Zombie carnage for desk Jockies

For all you poor schmoes who have to sit on your tookas' all day behind a computer screen making the big bucks, here's a link that should make your day go by just a bit better.
De-Animator Game

And for those of you who aren't afraid of the boss walking in on you check this one out.
Survive the outbreak

House of the Dead: Overkill

If your looking for monsters in modern horror well then you've likely noticed that zombies are all the rage (ok even 4SJ would have choked on that pun). Zombies are really the predominant monster in modern horror although I would recon Vampires are still a close second. Damn good thing that can I enjoy a good (or often a bad) living dead film as a lot of other modern sub genres really do nothing for me.



So amid the commercial outpouring of Zombie fare I landed myself a copy of the video game "House of the Dead: Overkill" for the Wii. Let it be known I'm not a gamer and own and play very few titles so this isn't a review for that crowd, rather one coming from a horror film fan who happens to own a Wii.

The visual appearance of the game is satisfactory, although admidetly less refined than games on other console systems, but compared to the Wii's usual 8 bit looking 3D stick people the game looks fantastic for the platform. Appearance of a zombie game is pretty damned important in my books.
The game play is a bit primative. The game simply walks you through the story and offers little more than a carnival style point and shoot. Hell we saw that with the original Nintendo Entertainment System and liht gun og the '80s, and other more primative systems have offered more indepth zombie games such as Resident Evil and even the Nintend DS title Touch the Dead is more interactive. So I'm not sure the gamers out there will be lining up for this one (on the upside if it should likley be hitting previously enjoyed shevlves not long from now for those who may be looking to buy it) . But alas the NES lightgun is long dead and hasn't been revived by anyother system, meaning first person shooter games are at best with te didgital representaion of a gun barel being controled by a pair of joysticks. The hands on gun-in-hand aspect of the Wiireally brngs the enjoyment level of thsi game up a knotch and is a welcomed addition to the first person shooter games.

As a Movie fan there are some aspects that make the game well worth my financial investment. Although the game is rather linear and the system has other titles that are more interactive first-person-shooters I'm not holding that against the game, after all I bought this for one reason and one reason alone, blowing away the hordes of living dead, and that it delivers in spades. Second is the Grind House theme. The whole game is done up like a nasty 70's grind house feature with all that implies (well ok, not ALL that implies as the game lacks the nudity.)

Light entertainment, virtual gore and a bazillion brain munching living corpse to scag and a toy gun, what more could one want?

ZOMBIES!!!

OK, really who doesn't enjoy a good Zombie flick? Hordes of flesh eating undead poised to mindlessly eliminate Humanity. There is without a doubt subtle social/political underpinnings rampant throughout the sub-genre, but oddly enough when the mood for a good Zombie film strikes me I'm really in the mood for some mindless brain-munching (and a bit of good old fashioned, not-too-over-the-top gore).

Recently the Zombie sub-genre has received new life, if you will, with the recent addition of "Diary of the Dead" to Romero's list of canonical Zombie films, Horror legend Vincent Price's "Last Man on Earth" gets a remake with "I am Legend", and even more pseudo zombies in "28 Weeks Later". Beyond that the Zombie walk took home a Rondo Award for Best Fan Event of 2007.

But amongst it all there is one little shop churning out the best zombie products possibly of all time and you may not be aware of. It is Todd and Kerry Breitenstein's Twilight Creations Inc. Their brain (munching) child is first and foremost ZOMBIES!!! the board game. Put away the PS3 or your Xbox and enjoy gaming the way it was meant to be with a set of dice, a deck of cards and 100 little plastic zombies (and some real living human beings for competition and social interaction too). There are even some that glow in the dark! How cool is that!

From the get go you'll see this game is by fans for the fun of it, and not some slick heavily marketed game like Magic. Although the production quality of this game is on par with the best of them IMO, it has a down and dirty-mashed out in the basement over a night of Zombie flicks, poprocks, Jolt Cola and Rum stolen from the folks liquor cabinet- feel. Even the instructions can be a bit blurry at times, but that's OK they heavily promote the idea that "it's your game, play with the rules you like." I tell you no customizable card games were ever this customizable. As a matter of fact one of their latest expansion packs was a set of blank cards for you to make your own with.

Twilight Creations have just recently released Zombies!!!7 which is actually the eighth expansion set. Some sets require the main set others can be played on their own. So depending if you want to go for an all night marathon with a mall, a Military base, and/or a University all attached to the main town site(set) or just a time limited 45 minute romp, there are options.

Product pimping aside this is a good old fashioned hands-on game that is well worth picking up for any zombie fan, even if for nothing else but the horde of little plastic zombies.