Are you people telling me that's not enough zombies for you? Come on...

From the first time it was shown, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop didn't exactly receive a warm welcome from the press. Most observers immediately and justifiably compared the game to its inspiration -- 2006's Dead Rising on the Xbox 360 -- and found this new port wanting. Kotaku's hands-on preview roundly derided the game's largely empty corridors and called the Wii port a "terrible, terrible idea." A VG Cats comic declared in a fake ad that Chop Till You Drop was the "same game [with] half the content!" Even a writer at fan site GoNintendo said it felt like Wii owners were "getting a raw deal" with this new version of the game.

I have to take these previews at their word, frankly, because I don't have much experience with the Xbox 360 version of Dead Rising. Call me a delinquent game critic if you must, but aside from a five-minute demo at a local GameStop, I never found the time to kill thousands of mall-based zombies until I played Chop Till You Drop. While this means I can't offer up the point-by-point comparison that fans of the original might be looking for, it does mean I can go into this review with fresh eyes, seeing the Wii version for what it is rather than for the Xbox 360 version it can't claim to be. Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop is its own game, and one that has to stand or fall with or without the albatross of its popular predecessor hanging around its neck. Despite the system-to-system comparisons that will keep fanboys arguing well into the next generation, the only question that matters for millions of Wii-only gamers is this: Is Chop Till You Drop a fun, satisfying game in its own right?

The answer is slightly more "Yes, with a but" than "No, with a maybe."

Despite all the pre-release belly-aching, the number of zombies threatening flyboy photojournalist Frank West in the corridors of the Parkview Mall is far from small. There are often dozens of undead mall-walkers milling about on-screen at any one time, usually congregating at natural bottlenecks in the floor plan and forcing Frank to fight his way through rather than simply weave his way around. The slow-moving zombie proletariat, as I like to call it, is aided by manic attack parrots; rabid, lunging zombie dogs; and other, more powerful creatures that force themselves on Frank with frequency and urgency. Sure, there are some stores in the mall that look painfully empty, and there are times when a large group of zombies will literally just stand there scratching themselves instead of attacking Frank, who happens to be standing just a few feet away. But while the zombie hordes don't exactly inspire the sense of overwhelming terror the game was no doubt going for, they definitely represent an imposing threat, especially if Frank isn't properly armed.

That zombie in the bottom-right is the main reason the shooting controls just don't work.

And that's quite a big "if," if you're playing the game correctly. The real appeal of Chop Till You Drop, and the main reason to consider the game, is the ability to tear through the not-quite-overwhelming hordes with an overwhelming variety of improvised weaponry. Some players might go for the visceral thrill of cutting through entire hallways of zombies with a chainsaw or lawnmower. Others might prefer zipping past or bowling through them with a bicycle or shopping cart. Still others may prefer to take massive swings at individual undead with a samurai sword or baseball bat. Yet others might go crazy with a well-placed soccer ball to the face or an oversized beach umbrella/shield. Whatever your style, there's sizable fun to be had just searching for new weapons and new ways to dispose of the shambling shoppers.

Oh crap, behind you. BEHIND YOU! AND SLIGHTLY TO THE RIGHT!

Using this improvised weaponry, in fact, is a lot more satisfying than using the game's relatively standard selection of firearms, which all suffer from annoying control problems. Aiming a gun requires Frank to stand perfectly still, slowly unsheath his weapon with an awkward combination of buttons, and aim at his target using the Wii Remote's pointer. Occasionally, this setup takes on the vibrant thrill of a shooting gallery as Frank pops off zombie headshots from a safe distance. More often, though, the stop-and-shoot mechanic seems horribly inadequate for close-quarters combat against the encroaching zombie menace. The control problems are exacerbated during boss battles, where the long delay between standing-and-aiming and running-and-dodging makes it incredibly difficult to avoid even predictable attacks. The movement controls also hurt here, as the inability to sidestep or quickly back up makes it hard to avoid a boss while still keeping him safely in your sights. More often than not, you'll end up choosing melee weapons that allow you to quickly transition between knocking down zombies and running for your life.

Of course, the game's not just about this kind of random zombie slaughter, though it might be more fun and focused if it were. No; the zombie-slaying is given a paper-thin justification by an assortment of supporting survivors, each an archetype written at Capcom's cheesy best. After a quick introductory section, the game quickly falls into a familiar pattern:

Repeat the process all over again.

"Supermarket Sweep" takes a macabre turn for a special Halloween episode.

This design somehow manages to be both depressingly linear, forcing you to complete one specific mission whether or not it's the type you're in the mood for; and incredibly repetitive, forcing you to backtrack through the same familiar mall areas and groups of zombies countless times. The stop-and-start, hub-centered structure, combined with frequent cut scene interruptions, also make the game feel like a disjointed collection of loosely related encounters rather than a strongly directed series of events. It's an old-school approach that, frankly, feels a little dated at a time when open-world, play-as-you-want games are in vogue.


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Don't get me wrong; the dated design and ginchy controls aren't enough to totally spoil the many grin-inducing moments of zombie-dispatching glee to be had in Chop Till You Drop. But they are enough to make the game come off as a bit anachronistic to a modern-day gamer. If this version of Dead Rising had come out six years ago, on the PlayStation 2, it'd probably be considered an exciting and interesting addition to Capcom's growing horror catalog. It can still fill a similar role today, but only if you don't think too hard about what you could be missing.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.