The House of the Dead Review - Sega Saturn

[@gameshack1985]

*Own up! Who else likes to blast endless hordes of zombies and monsters??*

[@kevogamingid]

The real masterpiece of this series is House of The Dead 2 on the Dreamcast. Might as well put a full on HOTD2 arcade cabinet in my bedroom for how perfect that game was

[@gameshack1985]

@kevogamingid I still need a DC lightgun but there are so few games for it to be used with!

[@RetroGamesBoy78]

This was one of my favourites back in the day and wont hear a bad word against it, yes the scenery is very blocky and ugly but the character models aren't actually that bad imo, despite its flaws its still a pretty faithful port of the arcade, the fast paced zombie killing action is all there, along with the branching paths which also gives the game an extra bit of longevity and so much more fun when playing eith a friend. I still have my original copy in mint condition, and it aways gets fired up when i get the CRT out btw, there is a red blood option which looks far better than that awful green stuff.

[@gameshack1985]

@@RetroGamesBoy78 I did record footage with red blood, but barely used any in the review! It really is a decent game with only the iffy visuals and textures against it.

[@richfan10]

I was kinda put off by the Official Sega Saturn magazines review at the time even though I did pick up the last official releases around 1998 ('Burning Rangers, Panzer Dragoon Saga , Shining Force 3); I'd still like to get this for my collection as even back in the day I think reviews said despite its graphics the game was still fun

[@gameshack1985]

@richfan10 It scored fairly well to be fair, I bought Gamesmaster magazine and it got 80% if I remember rightly.

[@retroblitz3533]

Bang on review, very much on point, and definitely hit the target with this one, lol. Sorry, I couldn't resist the puns, 😂lol

[@gameshack1985]

@retroblitz3533 made me laugh though! 😂

[@jankmedia1985]

Nice video. This version seems to be known for having terrible graphics but it's really not that bad once you're playing and focused on surviving. I think the visuals are charming in a way. I own the physical Japanese version but Satiator is my main route for Saturn gaming, I don't bother much with physical discs anymore, too expensive.

[@gameshack1985]

Indeed, rarer physical games, certainly from this generation, are simply not worth it to me. I think the enemy models do have a charm to them to be fair, and it still plays great regardless!

[@gedaman]

Unfortunately I don’t think there ever was a faithful arcade port of The House of The Dead that I know of. The PC port is just a port of the flawed Saturn version. I wish that the Wii or PlayStation Move had gotten a House of The Dead Collection so that we could play all of The House of The Dead games with arcade accuracy. At least The House of The Dead 2 on Dreamcast is arcade perfect. My friend and I played that a lot with the light guns when we had Dreamcasts back in 1999. Good times.

[@SPac316]

A good port, all things considered. Crazy how much the American version(not sure about the PAL version) goes for on eBay, about $400+ USD. I bought the Japanese version for $7 USD. It's English friendly and can be played without knowing Japanese.

[@gameshack1985]

The PAL version is about £100 so pretty expensive too, just not quite as bad as the US version!! Thanks for commenting!

[@scaryviking8657]

Who else clicked this because they thought it was a Game Sack video?

[@gameshack1985]

I don't think Joe ever reviews Saturn games, infact he doesn't really review games at all!

[@scaryviking8657]

@@gameshack1985 either way, you’ll be glad to hear that I fully enjoyed your video 😁

[@gameshack1985]

@scaryviking8657 Awesome! Thanks! Shame Joe at Game Sack is unaware of me though! 😂

[@SomeOrangeCat]

I'd argue that this version is *not* worth playing today, because the modern remake recreates this game beat-for-beat and is out for PC and all major consoles, regularly going on sale for under ten dollars, which is a fair price for such a short game that's so skimpy on replay value. Yeah, the remake recreates that as well, lol.

[@gameshack1985]

I understand where you are coming from. Though I am not up-to-date with PC gaming currently, so am assuming there are some form of light-guns on the PC now that work with current monitor setups?

[@SomeOrangeCat]

@@gameshack1985 Sinden indeed makes LCD-compatible light guns. Though if you're playing on the Switch, the game gives you an option where you can aim the Joycons. There's even a third party light gun shell you can use, akin to the Wii Zapper! So playing it like a proper light gun game is attainable no matter which platform you want to play it on.

[@RetroGamesBoy78]

Are thay as awfully bad as using Wii remotes? Hard to beat actual light guns.

[@gameshack1985]

@RetroGamesBoy78 If you have the hand cannon adaptor, the Wii is ok I think. I've seen the gun adaptor for the Switch, but I don't think it looks good personally...and pointing the joycons at the TV sucks.

[@RetroGamesBoy78]

@@gameshack1985 well in my experience it's always been: actual light gun = pixel perfect accuracy VS Wii remote = wobbly somewhere a few inches off to the diagonal left accuracy.

[@xxcrysad3000xx]

Ehhh it's not that ugly. I think by this time it was clear that the PSX was eclipsing the Saturn in just about every way, so here was a very late title that a lot of Saturn fans like myself were banking on, and it came up rather short. Given the hindsight of 26 years though, it does the job.

[@gameshack1985]

@@xxcrysad3000xx it's still fun and good to play!

[@Magiciantype-0andcurien]

You haven’t seen anything yet

[@CaseTheCorvetteMan]

This game should've been loads better than it is, Sega should have done it themselves, every time they took one of their top arcade hits and let someone else do it the game ended up butchered.

[@SuperKhalid95]

Saturn and PC versions are the worst versions of the original HOTD1, the only good version is the arcade version, the remake is also enjoyable and find it better than the Saturn & PC versions of the original HOTD1

[@gameshack1985]

@@SuperKhalid95 I should try the remake at some point!

[@SomeOrangeCat]

@@gameshack1985 Get it on sale, because it is short. They followed the formula of the original so closely there is very little in the way of replay value.