House of the Dead: OVERKILL!!

Platform: Wii
Creator: Sega


I have seen the movie for House of the Dead, and let it be said that I was less than impressed with complete absence of storyline, poor plot direction and the shameless addition of clips from the video game to fill in parts which the budget of $10.50 didn't quite allow for. It is understandable then, that when recently at a friends place, placated by mulled wine and delicious Japanese curry I was asked to play House of the Dead: Overkill, I was a little skeptical. Going into it with the enthusiasm of a hungover Engineering major with a 9am tute, I wasn't expecting much. Now I don't know if it was the wine or the curry or the lack of sleep over the last 8 weeks finally catching up with my hippocampus, but I actually rather began to enjoy myself.

There is something so deeply satisfying about pointing a gun at the television screen and decimating wave after wave of rabies infected, vomit expectorating, brain guzzling zombies that I just didn't expect from the wii platform. Part of the reason why I found House of the Dead: Overkill so unexpectedly glorious was that it retained a genuine arcade feel, thanks to the predetermined character movements and plentiful usage of the Wii Zapper. Ok so the graphics weren't amazing and the plot was painfully close to twilight fan fiction bad. However, I wasn't really expecting that much from it. If anything, the bad graphics, horrific voice acting and gratuitous use of the word 'motherfucker' only added to the marvelous, late night after one too many beers and a big mac, galactic circus feel.

My most memorable moment had to be attaining my first "goregasm." In order to attain a 'goregasm' one must massacre hoards of undead without missing, once you shoot a certain number of zombies without missing you begin to get combos which give you subsequent extra points leading up to a GOREGASM, which gives you 1000 extra points a corpse. Especially useful if you are competing for bragging rights against certain team members.

Each level is relatively short and follows the first assignment of Agent G, who is set to investigate some 'disappearances' in Louisiana (sort of). That's about as far as I got with what actually went down apart from he has an African friend called Issac Washington who is pretty much Denzel Washington meets Wesley Snipes, and instead of too many snakes on a plane there's too many zombies absolutely fucking everywhere. Of course there's the token booberella, aptly named Varla Gunns who seems to simultaneously befriend and seduce both of the protagonists (SPOILER> despite them killing her disabled zombie brother in one of the episodes). As far as I can gather she serves utterly no purpose except for being eyecandy and zombie fodder.
There are also some semi interesting villains whose plot lines are never quite resolved and whom frankly, I didn't really give a jack russell about as the time wasn't really taken to flesh them out whatsoever.


The sound track made me smile and giggle out loud at times, a hilarious accompaniment to smooshing zombie brains out the back of their heads. As far as being a zombie shooter, I have to admit, it doesn't take itself too seriously, or if it does I didn't notice, and that made it most worthwhile and enjoyable accompanied with increasing levels of inebriation throughout the night. Of course it may have helped that I watched quite possibly the worst movie of all time immediately after completing the game (Hot Wax Zombies on Wheels, FYI). It only takes about 2 hours to finish so it makes for an insanely fun game to play with mates on a night in.
6/10 Golden Zombie Brains from me .

Miles Edgeworth-a-play

Platform: Nintendo DS
Creator: Capcom

If you were to ask my poor abused boyfriend what my favourite DS game was, he'd probably run screaming out of the nearest exit, throw himself off a building (assuming that we were up some such building tall enough.) so as to avoid ever hearing or mentioning the name Phoenix Wright ever again. In betwixt my incessant shouting of HOLD IT! And OBJECTION! at seemingly inappropriate and albeit demoralizing moments, forcing him to listen to 'Guilty Love' from Apollo Justice on repeat and generally trying to overlay the music from Pokemon on his DS with Phoenix Wright music from mine, it shouldn't come as a surprise that I was pretty excited about the new Miles Edgeworth game.

I've always thought that Miles was kind of the angsty teenager of the Phoenix Wright series, complete with scowl and associated troubled past. However having played Investigations I've come to realise that he isn't the angsty teen but the Obsessive compulsive, constantly plagued, older brother type. The story comes in between the end of Trials and Tribulations and Apollo Justice. Investigations certainly presents Miles as a much more complex and well rounded character than any of the previous titles. Most of the cases center around an investigation of an international smuggling ring which slowly and cleverly reveals itself as connected to all the cases. My only criticism of this is that each turnabout is sometimes unbelievably interconnected as though it's just been made to fit because it has to.

Play style is quite different from the Phoenix Wright and Apollo Justice formula. Whilst still linear it allows you to take control of Miles in third person. This probably one of the better additions and adds a little something extra to the traditional point and click genre. Instead of having evidence and court, Mile's collects evidence in his 'Organizer; and fits them together via 'Logic'. The Logic screen takes you into Miles' head and while this is an awesome idea I found it almost insultingly easy. Each case is solved by 'Rebuttals' which is similar to Cross Examination. Unfortunately although I immensely enjoyed this game I would liken 'rebuttals' to having sex without orgasm. It's just not the same without that silly old judge's gavel slamming righteously down on his little pedestal.

One thing I will say for Miles Edgeworth is that the music is amazing. Easily as good as in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and a hundredfold better than the travesty of an orchestral work in Justice for All (at times I actually found myself turning the court room music off because it was so awful. This made me terribly sad and empty inside.) One of the best musical themes is Kay Faraday's. She is to Miles as Maya is to Phoenix. A kind of annoying but adorable character, she follows Miles around and helps out with her "Little Thief". Little thief is actually an awesome addition to this title. It's building on the old Phoenix Wright tools, like Luminol, and Finger Printing. Basically it's a device that can recreate any scene with the information you put into it. You can investigate it like a normal crime scene and 'Deduce' problems with it to modify events. Deducing is probably one of my favourite parts of this game. It makes you feel like one smart motherfucker when you figure out whats wrong with the scene. I'm sure I'm not the only one whose been slightly disappointed when playing alone and there's no one there to revel in your awesomeness after doing a particularly devilish piece of detective work. My desire to play the game is however always slightly encumbered by the feeling that I miss Phoenix from the plot lines. I feel somewhat like I'm betraying him by playing from another persons perspective.

Also particularly high on Katie's scale of all other games compared to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is the return of Dick Gumshoe and Franziska Von Karma. It's kind of similar to when you start at a new university/dungeons and dragons group... whatever, and you encounter someone you know/ the same misogynistic rascal of a tiefling as you have at a previous university/ tavern. You get this warm fuzzy, happy feeling inside. Well it's certainly that way with Miles Edgeworth, when you see those familiar faces, you remember all the times you've had together and it's like being welcomed back into one big happy family. On second thought, maybe I do play this game a bit too much.

Despite my pining to be back in the court room I found myself playing this game constantly. I found that the character development was unique and certainly some of the new characters, like Kay Faraday and Shi-long Lang to name but a few who are some of the best in the series so far. Major props to Tatsuro Iwamoto who designed the characters. In short if you are a lover of the Phoenix Wright series or a point and click fanatic, definitely check out this game. As long as you don't go into the game expecting Phoenix Wright you will not be disappointed. Capcom have gone outside the court room to create something unique and different while retaining the same level of intrigue and fun as they have with their previous titles in the series.
7.5/10 from me.
Katie