet spot shots I use to get in the first game. I wasn’t able to reduce a full bodied zombie to nothing but a bloody stump with legs with my well places shots. I was either not hitting the monsters where I didn’t intend them to be shot or missed entirely. For me HotD 2 became more of a disappointment than an enjoyment given my loss of precision. I had hoped I could play the game again on the Sega Dreamcast, this time planning ahead to ensure I had the system and ability to buy the game. Yet instead I was met with more disappointment when I learned that Sega wasn’t going to release an official light gun for the release of the home version of The House of the Dead 2 due to the recent school shooting controversies. At the time I wasn’t sure which was worse: playing the game with less than accurate light guns or with no light guns at all, reduced to using a d-pad…

I did eventually cave and get The House of the Dead 3 & 4 on PS3 but again even with playing on D-pad it didn’t bring back the joy of playing the original, dual wielding light guns at the arcade. So when I eventually got The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return on the Wii, I was planning on some more sad disappointments when it came to playing this game.  Fortunately that wasn’t the case this time around. Despite claims to the contrary in wiimote support being less than 1 to 1, this game played much like how it did so long ago back in the arcades. Targeting was sport on and I was able to dispatch my foes with the greatest of ease. Even with just the wiimotes alone it was a joy to point and shoot. It just made me wish I could find some of the generic gun shaped shells for the wiimotes if only to duel wield guns again like yesteryears.

Essentially these games are no different than what you’d expect in playing them from back in the day. All the campy, cheesy goodness that came with the series is still back in form. Even when they tried to ham it up less with a more serious plotline in HotD 3, it was still a great to use the shotgun in that game. I experienced none of the problems I had when I played HotD 2 at the arcade and the game looked just as well like it did on the Dreamcast. All the branching paths, hidden items in background objects and saving civilians all felt the same as it did back then. It helped to relive those younger years of trying to play this game but with better moments thanks in part to just the guns working properly like they should. There are times when it’s better to play this game with light guns than with a simple keyboard (I chose The Typing of the Dead in a prior Top 11 Octoberween Game Titles list long ago).

The best way to describe how this game is would be to consider it like playing a campy, late night, made for TV cheesy horror movie but with better visuals and special effects. If you can enjoy cringe worthy dialogue, over the top gunplay with blood and gore and a storyline that almost hits every cliché in any horror movie checklist then this would be your game. The games are great with their branching paths and multiple ways to play so it won’t keep you bored during your overall playthrough. What’s even better in playing these games is that you can treat them just like the coin-op games they are to their core. There isn’t much to their stories, you don’t have to focus much on gun tactics or have to sink a good portion of time to play these games in one sitting. Even with the replayability of multiple endings and seeing where all the branching paths lead to, you don’t exactly have to sink in a lot of time to get the full enjoyment out of these titles. Even if tactics isn’t your cup of tea, it doesn’t hurt to acquire some over the course of replays to help get you ahead. I was able to get far in HotD 2 but not quite making it to the final boss though I will admit that the final stage in HotD 3 is just as cheap as it was on the PS3 version. If anything the visuals for HotD 3 are a step up from what they were in the 2^nd game. The game still played well overall, even with the change up of using shotguns. Still the cheapness of the final boss can’t be fully ignored..

If you ever needed a game that just screams Octoberween Gaming fun this game would be it. It has it all when it comes to any themes of Halloween. You got your roaming zombies welding throwing axes, zombies with chainsaws, mutated bats, birds and worms, even swap monsters jump into the fray. The games have it all when it comes to hitting every cliché on the Halloween tree as it falls to the ground. If you like over the top cheesy horror movies, these games will fit the bill with its overrunning of monsters in Venice Italy to its movie Residen’t Evil-ish/Night of the Living Dead story arch of the zombie plague spreading across the world, ending civilization as we knew it.

It’s why I’m glad I chose this game for this year’s #2 Octoberween Game Title for 2017. It can be played in short spirts between your usual Octoberween activities and keep that cheesy gothic feel if you happened to be watching some b-film horror sholk afterwards. It’s a shame this game can’t fit the same mood as the movie that was based off the series. *shudders*

If you’re lucky enough to have a Wii still you can find it for about $10 to $15 depending where you shop. I was lucky enough to find my copy used at a local GameStop for $9.99 before tax. I can’t say for sure how the games would play on an Original Xbox if you happen to find The House of the Dead 3 and be able to unlock the second game. It’s one of the great things with this complication. Both games are accessible from the get go so no worries about unlocking any of them. If you want to show your Wii some light gun goodness, you can’t do any worse that this game on your list of must own/plays.

My Top 5 Octoberween Game Titles for 2017

#5: Wolfenstein: The Old Blood – Price $20 used PS4

#4: Doom – Price $20 new Xbox One

#3: Corpse Party: Book of shadows - Price $9.99 PSN Digital

#2: The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return – Price $9.99 used on Wii.