Video game review by ERIK LEIJON

Capcom’s first next-gen offering, Dead Rising (X360/Capcom, Capcom) is exciting because this game could simply not be done on the older consoles. Rising, an ode to every zombie movie ever created, is not only the best zombie game since the 16-bit Zombies Ate My Neighbors, but is an exciting foreshadowing of what innovations are possible in the next few years. Despite its flaws, the next-gen is proving capable of creating detailed worlds like we’ve never seen before.

You play as photojournalist Frank West, dropped into a large mall in nowhere America that’s infested with thousands of the living dead. After that, the game is fairly non-linear. In addition to taking its concept from Dawn of the Dead (I admit to not having seen the original, but am using the 2004 remake as a reference), the game is supposed to flow like a movie.

If anything, the game is a lot like Shenmue. West has a 72-hour window to take some great photos, save as many people as possible, kill zombies and hunt down assorted crazy normal people, but how you progress is really up to you. Simple exploration will unlock a myriad of interesting missions and subplots, not including the set cases you have to solve. I basically horsed around and got nothing done, and it was still fun. There are multiple endings as well, since the game’s hard time limit is for real (there’s even a watch to keep time).

The theatrical elements are there—the intro movie is spectacular, and the contrast between hordes of flesh-eating undead and the bright, often campy stores in the mall makes for some great scenes. The main problem is the lack of constant save spots. You can only save by making trips to the men’s room or the security room sofa, so either you find yourself repeatedly going to these locations or dying and having to redo large chunks of the game. Shenmue eliminated this by allowing you to redo important theatrical scenes no matter how many times you die, and that should have been employed here.

One of the main reasons this game would have never worked on the current gen is the sheer amount of NPCs on the screen. Having hundreds of zombies on the screen at one time would have normally resulted in major slowdown, but this game moves fluidly... well, as fluidly as a zombie can move. I would have liked the option to make the text font bigger—remember Capcom, we don’t all have HD televisions.

Since West is a photographer, players have his camera at their disposal. Taking pictures of zombies before smacking them with a baseball bat is as fun as it is rewarding.

Dead Rising is certainly not a perfect game. The gameplay isn’t all that tight, and the controls are incredibly confusing and counter-intuitive. But by combining elements of Shenmue, Final Fight, Pokémon Snap, Power Stone and tossing in 1,000 zombies, Capcom has proven, like Ubisoft’s Advanced Warfighter, that next-gen has arrived.

Blast from someone’s past

The Intellivision and Activision video game systems from Technosource are supposed to remind us all of a time when gaming was a simpler pursuit. As someone who missed out on the Intellivisions and graduated straight to NES, I merely felt bored with the 10 games each system provided.

They look like regular controllers that plug directly to your TV. Three major faux pas were the need for batteries, including an ungodly three AAA’s for the Activision (AC adapter next time please), the screw-on battery lid and the short AV cables.