The Wii has made home versions of light-gun games possible. Some of the first games in this style to be released for the Wii were ports of arcade games. Several of the House of the Dead titles were packaged together and released previously, but there was also a completely new title in development.

It’s called House of The Dead: Overkill and it combines all the best features of a light-gun game with all the best/worst features of campy horror movies. It’s directly aimed at the semi-casual market, with the content definitely not for kids and the gameplay on the relatively easy side.

The controls are incredibly simple, but for this style of gaming it’s exactly as they should be. Point, pull the trigger on your zapper or other lightgun accessory (or simply push the B button) and shoot. Shake to reload, shoot again. If you’re just going through the game you can simply blast away; enough hits will take down any of the walking dead. Hits to the limbs will sever that body part and of course headshots will take them down immediately.

The story follows Agent G and Detective Washington, two cliches who couldn’t be more different. Agent G is a suit-and-sunglasses government agent while Washington is an African American cop with a more casual dress code and a gun in each hand. The two of them are hot in pursuit of Papa Caesar, the mad scientist behind the zombie horde. Along the way you’ll run into Varla Guns, an impossibly scantily clad woman hell-bent on getting her revenge against Papa Caesar for turning her brother into the first boss.

The dialogue is humorously bad, with the two characters trading insults, jibes and jabs on cutscenes in between levels. Adding to the completely over the top style of the game is a near constant stream of profanity. I believe the game just won a Guinness Gaming world record for the most swears in a single game.

There are some occasion issues with slowdown when the screen is filled with zombies and there are some occasional annoying pop-ins but otherwise things run pretty smoothly. The gameplay is excellent in its simplicity, with the challenge mostly coming from large numbers of zombies coming from behind and some zombies that are harder to bring down, including zombified football players wearing helmets and undead cops with riot shields. As the game throws more zombies and bosses at you they give you the option of upgrading your existing pistol and buying more guns which you can then upgrade.

A bevvy of unlockables and mini-games add to the replayability. Overall this game gives you everything you expect from a light gun shooter. If you’re looking for deep strategic gameplay with a riveting storyline, look elsewhere, but if you want raucuous laughs and fun action packed times, pick up House of the Dead: Overkill.