Retrospective Dead Rising

Celebrating zombie-cide in Capcom’s classic Xbox exclusive, Dead Rising

- Chris Burke

Zombies. Can’t live with ’em, can’t kill ’em. But that’s only because they’re already dead. You can, however, destroy them in any number of ways, with all manner of household objects, sports equipment and lawnmowers in Capcom’s early Xbox 360-exclusive zombie game.

Back in 2006, the Japanese game giant was the master of zombie games. We’d already had ten years of Resident Evil, but the devs at Capcom outdid themselves with the scale, violence, humour and unabashed movie references of Dead Rising.

The third-person action sees you in control of Frank West, a photojournalist first on the scene of an incident at the Willamette Mall, Colorado. Willamette is every-State USA, as chopper pilot Ed puts it, “Distinguishing characteristics: jack s**t! About the only thing to do is go shopping.” The stores within are brilliantly realised and realistically appointed, from a sports equipment store to hardware emporiums, gyms, clothes shops, music shops and a food court. Rather than happy shoppers, Willamette Mall is teeming with the undead. Lots of ’em. More in one place than we’d ever seen in a zombie game before. Just how many zombies that is, we still can’t be sure. Interviewed at the time, Capcom’s Yutaka Haruki, when asked how many zombies could be on-screen, said, “Nobody knows, we want you to count them!”

There have been claims that up to 800 zombies could be on the screen at any time, but we’re a little cynical as, even though it might feel more than a little crowded in those bottlenecked plazas, you almost certainly couldn’t tell if there were 800 zombies. We’ve tried counting them, and let’s just say we’ve seen well over 100, though even on the Xbox One remaster, there’s still a bit of pop-in.