They’re detailed enough, and the improved lighting is nice and moody, if a tad basic. When you look at them in these static screenshots they may look a bit rubbish, but it’s also important to note that they usually appear and attack so quickly that you don’t have time to sit there and study the quality of their character models. As it’s a remake this isn’t just the original arcade game with an HD upscale and hi-res textures applied: all the game’s characters, locations and enemies have been rebuilt from scratch. In a sense it’s a more fun, action-packed version of the game, but in practice it also exposes the control issues even more when you have more targets to quickly deal with. Once you’ve had your fill of the main arcade mode there’s also a new mode called Horde, which is essentially the same thing but gives you a load of zombies to deal with in each area instead of just a couple at a time.
There are a few different endings to provide at least some replay value, but the control issues mean trying to get some of them (which requires a high degree of accuracy and skill) could have you tearing your own face off, ironically. That level of intuitive control is certainly not present here.īeing an arcade game, though, it’s still very brief.
Obviously though, it’s still not an ideal situation: one of the main benefits of this genre is that anyone, regardless of gaming ability, is supposed to be able to just pick up a ‘gun’ and immediately know what they’re doing. The default settings for this do the job for the most part (though it’s hard to react and aim quickly) but there are a bunch of sensitivity settings you can mess around with until you get something you’re happy enough with. There’s also the option to use the Control Stick to move the cursor instead, which is obviously far less intuitive but is at least more accurate.
Let’s face it, though, when you’re playing a light gun game you want to feel like you’re holding a gun, and the Joy-Con is more gun-like than a Pro Controller (even if it’s a tiny gun like the one in Men in Black). Not entirely, mind you, but enough that things weren’t so frustrating. We found that playing with a Pro Controller remedied the situation a little. Curien has been performing some fairly grim experiments which have resulted in his mansion being overrun with a horde of zombies and other mutants, so it’s up to you to clear the house (of the dead), slap a few bullets into Curien’s rump on the way out, and also rescue your girlfriend who was at the house because reasons. As fate would have it, it turns out our opinion of it is much the same as Forever's take on Panzer Dragoon: it’s welcome, but it’s not perfect.įor those who’ve been unfortunate enough to not have The House of the Dead in their lives up to this point, the game takes place in and around the Curien Mansion, as players try to put a stop to the evil Dr Curien and his laboratory. Our review at the time stated that the remake was interesting but flawed, but ultimately concluded that even though it wasn’t perfect, we were glad it at least existed so that more people could at least get a chance to play it in some form.įast forward to the present day and Forever Entertainment is back with another remake of a classic Sega IP, and this time it’s the legendary arcade light gun shooter The House of the Dead. Two years ago, Polish studio Forever Entertainment released an HD remake of Sega Saturn classic Panzer Dragoon.