Last year the Wii was graced with arguably two of the greatest light gun games of all time thanks to House of the Dead two & 3 Render. For fans of the series, like myself, it was fantastic to replay some truly classic arcade games equally the Wii simulated the old way light gun perfectly.

We'd always hoped that SEGA would consider releasing HOTD 4 for Wii, a game that was released merely in arcades and has yet to been seen on a dwelling console. However to our surprise and delight last year came the proclamation that UK based Headstrong Games would be making an entirely new House of the Expressionless game, specifically for Wii.

If you lot've heard anything nearly Overkill you'll know its been heavily influenced by recent grindhouse sleeper hitting, Planet Terror, Robert Rodriguez's homage to 70'southward B-movies. Dubbed every bit "funk horror" Overkill has been styled with all the cliché's y'all'd come to expect from the genre - and that's a good matter. Expect lot's of over the top violence, lot's of bad acting, lot's of funky music, lot's of swearing, oh, and a stripper. Y'all'll shortly figure out how the game earned it's 18 rating.

In Overkill, a prequel to the House of the Dead serial, rookie straight-out-of-the-AMS-university Agent Thou teams upwardly with soul-brother-hard-mother-f**ker Detective Isaac Washington, to track down local bad guy, neckerchief-wearing Papa Caesar. Of grade things don't go smoothly and shit soon starts to turn weird in the course of hordes of mutant zombies.

The principal "Story Mode" is split into seven chapters, titled Papa's Palace of Hurting, Ballistic Trauma, Carny, Scream Train, The Fettid Waters, Jailhouse Judgement and the last act: Overkill; all have their own singled-out style and setting and is presented every bit its ain individual film, complete with affiche, theme tune and intro/outro sequences.

Afterward the outset 20 or so f-bombs and your finally into the zombie action things should experience pretty familiar, you shoot with (B) trigger, reload with (A) or a quick milk shake of the Wiimote and finally you can utilize (-) to fire grenades (one time acquired). One thing that'southward new in the control department is the ability to push the photographic camera view effectually by pointing left/right up/downward, this lets you see slightly more than than normal and is useful when your seeking that high score.

Overkill features some splendid "zombie mechanics", shooting them in the head causes the best results but is plain the almost difficult, you can also pick off limbs as your victims try to come closer.

There's a huge selection of zombie types in the game, including average rednecks, trailer trash girls, nurses, american footballs, doctors, prisoners and most notably, clowns, bloody gymnast clowns!

It wouldn't exist House of the Dead without pickups either and Headstrong accept added a new 1, shoot the green gue icon and you'll enter "Irksome-mo-fo" mode where time is slowed right down and your bullets pack more punch for some awesome motility kills.

Overkill also employs a combo counter organisation, shoot 5 mutants downwards without a miss and you'll be announced as "Extreme Violence", 5 more kills and its "Hardcore Violence", and then "Ultra Violence" so "Psychotic" and finally yous'll reach "Goregasm". Each of these states human activity as score multipliers and are essential for getting that perfect high score.

What to points hateful? Prizes of course. At the end of each chapter you'll be given a detailed score and rank, this will all get turned into cash for use at the Gun Shop. Along with the level score, you can too earn cash for a variety of in-game particulars such as "50 head shots" or "2000 kills across all levels" or by shooting the aureate brains scattered beyond each level.

The gun store is your stop-of-level pit-stop, utilize your cash to purchase different weapons or upgrade your existing ones, beyond the entire game you'll go the trusty old AMS Magnum, the Manus Cannon, Shotgun, Automated Shotgun, SMG, Assault Rifle, and the $fifteen,000 Minigun.

Upgrading your AMS Magnum is essential and so pretty much all the other weapons are in that location for fun - and boy they can be fun! Going back to early levels and ripping through them with an Set on Rifle will help keep the game interesting the second, tertiary and 4th times you decide to complete information technology.

Another staple feature of House of the Dead are the affiliate bosses, Headstrong have designed some wickedly gruesome characters to serve every bit the level bosses. All of them are visually very interesting but practice perhaps play slightly predictable and ane dimensional, they are all pretty easy.

Once you've completed the game in Story Mode you'll unlock the "Directors Cut" surface area which basically allows you to play through the game a second time but this fourth dimension its a) more than hard, b) more zombies and c) you'll take quite a different road through the affiliate and visit a lot of new areas, it's non simply a "harder" manner.

Completing Director's Cutting mode unlocks some other fiddling gem, "Dual Wield" style that allows you to play the game with two Wiimotes, double gun style.

Overkill has clearly had a lot of love and affection from information technology's creators, it oozes charm and quirks that make it one of the about fashionable games effectually on Wii. The artwork is impeccable with massive attending to particular, information technology'due south just a shame the Wii can't handle what the developers really wanted to do visually.

Every frame of the game is laced with filters and effects that give it that classic b-motion picture wait, intentional cut scene continuity mistakes, witty dialogue (for the nigh part) make Overkill an extremely entertaining title for at to the lowest degree the starting time time you play through it.

Notwithstanding even with all its impressive lighting furnishings and neat funky music Overkill does, from fourth dimension to fourth dimension, suffer from the ever common Wii power effect - it's simply not graphically powerful enough and tin cause a few frames to skip, shame.

On top of the main story (which tin be played as 2 player throughout) the creators have included a few more "DVD" style extras, you'll have admission to loads of concept artwork, music tracks, 3D models and fifty-fifty a few trailers.

Also included are iii "mini games" that are available for up to iv players, these are pretty elementary and basically require yous to get amend scores than your pals to win, it probably won't serve you more than than fifteen minutes of entertainment simply it'due south worth a quick go with friends.

Some other slight criticism of the game might actually be welcome for others, Overkill is a pretty piece of cake game that should never infuriate or frustrate like some of the other HOTD games, information technology boasts an improved health/life organization over predecessors with less need for continues.

Conclusion

Business firm of the Dead: Overkill successfully takes the series in a brand new direction, it breathes fresh life into it'southward characters and open up'southward enough of new doors for sequels. With merely a few bug Overkill can sit down proudly at the top of the "light gun" games currently available on Wii, fans of the series, Planet Terror, or calorie-free gun games in full general should all find something hither to enjoy, great job Headstrong - we want mother-f**rex more.