Once a horror outlier, zombie-centric games have gone on to dominate in recent years with Dying Light, The Last of Us and Days Gone all frontrunners in the genre. If you hark back to ye olde days of yore, 1996, you’d discover the humble origins of said genre which began with the release of Sega AM1’s The House of the Dead.
Credited with popularising zombie video games alongside Resident Evil, The House of the Dead is a horror-themed light gun shooter arcade game. Originally released in arcades and then ported to the SEGA Saturn and Microsoft Windows, The House of the Dead follows a simple premise. Players must aim and shoot as they attempt to eliminate the hordes of zombies spawned by geneticist Dr. Curien’s disastrous experiments.
Check out The House of the Dead's gameplay on the Nintendo Switch below.
The House of the Dead did have one revolutionary concept up its sleeve, introducing gaming’s first fast-running zombies so if you relish in the thrill of being overrun by a horde of Days Gone’s Freakers, you have The House of the Dead to thank.
A remake of the game was first announced by MegaPixel Studio in April 2021 for the Nintendo Switch with a release date of 7 April 2022. In our review, Mike deemed the remake a “gory little slice of exhumed nostalgia,” but it seems that the remake may soon be hitting another platform. According to reddit user the_andshrew, The House of the Dead is also slated to release on the PlayStation 4 with the title already lined up in the PlayStation Network backend.
He notes that there’s no official confirmation nor a release date, so whilst a simultaneous April release alongside the Nintendo Switch version is unlikely, the leak does seem to suggest that a PlayStation port is in production. If you’ve finally achieved that Platinum Trophy on Dying Light 2: Stay Human or you’re mourning the imminent end of TV’s The Walking Dead, your newest zombie fix could be just around the corner.
Topics: Sega, PlayStation, Retro Gaming