Review: House Of The Dead 2 & 3 Return

As Most of my friends (both online and offline) are aware i am an arcade junkie, i love goin to the Arcades (either on holiday or at a cinema) and spending countless hours on arcade machines, which mostly revolve around Time Crisis - but i do like the odd House Of The Dead Game. So it came as no surprise when House Of The Dead 2 & 3 was announced for the Wii that i would end up Importing it (exactly same thing happened when i Time Crisis 4 was released in the USA).

The House Of The Dead 2 & 3 Return has once again sparked interest into my Nintendo Wii - as the only other title i have been playing was Super Mario Galaxy and with Thanks to Datel's Freeloader i can now enjoy alot more games as now im not restricted to PAL branded games (Yes my copy of HOTD is an USA Version and im using Freeloader to play it).

On First impressions The HOTD Return is a nice package, 2 Great Arcade games, 1 Decent Console and 1 reasonable price and not only that the graphics are the same as the original console ports that were on the Dreamcast and Xbox. Unlike Ghost Squad which seemed watered down in my opinion, however the good points stop here, as everything in this package is exactly the same as the Dreamcast and Xbox Version except you use a wii-mote instead of a lightgun.

The only additional thing thats in this game is the main menu as your welcomed with a menu asking you to choose which game you want to play, House Of The Dead 2 or House Of The Dead 3 - their is some comical value here as once you select which game to start you here a zombie groan, but once you choose which game to play it boots up the same menu layout as the Dreamcast and Xbox versions. The only other noticeable difference is "Tutorial Videos" but these arent much good as it only tells you the basic's and the obvious.

The only other flaw i noticed while playing the game was the reload time in The House Of The Dead 3 - for some reason it felt insanely slow , espically for a fast-paced shooting game. As you would expect the B button on your wii-mote is the trigger and to reload you just point the wii-mote outside of the screen to automatically reload - which is simple - but this can be troublesome during a boss-fight (espically the final bosses such as the emporer), as they usually fly upwards and out of the screen and then hit you really fast - but as your moving your wii-mote up - it will creep outside of the screen and start the reload session - then suddenly you get hit. I didin't find it to be a problem on House Of The Dead 2, but it happened alot on House Of The Dead 3 and got annoying, same with reloading, HOTD2 has FAST reloading sequences, but HOTD3 takes a good 3 seconds for you to reload - which is crucial on the final boss fight.

My Final Thoughts on this game are - its a great package, if you find it at a reasonable price, as the ERP (Estimated Retail Price) is £34.99 EOP - Estimated Online Price) is £29.99, mine cost £34.99 including freeloader and next day delivery (which is pritty reasonable), however if you already have the older versions on dreamcast and xbox then don't rush out to buy it as their isn't anything new - but saying that it is a joy not having to put the gun away. The House Of The Dead 2 & 3 Return is released in the UK on 28th March 2008.