Dead Rising, originally released on the Xbox 360 in August of 2006, was a great romp through what felt like the classic Romero flick, Dawn of the Dead. Being a huge zombie fan, I couldn't wait to get my hands on that twisted social commentary of consumerism. Once I had it, I lost hours of real world time as I was drawn into the life of photojournalist Frank West. Clunky movement controls and weird jump animations aside, running Frank through the mall and bashing zombies was a blast, plus he had a camera and it was usable! Part of the unique gameplay was to take pictures of the atrocities plaguing the Willamette mall. Dead Rising was an absolute blast of a game to play, whether you followed the story or ran around destroying zombies and finding new outrageous outfits to wear.
Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop was released this past February, '09. The port to the Wii survives but not without some “fun-factor” loss. Unfortunately, as we already know, the Wii just can't support the same amount of onscreen characters as the Xbox 360. This means that Chop Till You Drop suffers a little when it comes to building player tension and suspense. However, the development team took a counter-measure that was completely unexpected. In the original game you could run through much of the environment trying your best to dodge enemies (or take a more direct path towards them). In the Wii version, the development team limits your movement by forcing you into smaller more controlled paths where the zombies are spawned. This creates a more claustrophobic feel to the game, and because the zombie spawns are much faster this time around, there is a feeling of being overwhelmed by zombies. My preference, I am sure like many others would be to have more enemies spawn at once. However, with the limitations of hardware, kudos go to the development team for coming up with a creative way to capture some of the frantic overwhelming dread that can only be captured with hordes of zombies.
Chop 'Till You Drop suffers the most with the loss of the camera mini-game. Again, my guess is that hardware is the culprit, and the Wii wasn't able to perform the camera mechanics with the same smooth standards as found on the Xbox 360. To me, this stifles character development considering Frank is a photojournalist. Not being able to take pictures actually detracts a bit from this version of the game. However, I will say that if I hadn't played the original I may have a different opinion on the matter. Yet, I did play the original and I think it would almost have been better to use a variant Frank West model, rather than him holding an unusable camera through the game. I almost wish the art team would have had Frank wounded in his jump from the helicopter in the initial scene and put his right arm in a sling to explain why his arm is always near his chest.
The game does introduce some new features to help spruce up the action and gameplay. Two new animal enemies are introduced, the poodle and the parrot, which can be annoying if you are not prepared for them. There are also Wii-mote motion mini-games where you have to shake the Wii-mote in order to break free of a zombie's grasp. Finally, the development team added more save slots to the game this time. THANK YOU! Many people enjoyed the single save of the original game. However, many more wanted multiple save slots. And for the Wii, considering it is casual gamer friendly, this was the right move to make.
Overall, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop was a fun game to play. The development team took great care in retaining the fun-factor from the original. I only fault the platform for the loss of some of the key elements that made the original fun. Chop 'Till You Drop is a solid middle of the road zombie game that will entertain for a few hours. And, if you were someone like me, who didn't have the privilege to read the text of the first game, then pick this one up. With larger text, you will finally be able to read what you are actually supposed to be doing! My suggestion, pick up Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop. Keep your expectations grounded at Wii level and you will enjoy this game a lot.
