House of the Dead EX Hands-On

TOKYO--Light gun games seemed to be the trend at this year's Amusement Machine Show, and Sega had its own big title to show off. House of the Dead EX was on playable display at Sega's booth, and while you'd expect it to be another horrific zombie game, it has actually taken a twist into the direction of humor.

House of the Dead EX is subtitled "Ai Sareru Yori Ai Shitai" in Japanese, which roughly translates to "I'd rather love than be loved." As the name hints, the game is a love story rather than another haunted mansion escapade, and it plays with an odd mix of cute drawings, cute 3D characters, and ugly, realistic 3D zombies that you blast your way through. As you might expect, the game seems to veer more toward casual gamers and couples, and so it's a collection of minigames rather than a traditional adventure with a lot of reloads and long stages. You play with a gun in half of the minigames, and in the other half you use a foot pedal.

In House of the Dead EX, you and your partner player (if you have one) take the role of a zombie couple that's running away from a mad scientist and a horde of other zombies. The game's storylines are mostly told through comic-book-style pictures, though you sometimes see cute 3D scenes with the zombie couple. When the story scenes are over, you're given a choice to select one of two missions (minigames); in one you use your gun, and in the other you use a foot pedal. You advance through the stage by repeating the process and playing minigames, eventually reaching the boss.

The minigames in House of the Dead EX are all quite humorous. In one stage, we went against a zombie sumo wrestler that was facing toward us, and we needed to shoot him enough times to force him off the sumo ring. In another game, we bowled by shooting at a rolled-up zombie and hitting him left and right to control his direction. In one of the boss battles, we faced an angry, monstrous zombie, which had cavities on its sharp teeth that we needed to shoot off.

The minigames that were played with the pedal were unique and separate from the gun games. In one stage, we had to stomp on spiders while avoiding stepping on electrical skulls that would shock us and make us lose time. One stage was a spoof of the Matrix Revolutions film: Our two characters were dressed in black and facing zombie agents, and by hitting the pedal, we swayed backward in bullet-time style, avoiding cream pies that were thrown by zombies.

When playing the minigames, you'll need to get enough points to clear and advance forward. The stages can be tough, but since House of the Dead EX is oriented toward casual players, you'll start off your second try with some accumulated points if you fail the first. Playing together with a friend is easier than playing alone, since your friend can score points to give you after clearing his or her own quota. On the top of the screen, there's a meter that's shaped like two hands (indicating the zombie couple), and when they touch, that means you've got enough points to clear the stage.

House of the Dead EX is scheduled for release in Japan this December. An English version for overseas sales was on display at the AM Show as well, so look forward to that.