Zombie Revenge

Zombie Revenge is an beat 'em up arcade game released in 1999, and was later ported to the Sega Dreamcast. Armed with their fists, feet, guns, and whatever weapons they should find along the way, players are tasked with ridding an unnamed city of zombies.

Originally titled Blood Bullet: The House of the Dead Side Story, the game was later renamed Zombies Nightmare before Sega decided on the name Zombie Revenge. This game also serves as a spin-off to the House of the Dead series.

Plot

"The end always comes quickly doesn't it. But now things are perfect. Soon it will all be over. I'll go after I finish playing with my friends. Please wait for me, Mom, Dad."

A top-secret government plan to utilize the dead for military purposes called U.D.S., Undead Soldier is thrown into darkness by some unknown entity. A year later, the city becomes ravaged by zombies. Three of the best AMS agents are sent in, Stick Breitling, Linda Rotta and Rikiya Busujima. They are sent out to eliminate the enemy and track down the mysterious leader of this attack, known only as "ZED".

Meanwhile, a young girl named Yoko arrives to the scene with her boyfriend, hoping to see some zombies in action. However, her boyfriend falls prey to the undead. While escaping, she encounters a man "with a golden eye" to given a disc to give to the agents. By the time the agents find her, she's about to be killed by zombies. Regardless if she is saved or not, the agents retrieve the disc. Exploring its contents, it contains a message from ZED, who shows them three cards to choose from. ZED taunts them by saying they might understand its meaning if they survive long enough.

After battling through the city, stopping a train carrying the virus from crashing, and after some encounters with ZED himself, he eventually reveals that his parents were part of GOD, the developers of the U.D.S. project. However, at some point they were killed by a scientist and used as experiments. The scientist turns out to be Gil Breitling, Stick's father. ZED has since swore revenge and seeks to destroy all humans by spreading the virus. ZED also holds within him a powerful U.D.S. that he calls the "God of Destruction" that he intends to release. He fights the agents and is defeated, and with his dying breath, he unleashes the God of Destruction from his body, who has every intention of carrying out its purpose.

During the final battle, the Black Magician is granted powers based on the card that was chosen near the beginning of the game. Eventually it is destroyed by the agents, who then find themselves in a desert at dawn. Stick expresses shame because of his father, in which Busujima stops him and tells him that it's in the past. Linda spots a helicopter approaching, piloted by fellow AMS agent Marco Cloud, who urgently informs them that, "now he's hijacked a ship." Busujima remarks that they still have a lot of work to do, and they make their way toward the helicopter.

Back at the warehouse, Yoko has been there the whole time. If she was saved, she is waiting impatiently for ZED to come back with the money he owes her for delivering the disc. If she was not saved, she will appear to be feeding on something before slowly turning her face toward the camera.

Gameplay

Up to two players can take on the role of three AMS agents. Stick Breitling, who is the most balanced, Linda Rotta, whose lack of physical strength is made up with her speed and shooting skill, and Rikiya Busujima, who is more dangerous with his fists than he is with a gun. Each character can engage in hand-to-hand combos, holds and throws, use melee weapons, throwable objects, and guns. This time however, all guns have limited ammo, and some appear only once in the game. Each character also has charge attacks, some involving weapons, as well as evasive moves.

Areas require that all enemies are defeated within a time limit, and players will lose a credit if time runs out. They will also lose a credit if if their life bar is completely drained. Players will also be poisoned with each enemy attack, shown in their life meter, which will affect their performance if it builds up high enough. 50% poison will leave them vulnerable to combo attacks, while 80% will affect movement and speed. Picking up an antidote will cleanse the poison from the character. In a two player game, if one player does not continue after losing their life, they will turn into a zombie and attack the remaining player.

Although the game does not have branching paths, players can enter rooms off the main path that may contain power-ups or enemies to defeat. Bosses are fought in the middle and end of stages, and can be defeated with weapons or fists.

Episodes and Bosses

There are a total on 7 episodes (levels) in Zombie Revenge. With the exception of the first level, each chapter has a boss character who is fought at the end of the chapter. Some stages feature midbosses, and some later chapters feature reappearances by bosses of earlier levels.

