Strengths: Faithful reproduction of the arcade version.
Weakness: Rail shooters get a bit tedious.
If you simply want to have point and shoot fun on your Wii, this is the game to get. The aiming accuracy is spot on with the Wiimote and even more fun with the Wii Zapper or Nyko's Perfect Shot gun. Since Sega released 2 & 3 for the Wii, I think they should have included the original too (although the extra content is fun, albeit sparse). If you enjoyed these titles in the arcades, you're gonna love it in your living room!
Strengths: Arcade shooter action, great use of the Wii Zapper, great co-op gameplay, good graphics
Weakness: Flawed continue system, laughable plot
House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return is a port of the two arcade games of the same names to the Wii. The Wii seems like a perfect console for this game, with the Wiimote for point-and-click gunplay. The game is best enjoyed with the Wii Zapper or the Nyko Perfect Shot, as it's a lightgun game with a simple, laughable plot, to kill zombies. The Zapper or Perfect Shot give the lightgun experience, which works better than just the Wiimote and nunchuck. With all lightgun games, it's best enjoyed with a partner, and that helps with the cheap and flawed continue system, something that should also have been ported from the arcade. It's a great port of a fun arcade game, and well worth the money.
Strengths: Nostalgic, faithful port, right down to the hysterically bad yet entertaining voice acting
Weakness: Need to buy a Wii gun controller to really live the experience
As games go, the HOTD series never had any cerebral value---it was always just about fast-paced zombie slaughter, with green innards spraying everywhere. None of that concept is lost in this Wii port. The game is far more (unintentially...maybe?) comical than scary. But it remains a terrific way to waste a half hour now and then. Bring a bib.
Strengths: Save you tons of quarters, bring back memories of the original, nice co-op gameplay
Weakness: Still the same cheesy old graphic, continue system left a lot to wonder
This game is a lot of fun, especially with a friend. I am looking forward to more future porting from sega, especially titles such as Virtual Cop, etc. This game is much more fun with a gun, such as that of the perfect shot. The continue system is quite frustrating...you pretty much have to die a good 4 or 5 times to get your max continue to load up. On top of that, you get the lovely task of starting from the beginning all over again. Overall, it's a very nice title, not as much weapon choices and arsenal as RE: Umbrella Chronicles, but then again, it's pretty much the same old dreamcast/arcade game one come to expect and love back in the day.
Strengths: -Faithful reproduction of the arcade titles
Weakness: -Continue system could have used an arcade-type option
Being a huge fan of the House of the Dead franchise, and having just picked up a few Wii gun accessories, this was a must buy.
I am not disappointed. This is a straight port with no issues from the arcade versions. I would not have complained if they included the first game, but I can live without it.
Graphics are just good enough for the Wii's capabilities and the gameplay goes hand in hand with the Wii mote.
The only thing i would have added to this game is an option to let you continue indefinitely and from exactly where you died - just like you kept pumping quarters into the arcade machine.
Other than that, highly recommended.
Strengths: Good compilation, good price, from when Sega was making fun arcade games, perfect port
Weakness: It is an arcade game, has a limited continue system, graphics not upgraded, may get sore arm/hand (take breaks!)
The Wii has been getting a lot of Sega arcade ports, but this one is one of the best. The House of the Dead series is one of Sega's classic arcade lines-- part survival horror game, part cheesy B-movie, this game has a charm that has won a lot of fans over. In the arcades, the game is a light gun game. For the home translations in the past, gamers have had to buy light gun add-on controllers, but now the Wii version uses the Wii remote controller meaning the true arcade experience is much easier to get than it has been.
These games are fairly unchanged from their arcade roots; House of the Dead 2 still looks a bit stiff at times. House of the Dead 3 has much better graphics with a bit more involved gameplay (You get more choices where to go, the plot and cut scenes are a bit more fleshed out, etc). That said, neither game is particularly deep, and with the game's limited continue system (probably done to emulate having a pocketful of quarters that runs out!) you'll find yourself trudging through the start of both games for a while until you learn the positions a little better.
While these games are a lot of fun, there isn't a whole lot new. If you already have another version of one or both of the games, you might just want to stick with it. (Dreamcast had House of the Dead 2, the original Xbox had House of the Dead 3) But if you're new to the series, or wanted to play it with a light gun (Wii remote/Wii Zapper) for the first time, this is a good title to pick up.
I also wanted to point out the game is rated M. While I don't necessarily agree with this rating I did want to point out for any parents, this IS a "horror" game about shooting zombies. It's not as bad as the Resident Evil games, or a lot of horror movies, and it's very tongue in cheek, but it does have some gory moments. You can turn the blood red or green, but it may still be a bit for kids. There's nothing entirely gruesome though, so older kids should be fine, but don't assume because it's for the Wii it'll be fine for your 4 year old!
Strengths: Simple, fun, to the point. Port of the arcade game.
Weakness: Port of the arcade game. Wii zapper is suggested.
If you liked the original arcade games then this is a recommended buy. It is surprisingly fun and has an awesome co-op mode. A few cons of this game to me were the fact that you get a limited amount of credits; although this appears to go up the more you play, and is more fun with a Wii zapper so that is at least another 20 dollars spent. Also the graphics aren't all that great and look just like the originals so that might be a big turn off, but to people like me it doesn't really matter.
Strengths: kill kill kill kill
that's all you want sometimes
Weakness: 2 & 3 are almost the same
It's a fun game. I wanted a game where I could simply kill without spending too much time thinking about a storyline. It's much more fun if you use a gun, like the perfect shot gun.
The "different" types of play seemed like the same thing to me, so some more variation of gameplay may add more excitement.
Strengths: Fun and appears to be idential like the arcade!
Weakness: You can't restart from where you died. :( You may get sore shoulder blade muscle from pulling the trigger (if using the Wii Zapper or similar gun attachment)
If you like the arcade version, you'll like the Wii version. All the scenes on the Wii appear to be identical to the arcade version; don't miss spending a ton of $ to get to the end of the game.
Testseek.com has collected 21 expert reviews for The House of the Dead 2 & 3 and the average expert rating is 63 of 100. The average score reflects the expert community’s view on this product. Click below and use Testseek.com to see all ratings, product awards and conclusions.
I kid you not, I recently broke out my Dreamcast and hooked it up to the TV for my boys to have a little fun with. Well, when I found out I was getting the new Wii release House of the Dead 2 & 3 (HotD), I whipped out my Dreamcast copy of House of the Dead 2 and locked and loaded myself for some nostalgic fun. Fast forward a couple of days later and I received my copy of HotD for the Wii and...
House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return receives an overall TopTenREVIEWS rating of 2.5 out of 4.00. It is ranked the #5,250 game of all time, #5 game of 2008 for the Wii and #79 Wii game of all time. The rating and ranking is based on an average of 14 critic scores, awards and other criteria. To see a breakdown of the game ranking, read individual critic reviews, or see how other games ranked, click on...
Where's the original?
Strengths: Faithful reproduction of the arcade version.
Weakness: Rail shooters get a bit tedious.
If you simply want to have point and shoot fun on your Wii, this is the game to get. The aiming accuracy is spot on with the Wiimote and even more fun with the Wii Zapper or Nyko's Perfect Shot gun. Since Sega released 2 & 3 for the Wii, I think they should have included the original too (although the extra content is fun, albeit sparse). If you enjoyed these titles in the arcades, you're gonna love it in your living room!
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