It's something that's been gnawing at me for a while now, but as we approach Christmas 2009 – the fifth holiday season for the Xbox 360, and fourth for the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii – that gnawing has turned into some serious, unchecked mastication.

After all, a new hardware generation is meant to usher in a new generation of games to go with it. And not just games that look prettier, or sound better; titles that give you something entirely new in terms of game design and mechanics, something that could only be done by taking advantage of the latest in console hardware.

Yet I think only a handful of games this console generation have done so. Which ones? Oh, I'm glad you asked. Games like:

Dead Rising – There has never been a game like Dead Rising. It's open-world in appearance, but the entire game is built around the concept of navigating an endless sea of zombies in numbers previous consoles simply couldn't get on-screen at once.

Oblivion/Fallout 3 – Two games, I know, but they do the same thing, so they go in the same listing. Nobody ever forgets that first time you leave the Imperial sewers/Vault 101 and take in the world around you, realising that Bethesda haven't crafted a level, they've built a seamless, living world well beyond the scale of previous titles like Morrowind.

Yes, they also appear on PC, but remember, these games were also built from the ground up with consoles in mind, rather than being crude ports.

Wii Sports/Wii Sports Resort – To this day, the only games that have truly delivered on the promise of the Wii Remote, integrating it so naturally within the gameplay experience that you can't imagine playing the games without it.

So as good as Modern Warfare is, as good as Mario Galaxy is, I don't call them truly "next gen" games. Why? Because they fail my "next gen" test, that's why.

Here's the test: If a game can be ported to a console in a previous generation and keep its core gameplay and overall design in place, it's not what I'm calling for the purposes of this piece a "next gen" game. Mario Galaxy was great, but really, it's a GameCube title with some star-shaking stuff thrown in. Modern Warfare? Amazing, but as the upcoming Wii port attests, it used the 360 and PS3 primarily for better graphics and sound. LittleBigPlanet? Another great game, but the PSP version shows the core experience could have been done on a PS2.

Other games I think fail this test are Halo 3, BioShock, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Uncharted, Metal Gear Solid 4…OK, pretty much everything. You get the idea. Sure, they're nice and shiny, and have lovely pre-rendered cutscenes, and there are advanced uses of physics and AI under the hood, and most important of all, advanced online connectivity, but all of those are just tweaks, improvements, icing on the cake, candy for the eyes. None of them fundamentally change the way you approach a game, or a genre.

Not like Mario Kart and F-Zero did with Parallax scrolling. Or Mario 64 with its use of 3D. Or Grand Theft Auto III with its living, breathing city. Those games re-wrote the book. You just couldn't do GTAIII on the PlayStation. Or Mario 64 on the SNES. They were true "next gen" games.

Now, I'm not saying all games NEED to be 100% innovative. That's an impossible requirement. Ridiculous, even. Not every single game idea is going to bust outside the box. I like my latest version of FIFA or Call of Duty as much as the next man, and the world will spin just fine with the majority of games simply plodding along, doing what the last one did, only slightly better. Still, a man can want, can't he?

So why do we have so few this time around? What's the problem? There's refinement under the hood. There's games that some, and especially the developers, may disagree with me on (GTAIV, for example, or Halo 3 and its extensive multiplayer modes). And there are some who could argue, with a fair point, that the same problem plagued the previous generation.

Certainly the cost of development can't help. Worlds are built with engines, and engines are built on rules. If you wanted to come up with something entirely new, you'd have to do it yourself, which for many developers and publishers in this current economic climate just isn't feasible.

It can also be argued that a single jump in the mid-90's – from the 16-bit era to the N64 and PS1 – will long be the most significant in gaming, taking us as it did from 2D to 3D, and that subsequent generations can't be relied upon to deliver the same level of innovation. Fair, to a point, but then there are still plenty of games like GTAIII that were able to innovate well past the 32-bit era.

One final possibility, however, is that there is innovation going on in today's games beyond the superficial. It's just, we can't see it. Chatting with Bethesda's Todd Howard on the subject, he put this idea forward:

"I think the visual component of it is the one that everyone notices first, and it's also the prime part that benefits from what the new hardware gives you" he says. "So it's just harder to see the innovations beyond that, but they're there. I'd guess there's just as much pure 'design innovation' with this generation as there has been in the last few."

"Look at the basis now for how games handle physics, difficulty, controls, save games, or simple load screens. I know it sounds silly, but I get excited by innovations in loading screens, because they're the worst part of a game. I'm interested in how games simply start."

