It's fun, it's nasty, and it's loaded with replay value.
Headstrong Games and Sega have changed all that with House of Dead: Overkill for the Nintendo Wii. Not only does the game reinvigorate its genre, it delivers a straight-up outrageous and entertaining experience that no mature gamer should miss. Period.
You'll play as the ultra-clean AMS Agent "G" and the ultra-foul-mouthed police detective Isaac Washington on a mission to not only contain a zombie threat, but also to avenge the death of Isaac's father. Along the way you'll meet a lot of interesting characters including the Steven Hawking-wannabe Jasper, his sister (and stripper) Varla Guns, and Isaac's main adversary Papa Caesar, and no matter who you come across, you can be sure that the conversations and situations will be both hilarious, outrageous, and absolutely over-the-top.
Playing the game is like taking part in a bad 1970's Zombie flick, and it's obvious that this was intentional on Headstrong's part. Everything from the dialogue, to the settings, to the presentation just oozes with it, and they even took the time to do the extra touches such as film-grain and the little cracks and pops in the audio as if it were being played on an old movie projector.
Speaking of gameplay, you'll be hard-pressed to not enjoy blasting zombies into sloppy little meatballs. With the control scheme being so basic (you literally point, shoot, and reload) you can simply focus on the game, and it allows others to jump right in and play multiplayer with you with very little difficulty. Not to mention that everything with the controls is very smooth and works without any "bounce" when you get close to the outside edges of the screen. It also allows you to eliminate the crosshairs, so you can have a more traditional light gun experience if you want it.
For the most part, the graphics are very good. There is some zombie pop-in around the edges of the screen when you're dealing with too many enemies at once, but the problem is both minor and infrequent. You honestly won't care when it happens, as there's just too much going on at any given moment for you to focus on it. Both the characters and the backgrounds are nicely modeled, and the effects (especially the head explosions) are really fun to watch. Granted, the 70's style film-grain does gloss over some of the rough spots, but that's the idea. They managed to not only successfully mask the Wii's lack of power, but they do it with style.
Style and quality is also applied to the audio. While many of the actual sound effects such as gunshots and exploding body parts are fairly common (as common as an exploding part can be, anyway), the voice acting is as flawless as the dialogue is campy. More importantly, the score for the game is truly "Music to Slaughter Your Zombies by." In other words, it's an absolutely perfect fit for the game.
Overkill's length is going to bother some players. As you'll tack down the first playthough in about three hours, thanks in part to unlimited continues and the game's overall easy difficulty level. That said, you shouldn't allow this point to stop you from purchasing it; as it's is so much fun you can replay it multiple times and not tire of the experience.
But there's more to it than just simple replays. You can power up your weapons along the way, there's an "uncut" version of the game that unlocks after you finish the story (which provides longer levels, more zombies, a higher difficulty, and limited continues), and minigames such as a shooting gallery and a survival mode. The sheer value of the multiplayer shouldn't be ignored, either, as it's incredibly fun with a friend.
Just about every Mature gamer will enjoy this title, but be warned. This game gets pretty nasty in spots, so you should keep the kiddies, the squemish, and the pious as far away from this title as possible as some scenes could end up inducing convulsions. Everyone else will have a blast and appreciate this one for what it is.