Video game arcades might be a thing of the past (outside of Japan, at least) but as anyone pushing the age of 30 or older could tell you that they used to be plentiful. Lightgun shooters, in particular, are no doubt responsible for consuming the GDP of a small country in coins during their heyday and one developer, it seems, is keen to remake a classic of the genre.
Sega’s long-dormant House of the Dead series is one such member of the largely dead sub-genre, but that looks set to change in the near future. Forever Entertainment, the studio currently hard at work on remaking another historic Sega intellectual property, Panzer Dragoon, for Nintendo Switch, is said to be eyeing up the original House of the Dead and its sequel as the next to receive a much-needed facelift.
The news comes by way of Polish website Graczpospolita, which reports that both titles will boast completely revamped visuals to bring them in line with modern standards and some quality of life gameplay changes.
The original story, script (and potentially voice acting, too) are said to remain in place which, as a fan of the originals, I can only hope to be true. Awful as the plot was, it contributed (likely unintentionally, mind you) fantastically to House of the Dead‘s B-movie aesthetic and Forever opting to retain that hamminess would be a terrific decision on its part. Ultimately, we’ll have to wait and see just how much of the original report is accurate, but so far, so good.
House of the Dead 1 & 2 released in 1996 and 1999 for the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast respectively and remain some of the most fondly-remembered zombie-slaying sims of all time. Welcome news all-round, then, but if Forever Entertainment truly wants to deliver on the nostalgia, one can only hope it includes the surprisingly brilliant Typing of the Dead as an added bonus. A man can dream, right?