Promising, yeah, but does that really hold water when compared to more fundamental changes? Not really. "There's been innovations in AI, but it certainly hasn't kept pace with the graphic fidelity, which yields this overall feeling of it going backwards" Howard adds. "The environments are so complex now in games, that building good AI just to manoeuvre them takes serious time. But that's not an innovation, that's simply the AI doing what it could do before in a game.

"My hope is, as we developers turn the corner on how to make the games simply 'work,' that we can innovate more on how the games respond to the player, whether that is the AI, or socially, or something else."

Maybe that explains it, and in 30 years, we'll look back on the current generation as one where developers were finding their feet, laying the groundwork for sprawling, innovating and revolutionary titles of the future.

Watch Seth Show You How Frank West Works [Capcom-Unity via Joystiq]

Today, Capcom's Keiji Inafune gave us another piece of the puzzle, explaining how a game show enters into the multiplayer portion of the game.

During a press conference at Zest Cantina in Tokyo, Inafune explained that Greene is part of a game show that pits people against zombies. What he didn't explain was how or if that concept was also played out in the single player campaign. Fortunately, we got a chance to play a bit of it that same night.

Snow's blog on Capcom-Unity showcased the six jumpers, ironed on with Dark Void, a zombie from Dead Rising, Mega Man, Salamander from Lost Planet 2, and the adorable Street Fighter babies (although I don't think they're from this piece of work.)

You know, the guy is single, but, I should talk to Seth Killian. I literally haven't seen him in nine months ...

Capcom Baby Swag = Cuteness Overload [Capcom-Unity via Go Nintendo]

Shoryuken forum poster Mumu was poking about the source code for the Tatsunoko VS. Capcom character site when he noticed something strange in the HTML. While only a few characters had been revealed on the page itself, whoever had built the site pre-loaded all of the images for said characters in a Javascript function, revealing four characters we've not yet seen.

'images/oncharactor_btn_zero.jpg'
'images/oncharactor_btn_frank.jpg'
'images/oncharactor_btn_yatter02.jpg'
'images/oncharactor_btn_joe.jpg'
'images/oncharactor_btn_tekkabla.jpg'

These characters would appear to be Mega Man Zero, Dead Rising's Frank West, Yatterman #2, and Joe Asakura, AKA Jason from Battle of the Planets.

Along with Tekkaman Blade, who was recently revealed, those characters would seem to round out the North American Tatsunoko VS. Capcom roster quite nicely.

Of course sloppy website coding is by no means official confirmation. We've contacted Capcom about this rumor, and quickly received a "No comment!" Make of that what you will.

TvC Full Roster Leaked for the US [Shoryuken]

I got going on this idea because my first night on the job for Kotaku — covering a Godfather II event — I sliced my foot open and spent the next week limping from junket to junket. But whenever I thought I had it bad as a games journalist, I'd always remind myself that journalists in video games usually have it way worse. They wade through zombies, deal with emotionally unstable people and more often than not wind up on the front lines of wars and stuff. They're the ones that deserve a bottle of Cristal and a hug. But instead, they get this photo gallery.

Taylor — Suikoden 5
[Image Cred]

Irene Ellet — Valkyria Chronicles
[Image Cred]

Frank West — Dead Rising
[Image Cred]

Elena Fisher — Uncharted
[Image Cred]

Joseph Schreiber — Silent Hill 4

Keith Helm — Disaster Report
[Image Cred]

Ben Bertolucci — Resident Evil 2
[Image Cred]

Ulala — Space Channel 5

Everyone — Michigan: Report From Hell (never came out in North America)
[Image Cred]

Madison Paige — Heavy Rain
[Image Cred]

Laura Parton - D2

Keats — Folklore
[Image Cred]

Maya Amano - Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

Alyssa - Resident Evil: Outbreak
[Image Cred]

I give honorable mentions to the news announcers in King of Fighters 12, the sportscaster characters in any sports game ever and one to Reuben Oluwagembi in Far Cry 2 (couldn't find a good enough picture of him). Other than that, these are all I've got — hit me up in the comments if you think of more. Owen Good nominated Paperboy I assume on grounds that he would have been promoted to copyeditor by now, but I don't know...

P.S. I still have the cork from that bottle of Cristal in my purse. It reminds me of everything that's happened in the last year and how much of it I owe to Kotaku. Here's looking at another year of blogging!

