DAY 140 / GAME 140
House of the Dead (Various)
Some games are just fun with no real focus on plot or innovation. Just shootin' and screens full of monsters. Any modern arcade with the room for light-run cabinets should feature House of the Dead or one of it's sequels. Every time I have the opportunity to spend time at a Playdium or Dave and Buster's this game is definitely one I'm sure to park myself in front of.
I'm not sure exactly what it is about this game. There are other light gun shooters, a few that I really enjoy, perhaps even more than this one. (Especially Time Crisis, what with the foot-pedal-cover system.) I think that maybe it has something to do with the fact that over time, what with this being a staple modern most arcades, it simply grew on me.
House of the Dead encompasses a lot of what was lost in modern gaming. When I say that, I don't mean the lost art of games requiring astronomical skill to complete or lack of handholding and tutorials. When I say this, I mean the loss of the b-movie game scene. In the 90's, when games started to include voice audio and tried to become more cinematic, but didn't have the budget for proper voice actors you ended up with some extremely entertaining results. As game development budgets grew and grew with more recognition within the entertainment industry more often it attracted better writers and better actors. Of course, when I say better actors in some cases I'd say actors, period. I'd swear a lot of old games were voiced by some of the game dev staff, they were just that bad.
But just as b-movies have that silly charm, so do some of the older games. Resident Evil, Silent Hill, House of the Dead; sometimes the writing and acting is so bad it counters some of the serious horror, rounding it out so that it's more playable in the end. Especially in a case like there where you don't have time to enjoy any plot anyhow since you pop in some quarters and shoot some dudes until you're out of money.
One of the best time I've ever had playing House of the Dead was at Playdium one day with a few friends. They had a good deal certain nights where about $20 got you two or three hours of unlimited gaming on anything in the place. Now, I can't remember what version of House of the Dead I was playing exactly and I can't seem to find it online, but it had room for three players. Two pistols and one shotgun. And since we had unlimited playtime on the swipe cards, two of us got together to play this; one with the shotgun, and the other with twin-pistols. That was the ultimate way to play a light gun game.
House of the Dead has had what seems like a pretty good run since it's release in 1996. It's had 3 sequels in the arcade and a number of interesting spinoffs including an updated version for Wii and PS3 House of the Dead: Overkill, an english learning game for the Japanese Nintendo DS English of the Dead and my favorite: Typing of the Dead. A typing learning game laid out exactly like House of the Dead 2 but instead of shooting, you have to quickly type the words that appear above enemies heads. It's a super fun twist of an already fun game. I actually just purchased it again as part of a Humble Bundle online sale and if you ever get a chance to give it a try, do it. You don't even need a light-gun peripheral to play it.
House of the Dead (Various)
I'm not sure exactly what it is about this game. There are other light gun shooters, a few that I really enjoy, perhaps even more than this one. (Especially Time Crisis, what with the foot-pedal-cover system.) I think that maybe it has something to do with the fact that over time, what with this being a staple modern most arcades, it simply grew on me.
House of the Dead encompasses a lot of what was lost in modern gaming. When I say that, I don't mean the lost art of games requiring astronomical skill to complete or lack of handholding and tutorials. When I say this, I mean the loss of the b-movie game scene. In the 90's, when games started to include voice audio and tried to become more cinematic, but didn't have the budget for proper voice actors you ended up with some extremely entertaining results. As game development budgets grew and grew with more recognition within the entertainment industry more often it attracted better writers and better actors. Of course, when I say better actors in some cases I'd say actors, period. I'd swear a lot of old games were voiced by some of the game dev staff, they were just that bad. But just as b-movies have that silly charm, so do some of the older games. Resident Evil, Silent Hill, House of the Dead; sometimes the writing and acting is so bad it counters some of the serious horror, rounding it out so that it's more playable in the end. Especially in a case like there where you don't have time to enjoy any plot anyhow since you pop in some quarters and shoot some dudes until you're out of money. One of the best time I've ever had playing House of the Dead was at Playdium one day with a few friends. They had a good deal certain nights where about $20 got you two or three hours of unlimited gaming on anything in the place. Now, I can't remember what version of House of the Dead I was playing exactly and I can't seem to find it online, but it had room for three players. Two pistols and one shotgun. And since we had unlimited playtime on the swipe cards, two of us got together to play this; one with the shotgun, and the other with twin-pistols. That was the ultimate way to play a light gun game.
House of the Dead has had what seems like a pretty good run since it's release in 1996. It's had 3 sequels in the arcade and a number of interesting spinoffs including an updated version for Wii and PS3 House of the Dead: Overkill, an english learning game for the Japanese Nintendo DS English of the Dead and my favorite: Typing of the Dead. A typing learning game laid out exactly like House of the Dead 2 but instead of shooting, you have to quickly type the words that appear above enemies heads. It's a super fun twist of an already fun game. I actually just purchased it again as part of a Humble Bundle online sale and if you ever get a chance to give it a try, do it. You don't even need a light-gun peripheral to play it.
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