Light Gun arcade games were once kings in the arcades and one of the premier titles in the genre was Sega’s House of the Dead franchise. It was cheesy and gory at the same time and managed to have a charm that just could not be replicated by other games. When Forever Entertainment announced a remake of the game, many took notice, but how would it play, and would it hold up?
House of the Dead Remake on the Nintendo Switch has three main control schemes and sadly none really match the feel of the arcade light gun. The first method is just using the analogue sticks to move the reticle, which works but makes for a lacklustre game. The second option is to use gyro aiming to replicate the feel of the light gun as much as possible, but in hectic sections, this will get in the way.
The third option is a hybrid where you will use gyro aiming and the analogue sticks to fine-tune the aiming. It is a much better option than the other two but does take some getting used to. This might need to be the one you choose as it’s the most accurate so far, although Forever Entertainment has said there will be more options coming after launch.
The remake includes a large number of quality-of-life changes to the game, such as the option for automatic reloading, the inclusion of online leaderboards and more. There are two scoring styles in the game, the classic mode and horde more, the latter of which may throw some people off. Horde mode greatly increases the number of enemies, and while this is good for scores, it also makes you miss some foes when the camera turns, unlike the original game.
House of the Dead Remake has the same goofy charm of the original, with cheesy voice acting (intentionally this time), but the new visuals manage to help the game a bit. It is much less colourful than the arcade game, but that fits well here and manages to make the game fit the horror motif better. The same alternate paths are here, as are the multiple endings, but the music has gotten a notable change, which may upset some.
House of the Dead: Remake is a short game, and even with adjustable difficulty, the game is over quickly. There is also the option of using your scores to buy more continues, and this ends up causing the difficulty levels to feel a bit meaningless. The multiplayer does manage to change this up though, as co-operative scoring and competitive scoring manage to extend the replay value to a significant extent.
House of the Dead: Remake has a few other changes to improve the experience as well, such as two main modes to play the game. Performance mode will emphasize framerate and smoothness while going for visuals makes the game look better but run a bit choppier. There is also a photo mode and a gallery mode, with the latter letting you look at enemies and see their weak points to plan your strategy
Overall, House of the Dead: Remake is a decent remake, and Forever Entertainment has confirmed more updates are coming, so the story is not done yet. If you can get used to the controls, then this is one you might want to check out and play. It is definitely a well-made update to the classic.