In the above screen, Frank has been captured. But in Chop 'Til You Drop, players waggle the Wii-mote when the guards aren't looking in attempts of wrangling out of his restraints.

This proves at least one thing: Everything looks better with a Wii-mote.

Dead Rising shakes its way to retailers later this month.

Let's let Mr. Ferris tackle the complaints. Remember, he is a professional marketer!

Let's get this out of the way: Will DR:CTYD look as beautiful on the Wii as Dead Rising did on the Xbox 360? No. Will it have the same number of zombies on screen at the same time? No. Does that mean we should deny Wii gamers the joy that 360 owners had in surviving three days in a zombie-infested mall? The answer is, obviously, no.

...and...

...some claim that the only reason we brought Dead Rising to the Wii was to make money... You're right, we've been caught: We're guilty of being a business. In fact, as a gamer, you should want a brand that you love to be successful, because that increases the chance that we'll make more games. The games business is filled with titles that people love that simply did not make money: Viewtiful Joe. Okami. Zack and Wiki.

Had enough? If not, there are two pages of Ferris running d over at game site GameDaily.

My Turn: Dead Rising: Chop 'till you Drop – Give it a Fair Shake [GameDaily] [Pic]

Things like, well, outfits for photographer Frank West to wear. "One surprising thing was feedback from people who liked the ability to change Frank's costume," says Dead Rising Wii producer Minoru Nakai. "So, this time, we've made it so that you can change into more costumes."

Yeah, because changing into costumes is way more important that killing hordes of the walking dead in a zombie game. We're being harsh. Shame on us! Check out the full interview at Gamasutra and read about Nakai building Dead Rising Wii from the ground up and making changes to the game — stuff like speeding up some of the zombies.

Remember, it's not the number of zombies that counts, but the outfits you wear while slaying them.

Interview: Capcom's Nakai On Remaking Dead Rising For Wii [Gamasutra]

DSi Not Bound for US Until Well Into Next Year
EA May Have Gotten Early Look at DSi, New WiiWare Announcement Today
Tetris Party, Boingz Coming to WiiWare, World of Goo Dated
MadWorld Still Not Playable (In the US at Least)
The Conduit - Still Going Strong
Boingz: The Game Where You Play as a Condom
Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop Makes Me Sad
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon - Not a Looker, But She's Got Heart
Cave Story - Everything That's Old Is New Again
Call of Duty: World At War - None Dare Call It Call of Duty 5
Tetris Party - Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks

While all that was making my head explode going on, I also got the chance for some quality time with Mirror's Edge and Gears of War 2. Oh, and I also got my hands on NXE - it was pretty sweet.

I'm going to go feed on something else now - preferably pizza. Fahey got me stuck on pizza.

Second, Dead Rising came out two years ago on Xbox 360 – why do we need a Wii port now? We’ve got an amazing lineup of horror games coming out in the next four months; one of them being Resident Evil 5. Would it kill Capcom to develop the Wii version of that instead of crapping out a Johnny-come-lately Dead Rising?

Third, as Wii ports go, this one is shaping up to be the most bastard of bastard step-children. They’ve chopped more content out of the game than zombies have limbs and only gone so far as to add poodles in return. The motion controls are twitchy at best (but, thank God, totally optional), the graphics are jagged enough to cut your eyes on, and the only two playable missions were a “kill as many zombies as you can in two minutes” mode and the one with the chainsaw clown on the roof. There’s no more photojournalism of skanky zombies (despite Frank West still clutching his camera throughout the game), and all the missions are untimed – removing the desperate sense of urgency that ought to come standard with any zombie apocalypse.

“[We] wanted people to experience all the content,” says Capcom’s Chris Kramer – the man running the hands-on at Nintendo’s Fall Media Summit. Chris meant this in regards to the untimed missions. By taking the pressure off, you actually have time to go through and do all of the missions instead of having to choose which ones to fail and go back for a replay later.

I still find it funny that he said “all the content” with a straight face immediately after telling me there’d be no Pokémon Snap with zombies. “We added poodles,” he says, weakly.

Yes, yes they did. In addition to the max count of six zombies on screen at one time, there were two bloodstained poodles and a zombie parrot.

“We’ve been able to get about 30 zombies on screen in some of the screen shots,” Chris tells me. “And this build is the old one from [the Leipzig Games Convention]; we have a new one at TGS that has more [zombies] and better graphics.”

Gee, why not show off the new build here in the US? Where the skeptics like me live?

Chris shrugged and said he didn’t even know there was a new build until that very day. He then muttered something about “the joys of working for a Japanese company.”

If the build I was playing truly is a rough draft, then there might be hope yet. The motion controls might morph into something more intuitive. They might well get a lot of zombies on screen at one time – enough to make you freak out like you ought to when you get grabbed by two or three of them and dragged into a brain-starved horde.

I guess the folks at TGS will get a better idea of what to expect when Chop Till You Drop hits shelves in December. For my part, I’m completely underwhelmed and still sad – especially since I just now got the pun.

P.S. I get that the Wii can’t do what the 360 can in terms of graphics and in terms of memory storage. But what I don’t get is why developers treat the Wii like leper. With games like The Conduit and the Wii version of Guitar Hero: World Tour proving that the console can handle pretty decent-looking graphics and a lot of content, there really isn’t an excuse for something as fugly and awkward as Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop looks to be.

Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop which has "pretty good for a Wii game" graphics is touted as "taking advantage of the same proven technology that brought Resident Evil 4 so successfully to Wii." Whether that simply means a Wii Remote driven control scheme with zombie killing accuracy or something else more technical, we're not sure. We don't know computers.

The full press release with all the details is after this.

CAPCOM® ANNOUNCES DEAD RISINGTM: CHOP TIL YOU DROP
Wii Gamers Prepare For a Zombie Invasion

SAN MATEO, Calif. — July 21, 2008 — Capcom®, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, today announced that Dead Rising™: Chop Till You Drop is in development for the Wii™ home video game system. Based on the critically acclaimed Dead Rising™, which has sold in excess of one million units since its release in 2006, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop is scheduled to hit store shelves this Winter.

Taking advantage of the same proven technology that brought Resident Evil® 4 so successfully to Wii, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop delivers a more immersive, intuitive and interactive experience as players use the Wii Remote to shoot, slash and bludgeon their way through a zombie infested shopping mall, fighting for survival.

Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop follows the harrowing tale of Frank West, an overly zealous freelance journalist on a hunt for the scoop of a lifetime. In pursuit of a juicy lead, he makes his way to the small suburban town of Willamette only to find that it has become overrun by zombies. Frank escapes to the local shopping mall, thinking it will be a bastion of safety but it turns out to be anything but. It will be a true struggle to survive the endless stream of enemies, but players will have full reign of a realistic shopping centre and its varied stores offering an endless supply of real and makeshift weapons to fight off the flesh-hungry mob. If Frank is running low on health he can pay a visit to one of the many restaurants or cafes for a meal in order to restore his energy and continue the fight.

The game is split into a series of individual cases, all of which Frank must complete in order to gain vital information that will allow him to piece together the truth behind the horrendous epidemic. In addition to the cases, players will be faced with the dilemma of deciding the rescue priority of the residents of Wilamette who also sought sanctuary in the mall. Depending on the player’s skill, some may not be so fortunate as each rescue needs to be undertaken in a set time period, therefore players may need to delay completion of a case in order to save a fellow human.

Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop’s infectious humor delivers some welcome relief from the incessant tide of zombies with players able to dress Frank up in a variety of comedic costumes and take on the undead hordes with a selection of improvised and sometimes highly ineffective weapons such as a toy sword or a football.

Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop includes the following features:
• Utilizes the same engine as Resident Evil 4 Wii edition.
• New level of interaction – aim and fire guns, swing and throw weapons and shake off zombie attacks with added Wii Remote functionality
• Huge environment – expansive indoor and outdoor areas of the mall provide a variety of different locations to explore
• Improved save functionality allows for more seamless gameplay
• Hoards of enemies on screen at once resulting in non-stop, pulse-pounding action
• Anything in the mall is at Frank’s disposal
• Grab environmental objects like umbrellas and benches to use as improvised weapons
• Snatch items from different stores to use as weapons including golf clubs, lawnmowers, frying pans and more
• Consume food and drink to revive health