For those who read each and every post on Dtoid, you'll know that someone's mother posted a tip about Dead Rising Wii over the weekend. Secret's out; that was my mom. Isn't she awesome? Besides being funny as fuck, she also has a nice new laptop, where as I have a virus-riddled PC from 2003. That's why she sent in that tip, as opposed to me just posting the info.
What info am I talking about? Why, it's the info that single-handedly renewed my interest in Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop; info that comes in the form of some choose-your-own-adventure style flash videos on Capcom Japan's Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop website. Here's the original
post for those who are interested.
Now, if you read Conrad's hands on impressions of Chop Till You Drop, chances are that you too had lost hope in the game. I hate to say it, because I love me some Conrad, but I don't think he gave the game a fair shake. He doesn't mention that the the game has no more jump button, and that in order to do many of the game's melee attacks, you have to first shoot a zombie in a place that will stun him (the head or the knees), then run up and attack them while they're stunned. Basically, he doesn't mention that (from what I can tell), Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop isn't just using Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition's camera and control schemes, it's using all of its combat particulars as well.
This, my friends, is a big deal.
If Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop ends up playing
exactly like RE4:Wii, then it wont matter if there are only 20 or so zombies on screen at the most. With the right enemy AI, the game could still be amazing.
In RE4:Wii, if you get anywhere near a group of enemies, they will kick your ass...hard. Each and every enemy in RE4 can be scary, especially in groups of five or more. They surround you, attack you from all sides, suddenly rush at you, sneak up behind you; in short, you have to stay on your toes around these guys at all times. No matter what, you'll want to keep those bastards away from you, and where you can see them. In that way, RE4 is like a huge game of tag, where everyone is "it" but you, and getting tagged means getting killed.
This is the exact opposite of how combat works in Dead Rising 360. The closer you get to the zombies, the more likely
you are to kill
them. The zombies are basically defenseless, with the right weapon you can kill 20 of them in a tight space with absolutely no risk of getting hurt (any one who's played the game for more than a few hours knows what I'm talking about). The only way the developers could make the game exciting is to fill the screen with hundreds of zombies, in an attempt it give the illusion of a threat. It's a cheap trick, a trick that works at making a game that's packed violent good times, but it doesn't do much to create any sense of danger for the player.
In my entire play through of Dead Rising 360, I think I was only killed by zombies twice. Every other death came from a boss, or from not doing a mission fast enough. One could say that zombies aren't even really "enemies" in the game, they're really just obstacles. Sure, they are fun obstacles to kill, but mere obstacles can't really be scary, not when you can just run on top of them, or walk up up to them and beat it to death with your bare hands without any fear of retaliation.
Speaking of which, I hope that they take the ability to punch zombies out of the game for Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop. Being able to just walk up to a zombie and punch them, or just punch them away from you if they get too close, would make the "tag" style gameplay of RE4 impossible to implement.
That's going to sound like sacrilege to those who prefer Dead Rising to RE4, but hell, people like that already have Dead Rising on the 360 to play, right? Why would they want Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop to play
exactly like a game they already have? Wouldn't it be better to have both Dead Rising 360, and another version of Dead Rising that plays totally differently? If Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop goes well, multi-console owners will have Dead Rising 360 to play when they want a zombie "beat them up", and Dead Rising Wii for when the want a zombies "get the zombies these hell away from me...up". It'll be like having two versions of the same song, one with a full band, and the other purely acoustic.
Hmm, that's not bad a bad analogy. Gotta remember to use that in the Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop review (as long as the game doesn't suck, that is.)
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Johnathan, you really are into you're music analogies today, aren't you?
Hm. Well thats interesting. I hadn't played the 360 game but this could be a pretty cool adaptation. So it really isn't quite a port is it? It is definitely a spin-off. This is a strange beast; same setting, story, characters and scenario, but totally different mode of play. Has something like this ever happened besides a hand held version of a console game?
I might take this game seriously again. Do we have a release date?
Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop is one big roller coaster of emotions.
I was always interested in trying this just because of the controls --- I think RE4 Wii has the best control scheme ever devised.
You've renewed my interest, though. Hopefully it have smart AI. Still, though, I think it should have more than like a dozen enemies... There were more than that playing Mercenaries on the GameCube version of RE4.
