Well, I got my video capture setup hooked to my TV. Too bad the Wii comes out as a black and white checkerboard.
The Xbox picture looks fine, so I don't understand what the problem is, perhaps the Wii has some sort of anti-recording technology. Regardless, it looks like I'll still only be able to give verbal descriptions of Wii games for the time being.
House of the Dead: Overkill is a rail shooter. In case it's not self explanatory, a rail shooter is kind of like rolling through a shooting gallery on a predetermined path. The ride may stop at certain points where you have to shoot a bunch of stuff to proceed, or you may "switch tracks" based on what you shoot.
The basic fun of a rail shooter is how the shooting works. For my part, the shooting in Overkill is good but not great. For one thing, there are framerate hiccups. If you happen to pull the trigger during a hiccup, you don't shoot. Since the scoring system is entirely based on maintaining a combo, missing a shot can wreck your score. The combo mechanic also makes every weapon that isn't the automatic shotgun a complete waste of time to use. And there are piles of guns to unlock which would seem to indicate that there's a point to unlocking them. But it's just a waste of time, a way to incent the player to play over and over since the game isn't terribly long.
It's also worth mentioning that the game encourages low balling. Essentially, you get the best money every time you break your old high score. So the smart way to play is to just barely beat your old high score, then quit. Actually attempting to do your best is punished in this game.
But those are basically annoyances. For a regular playthrough and a second playthrough on Directors Cut (which ever so slightly changes the path through the level), I enjoyed shooting zombies.
3 of 5
I would be remiss if I didn't also mention something about the game's theatrics. It's styled after Grindhouse and exploitation movies (I think. I'm a game buff, not a film buff). Every other word is a swear. The buddy picture aspect is formulaic. There's gratuitous cleavage and a final boss that exposes more than you want to see. The dialog tries to be self aware and so bad it's good. The self aware stuff mostly worked for me, but the so bad it's good stuff is just bad. Overall, the theatrics are meh.
It's probably also worth mentioning that going through the maps in two player changes nothing in the game. It just makes it impossible to get a high score because you have to split kills with the other player. Oh well. Mediocre co-op is better than none.
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