I've been fretting for a while now over the worth of buying The House of the Dead 2 or 3 in their Xbox incarnations. The question of whether it would be possible to play them in a couple of years when HD technology has taken over and CRT has become a thing of the past kept me up many a night. So it was with great relief that I welcomed Sega's announcement of The House of the Dead 2 and 3 Return for Wii, complete with wiimote pointing controls. However, a question immediately arose: why is the first HOTD not included in this bundle? It would enhance a strong budget compilation and possibly lead the way for a Wii port of the series's fourth installment. 1UP conducted an email interview with Sega's Emiko Sunaga, who had this to say:

A trilogy sounds like a very good concept. We do like the original title, but we realized that bringing the original to Wii would require us to rework a lot of the game, and we have to admit there's a significant visual gap. This time our development team unfortunately had to forgo including HOTD1 in the concept stage in order for us to deliver the series to Wii users as early as possible. So when we were finalizing the product concept, we chose "2" and "III" as those two were the most popular ones and had unique qualities. We thought this was the best way for Wii users to enjoy the series.

Sunaga goes on to say that HOTD4 is not getting a port at this time because it is still easily found in arcades, while 2 and 3 are hard to find. Personally, I'm having trouble finding any arcades at all these days, let alone arcades with a HOTD4 machine. I believe main reason is Sega's inability (or unwillingness) to fit the higher-spec HOTD4 on the Wii's standard DVD; once HOTD4 stops making them money in arcades (if it ever did in the first place), I'm sure that the Wii will eventually get a port.

As for the exclusion of the first HOTD, I find Sega's reasoning weak. They make it sound as though the only way we could play the original HOTD is if they completely reworked the ancient graphics, and since that would take longer than just shoveling 2 and 3 onto a disc, they're doing us a favor by excluding it to release it sooner. First of all, if someone's waited this long to buy a copy of one of the HOTD games, I'm sure they can wait a little longer. Secondly, why do they need to upgrade the graphics? If I buy a copy of HOTD1, I want it to be just like the arcades. I fully understand that the graphics wouldn't be up to par on the Wii, but that's the cost (and part of the appeal) of retro gaming, and the budget pricetag of the game would reflect that. No matter how you look at it, HOTD fans are getting the short end of the stick.

Maybe I'm just holding out empty hope, but I do see a small glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. If Nintendo ever sorts out their VC program and releases a much-needed hard drive, they would have the potential to release Sega Saturn games. The Saturn had a port of HOTD1 that could easily be released with some minor tweaking. This only issue here is that, to this point, Nintendo has refused to even tweak and release their own lightgun classic, Duck Hunt for NES. So I suppose that the light is less of a glimmer and more of a faint glow. Covered with a cloth. And a brick wall.

Read the rest of the interview to hear Sunaga's plans for The House of the Dead 2 and 3 Return, accessory-based Wii games, and where the HOTD may go.