Zombie Revenge

by Sega

Product Details

• ASIN: B0000488VO
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 4.8 x 0.4 inches ; 4.8 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,495 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Editorial Review

Think you undid the undead in Dreamcast's gun-crazy fright fest? Think again. The zombies from House of the Dead 2 are back, and they want revenge for your gun-happy ways. In a change from House of the Dead's first-person viewpoint, Zombie Revenge places all characters (including hordes of attacking zombified souls) in a third-person camera view.

A perfect translation of the arcade game by the same name, Zombie Revenge also offers up an original mode that features a few small differences, including the option to play with powered-up guns or in bare knuckles mode (without the aid of handguns).

The graphics are crisp and clean, but the controls are mired in poor response time, and too many functions are assigned to the same buttons. Fans of the arcade version will rejoice at not having to pump quarters into a machine, but average zombie-hunting folks might be better off with Sega's other spooky shooter, House of the Dead 2. --Jeff Young

Pros:

• A seamless arcade-to-Dreamcast conversion
• Interesting VMU minigames enable players to add strength to their characters
• Impressive graphics

Cons:

• Ambiguous controls
• No save-game feature
• You can only carry one weapon at a time

GameSpot Review

What started out as Blood Bullet turned into Zombie Zone ultimately settled in under the name Zombie Revenge. This side-scrolling beat-'em-up has finally made the not-so-long journey home to the Dreamcast in near-perfect arcade form. Think Dynamite Cop with the focus on ammo spending and, well, zombies, and you're just about there. Does the fact that Sega has added exclusive home-only features mean that Zombie Revenge is much more than a gussied-up arcade port? Not exactly. Originally developed on Sega's Power VR2-based NAOMI arcade hardware, Zombie Revenge is an arcade-perfect port, with the only difference being some slight loading times between levels and cinematics. What this means is if you really loved the game when it required quarters to play, then you certainly won't be disappointed here. If you haven't spent a lot of time with the arcade version, then what's being offered here may warrant a closer look before a purchase. As a disposable arcade game, Zombie Revenge works for all sorts of reasons. As is the general mindset these days, an arcade game is not expected to do anything more than offer a few minutes' worth of twitch gaming, with the majority of the depth being in the move lists or number of ways to attack. Beyond that, a superfluous storyline to provide some slight semblance of reasoning behind your actions is all that's required to complete the package. The problem is, once the game goes to the next level and comes home to the consumer, its once-suitable premise is exposed for its shortcomings. You can initially select from three characters: Stick Brightling (the blonde pretty boy), Linda Rotta (the sassy, yet tough, obligatory Jill Valentine wanna-be), and Busujima Rikiya (the funky half-zombie soul brother). All three perform in roughly the same way, with variations in their methods of hand-to-hand combat. Unfortunately, to say all three perform equally is to say that all three control pretty badly. Perhaps the single greatest reason that Zombie Revenge isn't nearly the bang-up action fest it purports to be is because of its control. The shopping list of things that don't work right is long and comprehensive. For starters, when a game pits you against an unfair number of opponents, albeit slow-moving ones, you'd like your character to move with a little more urgency than our trio does here. The Y button controls hand-to-hand attacks that suffer from the worst canned animations you'll find in a game of this kind. What this means is that you're stuck watching your character go through his entire animation before you can right him and point him in the correct direction. When you're trying to fight your way out of a corner full of zombies, this can become a problem. Sega tried to compensate for this by offering the crowd-clearing sweep move. Tragically, you are penalized some health points for doing so, making it only slightly less damaging than actually trying to fight your way out. Why not run, you say, from the heat of battle? That would be a great idea if the controls weren't so illogically mapped to the control pad. To run, you must already be in motion, then press the X button, which normally functions as the block button. Where this becomes difficult is when you're trying to run, but you hit the X button a split second before you're actually in motion, causing you to stand still and block. Sadly, blocking does not work when you're receiving a flurry of punches from all sides, being shot by machine-gun-wielding zombies, or when you're the target of a boss' screen-clearing laser or fire attack. It's a wonder why this function doesn't default to the A button, which isn't used for anything. Picking up special weapons is also a time-consuming burden that leaves you vulnerable to attack while you are doing it. On top of that, one cheap hit and you'll drop anything you've picked up, making it almost not worth bothering with. You will, however, pick the extra weapons up, if only to break the monotony and the pace of the game itself. Instead of being Resident Evil, NFL Blitz-style, Zombie Revenge is an exercise in tedious pacing and mind-numbing repetition. Each zombie is capable of absorbing at least ten to 15 shots. When you're stuck with the default pistol, you can only fire the thing so fast. So while you struggle to move quickly and keep aim, using the highly flaky auto-aiming system, you are only able to squeeze off shots as fast as the game allows, which is to say, not very fast. Amplifying the tediously paced action is the stipulation that you must destroy all the monsters to move on to the next area. Also, certain weapons, such as the flamethrower and the drill, are found in certain spots only and cannot be taken to the next level. To put it another way, the game's best moments are short-lived. Surprisingly, despite its inferior control, this game still manages to be a more engaging experience than Dynamite Cop. Once you finish the arcade mode, there is the original mode, which adds neat little surprises and items into the almost identical gameplay. Secret costumes and armor power-ups can be had by pressing start and the Y button when you select your character. Stick, for example, will don a Power Ranger-like red suit of armor when you find the armor icon. It doesn't last forever, sadly, and it will disappear when you've taken too much damage. In original mode, you can also select gun mode and bare-knuckle mode, which, as the names imply, rely more heavily on the respective combat techniques to add challenge. But this is nothing more than a cheap gimmick in actual practice, since you can still punch and shoot in either mode. Beyond the original mode, there are boss battles a la House of the Dead, where you can practice your skills against the bosses. This doesn't prove to be much of a challenge, since most of the bosses move very little except when they reach 50 and 20 percent health. The tip to defeating the boss is simply to move when it launches its occasional attack. Perhaps the feature that caused the most commotion when it was announced was the fighting mode, which is a simple one-on-one versus mode, Final Fight-style. You can still grab guns or simply punch and kick your opponent, only on a limited stage. The sinker is that your character still controls as stiffly as he does in the regular game modes. The fighting mode gives the impression of being little more than an afterthought, and it remains that way in actual play. Graphically, the game more than holds its own against other games of this nature. There are some cool lighting effects, such as the flashlight found early in the game. But once again, something cool isn't given any true purpose, since the game is never dark enough to require it. Thus, lacking an atmosphere along the lines of Silent Hill, Zombie Revenge's sole flashlight appearance is wasted. Character models are a bit on the sausage-y side, but everything runs in high resolutions at 60fps. The soundtrack is appropriately horror movie-esque, but it doesn't elevate the game experience one bit. While the sound effects are generally fine, the one-note crack of the relentlessly fired gun tends to get tiring quickly. The voice acting is uniformly atrocious, but that's practically the unspoken MO for survival horror games, so it's no worse than anything the Resident Evil series has thrown at us. Perhaps the coolest part of the game is when you reach the stage that approximates the actual House of the Dead opening stage, only this time it's viewed from a third-person perspective. Acknowledging one's past creations is a welcome trend, and in this case, it works. Objectively, it's not as if Sega didn't try to add longevity to Zombie Revenge. It most certainly did, but to put it bluntly, the company still has a long way to go before it reaches a Namco level of quality insofar as home conversions are concerned. The extra modes are more novelty than added value, and the fact that the game itself is severely flawed makes the extra modes nothing more than severely flawed extra modes. While this sort of gameplay may suit some folks just fine, someone looking for a good reason to part with 50 bucks should look elsewhere. It's worth a rental for curiosity's sake, but it'd be better to wait and see if Sega gets the sequel right. --James Mielke
--Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great 2 Player Action, January 28, 2000

