Choppin Till I'm Dropping!
If you've been following all the post-E3 spillage of news that's been
invading the internet since last week (including much from this very
publication), no doubt you've at least heard the news that Capcom's infamous
zombie mall game made famous for the Xbox 360 is headed to the Nintendo Wii.
Now before you start kicking and screaming, just remember that few companies
have been as kind to both the Xbox 360 and the Wii as Capcom, and for the life
of me I can't think of another that's as adept at making ports seem fresh and
new. With Dead Rising, however, there's little that's still fresh
or new (these are zombies, after all) but thanks to a new name and what could be
smart gameplay changes, the newly christened Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop
might do the trick.
As much as you'd like to deny it, the original Dead Rising was not a
great game, nor was it even that good of a game. Rather, it was a
fantastic and revolutionary game trapped inside some shoddy mechanics and inane
design choices. Perhaps reducing the original's best ideas to their purest
form will make up for the obvious visual reduction that can't be helped when
porting the game to the Wii's hardware. While I still massively prefer the
original title that's been floating around (Zombie Sacrifice), I suppose the
legions of family-friendly Nintendo consumers who love them some evil dead
pummeling will be just as likely to pick up a mature title with the strange
moniker Chop Till You Drop. Press blurb from Capcom below,
followed by the latest screens!
SAN MATEO, Calif. — July 21, 2008 — Capcom®, a leading worldwide developer
and publisher of video games, today announced that Dead Rising™: Chop Till
You Drop is in development for the Wii™ home video game system. Based on the
critically acclaimed Dead Rising™, which has sold in excess of one million
units since its release in 2006, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop is
scheduled to hit store shelves this Winter.
Taking advantage of the same proven technology that brought Resident Evil® 4
so successfully to Wii, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop delivers a more
immersive, intuitive and interactive experience as players use the Wii
Remote to shoot, slash and bludgeon their way through a zombie infested
shopping mall, fighting for survival.
Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop follows the harrowing tale of Frank West, an
overly zealous freelance journalist on a hunt for the scoop of a lifetime.
In pursuit of a juicy lead, he makes his way to the small suburban town of
Willamette only to find that it has become overrun by zombies. Frank escapes
to the local shopping mall, thinking it will be a bastion of safety but it
turns out to be anything but. It will be a true struggle to survive the
endless stream of enemies, but players will have full reign of a realistic
shopping centre and its varied stores offering an endless supply of real and
makeshift weapons to fight off the flesh-hungry mob. If Frank is running low
on health he can pay a visit to one of the many restaurants or cafes for a
meal in order to restore his energy and continue the fight.
The game is split into a series of individual cases, all of which Frank must
complete in order to gain vital information that will allow him to piece
together the truth behind the horrendous epidemic. In addition to the cases,
players will be faced with the dilemma of deciding the rescue priority of
the residents of Wilamette who also sought sanctuary in the mall. Depending
on the player’s skill, some may not be so fortunate as each rescue needs to
be undertaken in a set time period, therefore players may need to delay
completion of a case in order to save a fellow human.
Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop’s infectious humor delivers some welcome
relief from the incessant tide of zombies with players able to dress Frank
up in a variety of comedic costumes and take on the undead hordes with a
selection of improvised and sometimes highly ineffective weapons such as a
toy sword or a football.
Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop includes the following features:
• Utilizes the same engine as Resident Evil 4 Wii edition.
• New level of interaction – aim and fire guns, swing and throw weapons and
shake off zombie attacks with added Wii Remote functionality
• Huge environment – expansive indoor and outdoor areas of the mall provide
a variety of different locations to explore
• Improved save functionality allows for more seamless gameplay
• Hoards of enemies on screen at once resulting in non-stop, pulse-pounding
action
• Anything in the mall is at Frank’s disposal
• Grab environmental objects like umbrellas and benches to use as improvised
weapons
• Snatch items from different stores to use as weapons including golf clubs,
lawnmowers, frying pans and more
• Consume food and drink to revive health