Coming September 8th, the Platinum Hits Triple Pack takes the three Platinum Hits titles and squishes them together into one piece of confused game box art. Devil May Cry 4, Dead Rising, and Lost Planet: Extreme Condition - Colonies Edition are then packed into a DVD case affixed with said art, making for one lovely bundle of three games, at least two of which you've already played. Even at the bargain price of $39.99, this bundle probably isn't for you. I would imagine that a parent purchasing a first Xbox 360 for their teenager this holiday season will find the lure of three acclaimed titles in one package extremely alluring. If my mother rolled up Christmas morning with a new 360 and the Platinum Hits Triple Pack, I would feel horrible for only printing her out a card on my inkjet again this year.

Beware: This clip has clinking noises. If you are sensitive to clinking noise, might want to turn the volume off.

Keiji Inafune Signing 500 Servbot Mugs by Hand [Capcom Unity]

It was Laura Scholl (from tech company mental mill, who are helping with the game) who, last week, said Dead Rising 2 could feature up to 6000 zombies on screen at any one time during "multiplayer". Turns out that was a slip of the tongue, and she meant to say "multiplatform".

In my 'During the Dead Rising 2' presentation at GDC this past Friday, while I was describing how Blue Castle is using mental mill technology in character development, I mistakenly referred to the game as multiplayer instead of multiplatform. I apologize for the confusion.

Bummer!

Then again, don't be too bummed. This isn't a denial that the game features multiplayer, just a denial that she said anything about it at GDC.

Dead Rising 2 Multiplayer Confirmed [IGN]

Firstly, that 6000 figure has a caveat. It's how many will be rendered in multiplayer. The multiplayer that has yet to be officially announced by Capcom, and which until now we'd only dreamed about. Since it was a slip of the tongue and not an official proclamation, there were no further details.

And secondly, that the game will feature "at least 800 separate clothing textures", to cut down on that "oh, there's seven of the same dead guy on the screen at once" feeling. Like, for example, the seven "flannel & hardhat" guys you can see in the above pic.

GDC 09: Dead Rising 2 Multiplayer Confirmed [IGN]

Speaking at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Izmeth Siddeek, from developers Blue Castle Games, reckons that "Dead Rising 2′ deal[s] with the rendering of the greatest number of characters ever seen in a video game. Everything else needed to be subordinated to this requirement".

Big claim. No easy way of substantiating it, of course, but the product manager for the software that's helping Blue Castle add so many zombies to the game says that they are "preparing to have as many as 6000 characters on the screen".

6000? On-screen at once? Oh yes.

‘Dead Rising 2′ Is Supposed To Have Most Characters Ever… 6000? [GDC 2009] [MTV]

So what better time to take a look at zombies, their role in video games, and how games go about implementing the concept of a horde of the living dead!

If you want to get historical, zombies are, as far as we know, first mentioned on the record in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Which was written around 4000 years ago.

I will knock down the Gates of the Netherworld,
I will smash the door posts, and leave the doors flat down,
and will let the dead go up to eat the living!
And the dead will outnumber the living!

You'll also find historical precedence for zombies in medieval European texts, Haitian Voodoo lore (where the dead can be revived and bound to a master) and mythical tales from every other corner of the globe, including the rather unappealing prospect of dead Viking warriors rising from the grave to fight the living. But really, the zombies we know and love - and the zombies most commonly recycled throughout modern popular culture, including games - come from George A Romero's films Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Dawn of the Dead (1978, pictured below).

Both movies revolve around a central, similar story: a group of survivors barricading themselves into a space to protect themselves from a horde of the walking undead, who are feasting on the living and destroying human society in an apocalyptic event. Both movies were also smash hits. They've been remade several times over, and have served as the primary source of reference on all things zombie for countless other films, novels, comic book and, yes, video games about zombies.

There are several reasons for this. On a cheap, superficial level, people love the gore. Walking corpses are messy, and they're out to eat people. Which is also messy. But it's also terrifying. The concept of a world overrun with creatures whose sole purpose is to eat you is bad enough, but when those people are your former co-workers, friends and family, it adds an extra layer of intimacy to the horror.

There's also a message. In Dawn of the Dead, the film is as much a criticism of our consumer-mad lifestyle as it was a tale of flesh-eating corpses, with the zombies portrayed as mindless vessels shambling around the one thing in life that still mattered to them beyond the grave: the mall. Indeed, the real danger in the film isn't even the zombies: it's the psychological trauma the survivors are forced to endure, along with the attacks of other violent, selfish humans.

Over all the near-countless zombie tales recorded over the past forty years, most also retain a number of core characteristics when it comes to portraying the zombies themselves, which games (for the most part) also stick to. First, they're stupid. These are corpses, after all, all they do is shamble around groaning and looking for somebody to eat.

Speaking of shambling, despite recent (and less recent, in the case of cult Italian director Lucio Fulci's works) filmmakers attempting to tell you otherwise, zombies should be slow. Simon Pegg, British comedian and Shaun of the Dead (pictured, above) actor/writer, puts this best, saying "speed simplifies the zombie, clarifying the threat and reducing any response to an emotional reflex. It's the difference between someone shouting "Boo!" and hearing the sound of the floorboards creaking in an upstairs room: a quick thrill at the expense of a more profound sense of dread."

Secondly, they "turn" people. The presence of the horde is already indicative of this, but zombie tales are rife with incidents where loved ones and/or trusted friends are attacked and bitten by a zombie, with the result they then later become a zombie and themselves have to be killed off.

And finally, they explore how, like in many other "apocalyptic" scenarios, humans cope with situations of extreme adversity. The survivor/survivors of a zombie story have to deal not only with limited food, supplies and communication (not to mention millions of zombies), but also lawlessness and the breakdown of human civilization as we know it.

So how, then, is this modern concept of the zombie – honed to near-perfection for four decades by writers around the world – applied to video games, both in storyline and, more importantly, game design? Let's take a look at a few notable examples – and speak with Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi and Left 4 Dead writer Chet Faliszek – to find out.

Resident Evil

We had to start here, didn't we? It's not just the most popular zombie tale in video gaming, it's one of the most endearing across popular culture as a whole. Indeed, it's been credited by many with reviving the entire zombie genre, bringing it back into fashion during the 90's (the first game was released in 1996) in a decade when it had otherwise been relegated to b-movie schlock in other mediums.

But Resident Evil didn't just bring it back. It made a complicated (some may say convoluted) story out of it, with a corrupt and negligent corporation responsible for a series of viral outbreaks, creating a lore which not only adds to the appeal of the series for die-hard, but injects a much-needed sense of "corniness" as well. Nothing like throwing zombie dogs and Spanish midgets into a story about man-eating corpses to lighten things up.

In recent years, the series has moved away from its roots to challenge the very definition of the term "zombie". Where zombies are normally associated with the walking dead, Capcom's last two Resident Evil games have instead featured villagers infected with an alien virus. These guys are not only still "alive", but retain much of their human capabilities, such as communications skills and the ability to use weapons, tools and even vehicles.

Does this mean they're even zombies anymore? Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi certainly thinks so. "Until recently, zombies were seen as beings who couldn't run", he told us (well, almost recently...Fulci's City of the Living Dead (1980) had running zombies). "Tastes have changed a little bit, though. Now it's okay to have fast zombies. So sure, I think that enemies that communicate and use weapons can certainly be seen as zombies, maybe a different type, but zombies nonetheless".

Left 4 Dead

In many ways, Left 4 Dead takes an approach to the walking dead that can best be summed up as "different". There are zombies with "superpowers". Zombies are sometimes slow, sometimes fast, sometimes acutely aware of you, other times completely oblivious.

Oh, and you can kill them by shooting them in the leg.

But while the game takes a creative liberty or two with the established idea of a zombie, it takes a meticulous approach to the feel of a zombie apocalypse. The game captures the bleakness of such a scenario perfectly, with dim lights, ruined cityscapes, and most poignant of all, scrawled letters to loved ones found on walls throughout the game. All are haunting examples of a society in decay.

"There have been other zombie games" says Valve's Chet Faliszek, who served as writer for Left 4 Dead, "but they always gum it up for me. They make it about evil men or evil corporations or evil… you get the idea. We wanted to have Left 4 Dead be about The Zombie Apocalypse."

"This is one reason we chose to avoid going in depth over the cause or what exactly is happening when you first start the game" he continues, explaining the game's emphasis on "realism". "We wanted to throw the players into the world of the zombie apocalypse the same way the characters were. A good test to see how you would last with complete strangers during the zombie apocalypse is to jump in a Left 4 Dead game with three strangers."

In other words, Left 4 Dead's aim isn't to portray a zombie apocalypse. It's to help you prepare for one.

Dead Rising

Not quite the mainstream name Resident Evil is, but still a fantastic title, one which we think does a better job than any other of really getting zombies "right". You play a man trapped in a mall overrun by zombies, and have to survive for three days. That's it. For those three days you'll have to make use of everything inside the mall you can get your hands on to stay alive, from umbrellas to lawn mowers, often with gory – and hilarious – results.

There's more than a touch of Dawn of the Dead present in the game's premise and setting – indeed, it attracted a lawsuit over similarities to Romero's film – and that's probably why it succeeds: because it comes closest to delivering a game that apes the feeling of dread you'd associate with a zombie apocalypse.

Example: 99% of zombie games are using zombies as a bad guy. There are a finite number of them, they come at you, you kill them. And you kill them in a confined, linear space. Meaning that the zombie has been reduced to a mere "target". It could be a zombie, it could be an alien, it could be a monster, doesn't really matter.

But Dead Rising placed you in a large shopping mall with tens of thousands of zombies. And they're all around you. Your resources are limited, and while a single zombie rarely presents itself as a threat, 100 zombies in a group does. And it's a threat that's always there. These are the kind of things a good zombie story plays upon, and sadly, Dead Rising is one of the only games to make full use of them.

At least, until Dead Rising 2 comes out, at any rate.

Above, we've touched on a few things the "major" zombie games do right, and a few things they do, well, wrong. But of those core zombie story traits we listed at the start of the piece, there's one thing zombie games seem to shy away from doing at all, and that's "turning".

If you've read Robert Kirkman's "Walking Dead" comics, Max Brook's World War Z or seen Romero's Dawn of the Dead, (or even Shaun of the Dead), you'll know that zombie stories are at their best when major characters are bitten, and transition from being one of the few remaining good guys to being one of the countless millions of bad guys.

It's so powerful because it rolls so many themes and emotions together. A main character is dead. The ranks of the enemy have grown larger. And the good guys are now faced with the hardship of "killing" someone who is, yes, an zombie, but was also once an ally or loved one. And that's all rolled into the one event.

But games don't seem to want to go there. You'll see minor examples, sure, but does Leon have to put a bullet in Ashley's head at the end of Resident Evil 4, after it's revealed she's been bitten? Or does Zoey, having been bitten by a Hunter in a round of Left 4 Dead, then rise up to take a chunk out of Bill's backside? Nope. And for a medium that's so obsessed with proving its creative chops, in providing experiences that are truly emotional, continually leaving such a powerful story element out of games seems a strange omission.

So why leave it out? Faliszek has an easy answer, saying it's for design purposes. "Early on we decided we wanted it to be about team-work and the connection you had with your team", he said. "While I love the mistrust that "turning" adds to movies, the best implementation in a non-zombie horror film being John Carpenter's The Thing, it really works against the core mechanics of the game. We wanted to keep you together as a cohesive unit always working together to escape."

And Takeuchi's thoughts? "You know, that's a good point, why don't we see that in games? I'm actually not sure myself. Is it just a coincidence...?"

No, sadly, it's not a coincidence, because it reveals a shortcoming in zombie games that even Capcom, masters of the genre, are prone to dabble in. For all their gore, and all their brain-eating potential, zombies are not a literal threat. They're slow, they're stupid, they can't open doors, they can't drive after you. Instead, their threat is a metaphorical one, something Romero understood when he filled a mall full of brain-dead shoppers and a handful of desperate humans.

The real danger wasn't necessarily in being eaten alive. It was in how you'd deal with prospect of a never-ending horde of zombies that, while mindless, were innumerable and existed for no other reason than to find you, and eat you. How you'd cope with seeing your friends and loved ones eaten, then come back and try to eat you. It was in seeing humanity for what it really was once you penetrate the thin veneer of society: a violent, selfish mob that consumes itself with greed once the zombies have eaten away at law & order.

Zombie games of the future, take note.

Capcom talisman Keiji Inafune - the creator of Mega Man, Onimusha and Dead Rising - explains that, despite a lot of internal pressure to avoid doing so, he felt that releasing games on the 360 was the best way the company could go about achieving healthy sales outside of Japan:

I think I can only get away with saying this now, but I really thought that the using the Xbox was only way to break into overseas markets, and I took that hypothesis all the way. In the end, I am very happy that I did so.

Considering both Dead Rising and Lost Planet sold over a million units early on in the 360's ifetime sales, and both were Capcom's first truly successful games aimed specifically at a non-Japanese audience, we're inclined to agree. And anyway, it's not like it matters these days. Capcom would port Lost Planet to the 3DO if they could.

