House of the Dead: Overkill is the latest instalment of Sega’s hit rails shooter franchise. Technically a prequel to the other games in the series, this title features the same evil brain eating zombies mutants, eerie run-down locations and the games’ infamous gun wielder, Agent G.

Overkill is set in the time before the original House of the Dead game, and sees a young Agent G on his first assignment to a small town in Louisiana to investigate a series of disappearances and to track down crime lord (and the game’s main baddie) Papa Caesar. Agent G, or ‘G’ to his friends, is joined by Detective Isaac Washington; a *very* bad mouthed bad-ass, seeking revenge for his father’s death.

From the off it is clear what Headstrong Games tried to (and very successfully) accomplish in terms of setting and style for the game. Each level is similar to a mini Quentin Tarantino movie such as those found in the recent ‘Grind House’ movie. Levels begin with a fantastic little cut scene, which not only sets the scene, but also gives away a bit more storyline and makes you giggle quietly to yourself at Washington’s amazing gasp of the English language and developing fear of lifts and mutants.

The game play itself is the same as it has always been for House of the Dead games; aim your gun (or in this case, the Wii Remote) at the screen and blow away all of the mutants on the screen before they rip you or random civilians to shreds. As you progress, the mutants get harder to defeat such as ones clever enough to wear helmets and body armour to prevent the ever-so-fatal headshot and those who can move faster than you can react to.

During each level there are certain power-ups you can collect such as health packs, grenades, and the fun ‘Slow Mo-fo’ pickup which gives the player a form of bullet time for a short period, making those mutant exploding headshots so much more fun. Players also get the chance in-between levels to buy weapons and upgrades from the ‘Gun Shop’, such as increasing their weapon damage and clip size, or getting access to a shotgun and some great automatic weapons.

Aiming and shooting seems quite responsive in this game, with most of the misses being the fault of fast moving mutants rather than the faulty Wii aiming technology. There are also some great gun chassis for your Wii Remotes available, and using one certainly does add to the experience. There is also an in game aiming calibration tool which those who want to blame the equipment instead of their skills can play with and tweak to their hearts content.

Overkill features an achievement system, which unlocks some great goodies within the game, such as tracks for your jukebox, artwork you can explore, moveable 3D characters and more money for those great Gun Shop upgrades. There are many games where things like this are overlooked, but it is worth having a look at what you have unlocked as the artwork is fantastic, and getting to mess with some of the models found in the game is good fun.

Once you have completed the Story Mode for the first time, you unlock an additional difficulty setting called the ‘Directors Cut’, which features more mutants, harder mutants and a limited amount of continues. Some mini-games are also unlocked which offer a fun multiplayer twist whilst not losing any of the games gory setting.

Now normally I would go on a little bit about graphics here, but we all know that the Wii isn’t really up to amazing HD quality graphics. Overkill looks as good as it can given the platform’s obvious limitations, which do not let the game down even remotely. The general grunge art style and clever lighting effects make this very attractive and you can very easily forgive any shortcomings the game has compared to arcade versions on much more powerful machines.

After completing the game twice (Story mode and Directors Cut), I am still somehow compelled to carry on playing, which is quite unusual for me on games of this type. I think the drive of trying to beat your high score, unlock those final collectables and gun upgrades and being able to kick your mates arse a little easier next time you have an Overkill session somehow seem important. Oh, and I guess it also has something to do with just how fun it is to blow apart mutant zombie creatures too!

If you are looking for another cutest mini-game riddled excuse for a Wii game then this is definitely not for you. If you are however looking for something very adult, very humorous and extremely fun then you would be a fool to not get House of the Dead: Overkill.

+ A Wii game actually aimed at adults
+ Fantastic scripts and cut scene funnies
+ Amazing replay value

- No online multiplayer!
- Have to play through to unlock certain game modes
- Seems a bit easy with certain gun and weapon upgrades

Score – 8 / 10