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House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii) Status: Finished playing I started playing this game on Monday 24 May, 2010 // I stopped playing this game on: Wednesday 2 June, 2010
Current opinion of this game
It's House of the Dead dressed up as a b-movie. Play it with your friends, but beware the language... If Samuel L. Jackson was dead he'd be spinning in his grave.
June 2, 2010 03:36:09 PM
This is probably the filthiest game I've ever played in terms of language. Wow. It's so bad it's almost funny and thus good. The best detail so far, in my experience is the music. Rather than license a bunch of songs the game features new songs whose lyrics are relevant to the game! (not only relevant, they also refer to it directly). The song lyrics are also filthy in case you were wondering... SEGA really nailed the B-Movie thing which makes me wonder what a B-game would be like. Is it a game that mimics the aesthetics of B-movies? I don't think that B-games are simply crappy games. There's too many of those, right? On the other hand, are they games that are intentionally bad or so bad they're good? Is it about the art or the gameplay (or both?). Is it the low-budget aesthetics? What is low-budget gameplay? Low-budget tools then? Hmm...
May 25, 2010 05:20:33 PM
I'm really digging the exploitation movie vibe this game has. It really works for this kind of game since, if you stop to think about it, the sheer amount of zombies you face is completely unrealistic. Well, not that shooting ZOMBIES is realistic, but you get what I mean. It's the premise that's absurd and this game not only acknowledges that but runs with it. I've only played three "missions" so far, but each mission is framed (meta-narratively) as a horror B-movie. Each movie follows from the previous one without any real transitions. Of course, the characters aren't aware that they're in these little movies since all of that information is presented non-diegetically. There is even faux film-grain and other cinematic effects! (in this case cinematic in the sense that they refer to the technology of the medium of cinema and it's properies and flaws). The image is quite dark as well, which I blame more on my TV than a conscious game design decision. I'm disappointed however that there isn't some way to adjust that in the game. As a final note, it's somewhat amusing to see a character that stereotypes Samuel L. Jackson's stereotypical tough guy. And yes, that includes all the swearing.

House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii)