Zombie Revenge

About Zombie Revenge

Zombie Revenge (1999) is Sega's House of the Dead spin-off beat 'em up, in which three agents clear a zombie-infested city with fists, guns and other weapons.

Zombie Revenge in Depth

U.D.S., or Undead Soldier, a top-secret government plan to use the dead for military purposes, is thrown into darkness by an unknown entity, and a year later the city is overrun by zombies. Three of the best AMS agents, Stick Breitling, Linda Rotta and Rikiya Busujima, are sent to wipe out the enemy and track down its mysterious leader, Zed. After fighting through the city they confront him; he reveals that Stick's father was involved in U.D.S. and that he wants revenge for his parents, murdered as part of the project. Despising all humans, Zed plans to spread the virus and unleashes a powerful U.D.S. inside himself, the God of Destruction, before the agents defeat him.

Players choose one of the three agents, who differ in their proficiency with hand-to-hand combat and guns, and fight zombies and bosses with fists, firearms and other weapons. As a spin-off of The House of the Dead, it is full of references: zombies look and sound as they did in the first game, the heroes of both series are AMS agents, icons of Thomas Rogan and G sit on Linda's computer desktop, and the Curien Mansion returns as a stage called The House of the Dead, with its original first-stage music. The final boss is Black Magician Type 01, and the credits replay the stages back to the start. The Dreamcast version adds a one-on-one Battle Mode for two players.

Making Zombie Revenge

Sega AM1 and Data East developed it, and Sega released it in arcades in 1999 with a Dreamcast port the same year. The Dreamcast version received mixed reviews. NextGen's Chris Charla wrote, "It looks great, it plays OK, but you'll be done with it forever in four hours", recommending a rental. GamePro's reviewers agreed it was worth renting but felt the "lobotomized hit-and-kick action" would bore players and that limited replay value, annoying sound and controls kept it from being a must-own, while Famitsu was more positive.