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Zombie Revenge (Video Game)

Zombie Revenge is an excellent game. It is like Streets of Rage, mixed with Resident Evil. Blasting zombies to bits with guns may sound fun, but it's even more fun when you're hooked in with your best bud, watching each others backs! The graphics and sound are great, and the chance for multiple paths adds replay value. The guns are so cool, you won't be able to wait until you find the next one. The story is good, but in a game like this, story doesn't matter too much anyway. If you are a fan of fighting games, RPG's, and especially adventure/action games, then this is a must for you. I hope this helps you make your descision.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Die Zombies Die(again), January 16, 2000

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Zombie Revenge (Video Game)

This is by far one of the best games i ever played.i love it the most because its 2-player.The weapons pickup in it is a very wide range from drills to flame throwers to my Fav.Land Mines hehe u should see the peices fly and its cool that flies get on the screen while you are playing and the hand to hand combat that each character has is nothing to laugh at they kick major butt Feel Tha Pain Zombies..This Game is a must buy for all those Resident Evil and Fighting Force lovers.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars About like a Zombie Movie, July 17, 2003

By 

Kyle Nelsen (Idaho Falls, ID USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zombie Revenge (Video Game)

I found this game in the arcade, I played it with all the money I had. Almost got to the last level, so i came back with my brother and brought enough money to guarentee our victory.

I was stoked when I found out that it was available on DC, I didn't have a dreamcast but I was impressed with a few of the other titles on DC, so I threw down a hundred bucks and got myself a brand new DC, with controller and Memory card. I got this game as well as a few others.

Ok, now to the point. This was a waste of money, the game is impossible to beat, you have 15 lives and no saves. Maybe I am just not any good, but why do they have all the VMU games but you can't actually SAVE your game... and so I got a partner to play, but no, now you just share the 15 lives between the both of you.

This is a fun game, nice weapons, animations, controls, and all that, but its just too repetive, their is virtually no replay value, the 2 player vs. is not even worth trying. The items and enemies are in the same place everytime and there is no randomization of gameplay. Not what you want from a mindless zombie fighting game.

The story makes almost no sense, something about mutants and a computer disk, a mysterious woman hiding in a garage, a gold eye, 3 face cards, a train speeding out of control, a laser, and 3 main characters who... well who knows...