Curiously although you reprise the role of journalist Frank West the Wii game no longer gives the player the option to take photographs throughout the game and this is a strange omission.

 

The photography did give the game a sense of variety from the continuous zombie killing and surely through the Wii’s control system this would not have been too difficult to include. This suggests either an element of laziness on behalf of the developers or they simply thought that the majority of Wii gamers would not be interested it it’s inclusion. Either way I feel the whole Dead Rising experience is incomplete without it.

 

 

It goes without saying that the Wii was always going to struggle to replicate the staggering amount of zombies on screen at any one time. However what I was not expecting was such a massive decrease. Now rather than battling hundreds at any one time this has been reduced to a handful at any one time.

This makes the game pretty simple to play once you have got to grips with the motion sensing controls which on first play seem a little fiddly.

 

Whilst the game does suffer because of the lack of enemies the actual mission structure is pretty well put together with the missions appearing fairly shorter in length and at more regular intervals.

 

This may take away an element of the overall challenge but it does mean subtle changes to the overall storyline which does add a little more interest to what could be considered a largely unforgettable game.

 

 

Lets face it, if we are being honest the Dead Rising games have never been about the storylines and have proven successful due to the variety of weapons which can be used throughout the game. Whilst the majority of weapons previously seen can still be found in the excellent variety of stores contained in the well animated shopping mall you get the sense that they are not as readily available.

 

It is obvious that the Wii version leans heavily towards the use of the variety of guns rather than some of the more unique weapons such as footballs, swords, plant pots and even C.D’S, however when these are found the game’s controls do work well with a number of different actions needed to use the different weapons.

 

 

'Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop" is almost a direct port of the Xbox 360 original 'Dead Rising' with a number of key changes. Many of these improve the experience whilst others do admittedly take away a large amount of the fun of the game.

 

It is nice to see a Dead Rising game appear on the Nintendo Wii and it is a brave attempt to utilise the motion sensing controls which does just about work whilst the changes in saving the games and mission structure does make the game more user friendly. However there is just too much laziness to say that the game deserves to be considered an essential purchase.

 

Those whom have never played Dead Rising before will undoubtedly get a fair amount of enjoyment from the game whilst veterans of the series will appreciate some of the changes but probably become bored of the game pretty quickly which is a shame really as you get the feeling that this has been somewhat rushed to get Dead Rising back in the public eye ahead of the forthcoming release of 'Dead Rising 2'.

 

 

 

 

+ Improvement in save system
+ Motion sensing controls work pretty well
+ More user friendly than other Dead Rising games