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| Here come the limb draggers!
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| TGS: Zombie Revenge First Impressions
No
zombies were harmed during the making of this write-up.
September 17, 1999
OK.
So that tagline may be stretching the truth just a weeee bit. One of
our first stops in the Sega booth was to the playable demo of the
Naomi arcade smash, Zombie Revenge, and despite the fact that
this thing was about as short-lived as the 32X, I was still blown
away by the accuracy of this pixel-perfect port-in-the-making like
so many undead cronies on the end of my boom-stick.
In case you misses the arcade version, Zombie Revenge is
an original Sega action title that comes off as a stylistic train
wreck between Streets of Rage and the Resident Evil
series. Actually, I guess saying House of the Dead is the
game's primary atmospheric influence considering the original
concept spawned from the idea of creating a "side story" to the
popular arcade gun-game, but in truth, the best way to describe what
Sega has ended up with is a game that put the survival back in
horror, as this title represents all the creepiness found in
Capcom's storied series, but without any of the suspense driven
adventure. This game is all about action, and if the pacing of the
RE series was never your thing and gun games never really
tickled your fancy, then Zombie Revenge should be right up
your alley.
We only got to play through the equivalent of the arcade game's
first level, and thought I was a bit disappointed at the length of
the demo, I can't say the same for the game. The action was fast and
furious, and this one brings back a lot of memories from the classic
2 player days of Double Dragon and Ikari Warriors.
There's just nothing like romping through this game with a buddy, as
our resident freelance weasel can attest to. There's also nothing
quite like seeing a zombie wield a shotgun, but hey, I guess even
the brain dead can buss a cap…just look at the local news…
Speaking of filling people full of holes, the weapon selection
was a bit limited in the demo, but what was present was exactly like
what we've seen in the arcade. We also got to catch some video
footage of additional weapons, and it looks as if we'll have more
than our fill of carnage. And to add to the fun, there will be a few
new modes, including a cool verses mode that allows you to take on
various characters from the game in a one-on-one fighting style
setting. While Zombie Revenge doesn't exactly lend itself to
this type of game set-up, I guess we can't penalize them for trying
to put in some extras, eh?
Not that a smooth port would be enough for any die-hard action
fan. All things considered, this one should have a major impact on
the Dreamcast scene when it hits shelves in Japan some time early
next year. Since we've already received confirmation that it will
also be headed stateside, you can expect to see a good deal more of
Zombie Revenge as soon as we manage to weasel more info out
of our friends at Sega. 'Till then…
-- Brandon Justice,
IGNDC
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