Ahhhh... the joy of Dead Rising. The best Zombie Apocalypse action adventure of its time (notice carefully how I didn't mention Survival Horror), Dead Rising was released in 2006 exclusively for the Xbox 360. Of considerable assistance in further cementing Xbox 360's status in the early third-gen consoles competition. Produced and created by Keiji Inafune, designer of Mega Man and Onimusha, Dead Rising fulfilled the dreams of many zombie film buffs by recreating a full-blown Zombie Apocalypse in a "Sandbox" environment (as in the fictional Willamette Parkview Mall, a clear homage to George A. Romero's all-time xombie classic, 1978's original Dawn of the Dead). With an insane amount of innovative (and mostly just plain insane) ways of killing the hordes of undead, Dead Rising never took the sombre way of handling its subject and wholly benefited from there. It certainly doesn't take a long-time reader of our site to figure out that we here at The Daily Zombies are big fans of the original (cue: just look at our banner up there).So here we are, almost five years removed, with Dead Rising 2 available on multiple third-gen consoles, and the topic at hand, the iPhone iteration of the original Dead Rising. The question remains: Is this equivalent to the original, in terms of both gaming experience and sheer quality? Can we expect this to be the pocket-sized version of the Dead Rising we adore of late? The short answer: An unfortunate, resounding NO.
Apart from the expected gripes like loss of frame rate and other technical disadvantages when you compared the Xbox 360 engine and the iPhone, this actually go even further down the drain than one might have anticipated. Apart from mucky control scheme (a predicament stuck with many a iPhone conversion of a well-known, established franchise, of which the iPhone iteration of Street Fighter IV notably overcame), choppy frame rate, constant clipping and slurry sounds, when it comes to zombie-killing (a main feature of the title), it seems that the game is technically unable to support more than three zombies at a time, thus making the action sequence infinitely tamer when compared to the original.
You might think I am demanding a lot here by that, but think about the intensive action and the entertainment values you got from all the killing while playing the original? In our most humble undead opinion, if you can't even achieve, say, a quarter of the original experience, why put this out on the iPhone to mar the reputable brand of the franchise. That said, the same problem lies with Capcom's comparably serious Survival Horror title, Resident Evil 4, on the iPhone.
And for those fans of the franchise who think that they can bear with these problems, here's a little something to rub more salt into your sore wound there. Frank West, the beloved protagonist of the game, is stripped down into a character from those run-of-the-mill iPhone zombie games out there, with no story whatsoever provided to his quest. Yes, you will still see the cut scenes from the original, but all Frank does here is kill and kill again with monotonous mission like "kill x number of zombies here" and "kill x number of zombies there". While it's arguably true that that's precisely what Frank does in the original, but it is totally different with no emotional investment whatsoever attached.Yes, there are new game mechanism like "hunger", where Frank gets constantly hungry and requires healths, and the much-hyped feature where players that went down can post a rescue request via Facebook or Twitter, to allow another player to find and rescue you. While the cavalry doesn't exactly saves you in the game, their actions will help to bring you back into life with equipments and levels intact. But here's the kicker: If no one actually turned out to help, prepare to bid farewell to the attack power and items that you have fought your way far to own. In short, this social networking feature is lame.
And in summary, this iPhone port of the classic Zombie Apocalypse Action adventure is thoroughly unnecessary and is truly an abomination Capcom should disassociate with the "Dead Rising" brand.
Gameplay video from TouchArcade.
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The Rundown
No, not even the fans. This is just not recommendable.
The Good
- Yeah, the novelty of playing the original Dead Rising lasts for, like, less than five minutes. So much for your $6.99.
The Bad
- Everything, but I would like to highlight one: Why use the brand much loved by zombie fans across the world? Why desecrate when you can create a sub-par zombie-shooter for like, maybe $0.99?
And Dead Rising 2 on iPhone?
Rest assured that there will be. But will you be there after this abominable experience.
Abysmal
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Here's the complete application description as below, for those interested.
iTunes Download Link: DEAD RISING MOBILE
CAPCOM
DEAD RISING MOBILECategory: Games
Price: $6.99
Updated: Dec 20, 2010
Size: 169 MB
Seller: CAPCOM Co., Ltd
Current version: 1.00.01
SCREENSHOTS
APPLICATION DESCRIPTION
*THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE*Dead Rising will only run on iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad, iPod touch 4th, iPod touch 3rd 16GB and 32GB, or better. NOT COMPATIBLE to iPhone 3G, iPod touch 1st, 2nd, 3rd 8GB.
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Frank West, a freelance photojournalist on the hunt for the scoop of a lifetime, pursues a juicy lead to a small suburban town only to find that it is being overrun by zombies!
He escapes to the local shopping mall thinking it will be a bastion of safety, but it turns out to be anything but. It's a true struggle to survive the endless stream of enemies, but with full reign over an entire shopping center, Frank can utilize anything to fight off the flesh-hungry mob.
Features:
- Survive in a shopping mall overrun with an army of undead where everything and anything is a weapon.
- Just because it’s a zombie apocalypse doesn’t mean you can’t be social.
If you fall to the shambling hoard you can send out a distress call via Facebook or Twitter to your friends.
If your friends revive you, they will get extra bonus point. If they don't you can rise as a "NAMED ZOMBIE" in their game. Help each other to survive in this nightmare!!
- Move environmental objects like tables or garbage cans Chow down on various "mall food" to revive health.
- Snatch items from different stores to use as weapons, including golf clubs, fry pans and more!
- Context sensitive controls pop up as need allowing you to perform complex actions with a tap of the button.
- The next scheduled update will add an New character. Stay tuned for more.
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Check out other awesome games from Capcom including Street Fighter 4,Mega Man® II, Evil® 4 Ghosts™‘N Goblins: Gold Knights, 1942: First Strike and more!
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CapcomMobile
Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/CapcomMobile
Follow us on Youtube: www.youtube.com/CapcomMobile
What's new in Version 1.00.01
- Add iPad compatibility
- "RESCUE CALL" is now supported to the public timeline on Twitter.
LANGUAGES
English
REQUIREMENTS
Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), and iPad. Requires iOS 4.1 or later.
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App Of The Week, the tag formerly known as App Attack, is our ongoing weekly feature chronicling the news, previews, and reviews of the App world of the new media.
