Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Those of you living in Europe who are anxious to see what it's like to deal with a shopping mall full of the undead (well, not all the way full), you'll have your chance soon enough. According to a post over at Wiiz, Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop is due on February 27th next year, meaning you're mere months away from running over zombies with a lawnmower. Sure, the maintenance tunnel isn't as full as the Xbox 360 version of the game, but we're still excited to dispatch the undead. How about you all?

File this one under a big ol' label of what: apparently, we haven't yet seen the "final" version of Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop. Considering we've seen tons of video and screenshots, and people have actually played it, we're starting to wonder just what's going on. According to Nintendo Everything, where they've got a quote from Seth Killian, a Capcom community manager, the versions people have gotten their hands on at recent shows were nothing more than tech demos, and the final version will have more zombies (and some other unnamed changes). But Killian also says he hasn't played this rumored "final" version.

If "no press or media" has seen the real game, then that must almost certainly include the screenshots ... and why release them if they're not accurate? This sounds like so much smoke being blown that it's tempting to discard it altogether, particularly since Nintendo Everything didn't source the quote. But if this is to be believed, Capcom is still pushing the "100 onscreen zombies" line, which is certainly fine with us!

In the end, while Chop 'Til You Drop will be different from the Xbox 360's original Dead Rising, it still looks like a barrel of bloody fun, and that's probably what matters. But it's certainly weird to have been hot and cold over footage and imagery that isn't representative of the game.

[Via Go Nintendo]

Famitsu has just put up several new screens from Capcom's upcoming port Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop. Aside from detailing the origins of the crazed poodles and vicious parrots, Famitsu also has up some fresh screens for you to gawk at, which you can check out right here. Remember, kids: you just can't go wrong with Servbots!

Here it is, just what we asked for: the maintenance tunnel in Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop versus the same area in the original. In the Xbox version of the title, the tunnels were a grueling challenge, a never-ending sea of grasping hands, and here, it looks like ... well, this place with some zombies in it.

We can accept a game that is similar to Dead Rising, but different in order to adapt to the Wii. It'll be fun, and there's nothing like kicking zombies in the face. But seeing the two side by side can sometimes bring out a sigh.

A release date wasn't the only thing concerning Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop to come out of Japan this week. A new trailer for the game, as you can see above, managed to escape the craziness that is TGS08.Within, you'll see a lot of the stuff you've seen before, just, you know, in motion. There's zombies, Frank jumping out of a helicopter and plenty of carnage to satisfy your every need.

The latest issue of Famitsu has spilled the beans on a release date for Capcom's latest Wii port, Dead Rising: Chop 'Til you Drop. The game is slated for a February 2009 release in the region, meaning that those of us in North America, and you fine Europeans, will have to wait a bit longer than that to get our hands on the game. While you wait, why not check out some images from the game in our gallery below?


[Via CVG]

So here's a look at Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop. If you were expecting something that looked completely awesome, we'll warn you that this ain't it. If, however, you're looking for an experience that is just pure fun, then hey, you may be in the right place.

As a personal aside, I've gotta say that I'm a huge fan of the original. I have no complaints about the save system or the game format, or really anything else with the Xbox 360 title. At first, the changes to the Wii version -- to the format, not the number of zombies; we'll get there -- seemed disheartening. But if you look at it as a completely different game, one that's meant to be a happy fun-time zombie-killing mall adventure, then hey! Sign us all up for a little chopping 'til we drop. And that's what this video is all about: enjoying the carnage for carnage's sake.

But the lack of floods of zombies is a concern. Anyone else hoping for video of the maintenance tunnels? And, despite the use of the giant parasol here, Al Fresco Plaza just won't be the same without hordes of the undead. But maybe the fact that it won't be the same is the point.

Dead Rising: Chop 'til You Drop offers the one feature that Wii owners didn't even know they needed: waggle-based zombie-batting. According to the latest screens, shaking the controller in response to an onscreen prompt while holding a baseball bat will trigger the "Home Run Swing."

We're happy to see that the Wii Dead Rising game keeps an emphasis on a wide variety of useful and/or hilarious weapons, including saw blades, samurai swords, benches, and various firearms. All of the weapons have been given some kind of motion-based interaction: guns, for example, are reloaded by shaking. That sounds like some other Wii game that used the Resident Evil 4 engine! But which one?

We've had Dead Rising on the mind for the past 24 hours, thanks in part to a bit of reassurance on the part of Nintendo Power. But, in looking at the Xbox 360 version of the game and how Xbox Live made available some DLC, we were wondering what kind of content you wouldn't mind paying for in Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop. Of course, don't take this as "OMG DLC CONFIRMED!!!one!" or anything. This is purely hypothetical.

So what would you like? Added weapons? Different playable characters? New areas added to the mall? Let's hear it!

According to the latest issue of Nintendo Power, Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop might not be the slouch many are making it out to be. The magazine mentions that there could be up to 100 zombies onscreen at once. Aside from that, improvements include:

• Combat controls will mimic Resident Evil 4.
• Selectable difficulty level.
• Improved save system.
• Larger text!
• Overtime mode now part of the main game.

Sounds like Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop will be an option-rich good time. How many of you are looking forward to it?

We've spent a little time lately talking about Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop, and can you blame us? The original is one of the most fun experiences available on the Xbox 360, and shifting the perspective to match Resident Evil 4 sounds like it could be a really good move. Here, too, is one game in which "waggle" is pretty well-suited to the action; if you played Dead Rising and didn't shake the controller the first time a zombie grabbed you, you've stronger nerves than we have.

Did you play the original? If so, what do you think of the proposed changes? We're wary of the shift in the save system, frankly, but the few things we've heard make it sounds almost as though it's a nearly new game. If you didn't play the 360 title, what do you think of this style of port, and this game in particular? Also, what do you think of the subtitle?

There may be a dearth of actual Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop screens, but we've been pretty rich in print media on the re-imagined game so far. The latest, from a French Nintendo magazine, show off some different angles from some of the scenes we've already seen, such as the psycho battle in the gun store.

There's been some concern that there just won't be as many zombies in the Wii version -- and the number of zombies is pretty much the crux of the game -- but considering we're seeing screens from early in the game, it isn't that surprising that there aren't that many zombies. Until we see screenshots from a cramped area like the nightmarish Al Fresca plaza, we won't really be able to judge how much, if any, the game has been downgraded in that sense. We've put together a couple of comparison shots after the break that demonstrate that there's more to be hopeful about than many had thought.