• Episode 1: Isolated Area (Midboss: UDS-03)
• Episode 2: Biological Weapon (Midboss: Varm Hedlin & Shell Hedlin, Boss: UDS-05)
• Episode 3: Enigma (Boss: UDS-02)
• Episode 4: Terminus of All (Midboss: UDS-07-Nikelle, Boss: UDS-06B)
• Episode 5: The Gate (Boss: UDS-TP 00 & UDS-TP II 01)
• Episode 6: The House of the Dead (Midboss: UDS-03 Neclien, Boss: UDS-04C)
• Episode 7: The Dawn (Bosses: ZED, Black Magician Type 01)

Modes

Aside from the standard Arcade Mode, the Dreamcast home version included exclusive modes, some of which made extensive use of the Dreamcast VMU.

Original Mode

Unlike the arcade mode, Original mode is limited to one player. Players can choose to play Normal Mode, Gun Mode and Bare Knuckle Mode, which changes the damage ratio between guns and bare fists. Alternate costumes are also available. Certain cheats such as unlimited time, continues, life and stage select can be unlocked through a VMU mini-game. Food items not found in Arcade Mode will appear for use in other modes.

VS Boss Mode

Any of the bosses can be fought once they have been defeated in the main game.

Fighting Mode

Two players can fight against each other one on one. Additionally, characters raised in the Zombie Revenge Raising Game can be used in Fighting Mode. Zombies may also appear to assist weaker players.

Training Room

Players can download the Zombie Revenge Raising Game onto their VMU. Similar to a virtual pet simulator, players can send a character to the VMU to be raised, and use them in Fighting Mode. Food items found in Original Mode can be fed to the character. Two VMU mini-games can also be played: Zombie Fishing and Zombie Doubt, a fishing and memory game respectively, which increase attack and defense stats, and high scores can unlock the various cheats found in Original Mode.

Connections to House of the Dead

Although the game does not mention the House of the Dead name upfront, as a spin-off the game contains several references and similarities to the series its based on.

• Many vocal sound effects from the zombies are taken from the first House of the Dead game.
• The main protagonists are AMS agents.
• In the opening introduction sequence, a photo of a child with a man and woman are shown (presumably ZED and his parents). The man on the left side of the picture bears a similar appearance to Rogan.
• At the start of the game, computer icons of Rogan and "G" can be seen on Linda's desktop.
• There is an instance where the player needs to prevent zombies from killing a civilian.
• The Curien Mansion appears as its own stage, which itself is called "The House of the Dead" (Episode 6). The player fights in what appears to be a faithful representation of the front courtyard, accompanied by enemies and music from the first game. A cutscene is also shown where the front door is shot repeatedly before being kicked in. However, aside from the first room, the interior sections are completely new.
• The final level of the game has the player fighting previous bosses, similar to the final stages in the first two House of the Dead games.
• The final boss of the game is called Black Magician Type 01, and bears a strong visual resemblance to the character he is based on. Aside from a slight difference in appearance, more notable changes include a visible heart, open eyes and wings. His moveset is very similar to ZED's, and will gain powers based on the card the player chooses at the beginning of the game: Red (Fire), Yellow (Lightning), or Blue (summon enemies). If time runs out in any of the stages, the Black Magician will appear and kill the players in one blow. Unlike the other bosses in the game, Black Magician is not categorized by a UDS number, but with a "Type" like that of the main series.
• The credits sequence is similar to the first House of the Dead game, journeying back through the game's stages in reverse order to the beginning of the game.
• The game has two endings, and in House of the Dead tradition, the "bad ending" involves a character becoming a zombie. In this case, Yoko if she was not saved earlier.
• The game's soundtrack was composed in part by Tetsuya Kawauchi, who composed the soundtrack to the first House of the Dead game and part of the second.

Criticism

Like The House of the Dead 2, the game's English voice acting and dialogue was deemed by many as poor, while the game's ending was considered by some to be nonsensical, alluding that ZED somehow survived and hijacked a ship.