Your old laptop is virus filled?
WE FOUND ZE HACKER!!!
Perri- One of the reasons why I've had such continued faith in the game is Capcom's history of doing superior "remakes" on consoles with inferior hardware.
Bionic Commando for the NES is actually a remake of Bionic Commando the arcade game. The arcade game was fun enough, but the NES game is a classic, good enough to be remade for the 360/PS3 with almost nothing removed (just added upon).
Mighty Final Fight for the NES is also pretty awesome. It plays a little more like Castle Crashers, with special moves and a experience point system. it doesn't have as many enemies on screen as the arcade/SNES/GBA version, but it's still hard, and it's still a lot of fun. Strider for the NES wasn't that bad either.
On the other hand, Capcom did a terrible job putting Viewtiful Joe on the DS. Their track record is far from perfect, so Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop could still go either way.
@ Megastryke- I'm not kidding when I tell you that I actually fall asleep sometimes wondering about if this game will suck or not. The game must symbolize something for me. Maybe after Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop comes out in a month, this semi-obsession I have with the game will start to make sense to me.
@ Pedrovay2003- Agreed, but the game will have more than 20 enemies on screen at a time. It's also going to have multiple types of enemies attacking you at a time, like birds, zombies, dogs, and the fat zombies with tazers all at once. That's something I don't remember seeing in RE4.
@ Christian Gamer- You're right to not get your hopes up. I don't know why I do this to myself.
As long as you can still take funny pictures I'll be up for it :) Glad to hear good news about it though!
I don't want to get my hopes up, but I would be very pleased if Capcom managed to make this a good game. At least we know that as least it will control well, since RE4:Wii was amazing.
@ Pig Mask- Uhhh, I hate to tell you this, but the one thing I know for sure is that they took out the ability to take pictures out of the main game. It stuff like that that makes me understand why some people are already sure that Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop will stink.
I'm hoping that you'll still get to take pictures in the opening scene, the one in the helicopter. That's pretty much my favorite part of the whole game. I'm also really curious about how many zombies they've going to cram into the "first attack" scene, the one with Madonna. I can't see how that part could be effective with just 20 zombies.
@ ChristianGamer- There are supposed to be about 50 melee weapons in the game and 10 guns (including the Mega Buster). CDs, Showerhead, Servebot mask, Golden Axe, baseball bat, and 2x4 are all confirmed.
Hope you still see this, Jonathan. You know what I would have truly killed for? A portable Dead Rising. PSP or DS, wouldn't care.
I think I understand a little why this is so symbolic. It's strange for them to decide to put out a port/remake of a game that came out on a much stronger console originally. Especially years after. I don't think that's been done this generation at all?
Tell them the REAL TRUTH
So its an RE4 mod basically.
Still sounds awful.
@Johnathan
That's a downer; it would have been great with the wiimote. At least Fatal Frame will satisfy my shutter bug urges ;)
Kotaku just posted this:
According to the latest Nintendo Power (via Capcom-Unity), there are the differences in Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop
You ready? Cause they are:
• There are no time limits.
• Players are not restricted to a single save file.
• Main character Frank West can only carry one melee weapon at a time.
• There is more emphasis on firearms and collecting ammo.
• Frank cannot jump.
I'm just gonna throw this out there, with only 50 or so zombies on screen, how are ye supposed to get Zombie Genocider in a realistic time frame?
Every time you cover Dead Rising, you mention how it's a positive that it's being made more like Resident Evil 4. Now, I loved Resident Evil 4. However, I see no reason why a different game with a unique identity needs to be made into a RE4 clone. The game, like you said, is about killing zombies by the boatload and just treating them as mindless obstacles while you pursue other goals. Giving them good AI doesn't make sense, because these are just stupid zombies. Changing all that means it's just RE4 in another skin, and that is not a good thing in my opinion. Not every game has to be RE4, nevermind the fact that we're already getting RE5 this spring.
@Egg
I don't think Genocider will even be in the Wii version. If it is, it'll probably be a modified version.
My , that's really fanboyish , you don't want to admit Dead Rising : Chop Till you Drop suck , right?