Developer Interview [Capcom] [Image: palermo philip]

We're only sort of dwelling on it. See, while this clip - highlighting the differences between the two versions of the game - does show that certain sections of the Wii game just aren't up to scratch (what do you mean there's no time for joyriding?), it shows others aren't as bad as you'd have imagined.

According to Inafune, his son is now in a rebellious phase. "So, he should really dislike me, but thanks to games," Inafune said, "we communicate quite well. Halo 3, Monster Hunter 2nd G, they all help bring my son and I closer."

Inafune's kid is very, very good. Inafune? Not as good. The game designer explains in the recent Bionic Commando podcast:

Sometimes when playing Death Match on Halo, my son would say, 'Dad, I'll give you a handicap. I won't use any weapons. See if you can take me.' The next thing I know, he's running me down in a Ghost over and over... So my son ended up beating me without using any weapons.

The real world and the game world, Inafune points out, are different, of course. "In the real world, I tell my son what to do, but in the game world, he tells me what to do," he said. "This kind of role-reversal is really fun for us, and I think it's a great way for parents to communicate with their children."

Elsewhere in the podcast, Inafune drops hints about the upcoming zombies-in-a-casino-game Dead Rising 2. Whether the game is set in Las Vegas or Reno is "a bit of a secret," Inafune said. The new main character has a "more interesting story," and the American developer making DR2 is "building up the weak parts" of Dead Rising.

Top Secret [Bionic Commando via Capcom] [Pic]

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.

According to Inafune, "We're finally putting out new Dead Rising and Lost Planet games! As a main principle we're thinking about multi-platform and about slightly expanding upon the Xbox 360 version."

He goes on to talk about the business of gaming and gaming promotion. Don't take this as confirmation that the next Dead Rising will be multi-platform — Lost Planet already was. Just don't be surprised when Dead Rising 2, like pretty much all Capcom games, is.

In fact, if Capcom's statements to its shareholders are anything to go on, you can guarantee all future games will be multi-plat.

First, Bionic Commando producer and former head of localization Ben Judd runs through the rejected titles for the original Dead Rising.

Keep in mind, these were thought up by non-native English speakers. (And before scoffing, you try to think up with a list of game titles in Japanese!) Here they are:

Wicked Dead, Born In Hell, Hell's Order, Scoop of the Dead, Paparazzi of the Dead, Shot of the Dead, Shoot and Shot, Run Over The Dead, Gluttonous The Zombies, Big Eater, Confidential, End Zone, A Shout Of A Soul, From Behind the Other World, From Darkside, Rock, Resistance, Apocalypse, Infection, Gateway, Sight, Not Found, Blackout, Escape, Code Zero, Exile, Zombie Report, Bad Report, Def Dead Time, Inferno, Dangerous Shopping, Escape From Shopping Mall, Shocking Shopping, Ten Days, X Days, Zombie Surround, Slow Stroller, The Besieged In A Mole [sp.], The Death's Soul, Death Sentence, The Separated Soul, Revived Flesh, Hollow Eyes, Zombie Town SOS, Super Zombie Time, Panic Mall, Zombie Collector, Dead Town, Zombie Of America, Zombie Epidemic, Zombies, Man Eat, Scoop Snatcher, For Life, Photo Spirits, Journalist Spirits, Survive In A Mall, Isolation Town, Isolation Citiy [sp.], The Body Which Wriggles, Dead Bee, After Dying, Deadly, Defect, Fatal Defect, The Dead's Ground, The End of Fair, The End of Practice, Bottom, Uneveryday, Did You See? I Saw, A Zombie's Party, Days Of Being The Dead, Frank West, Deathrow, First Death, Death Gunners, Satan Bell, Zombee, More Beef Life, Change of Lifestyle, Zombi, Dead Mole [sp.], Zombie Shudder, Shutdown The Mall, Dead Easter, Scoop Boy, Libra Mall, Hell Mall.

Our favorites: "Gluttonous The Zombies," "Def Dead Time," "Escape From Shopping Mall," and "Did You See? I Saw."

In related Dead Rising news, Dead Rising Wii producer Minoru Nakai explains why the Wii version doesn't have a photography game element:

This is a very different game, gameplay wise than the 360 version of Dead Rising. Another reason is the fact that the camera is quite different. In this version, the camera is very similar to what the players are used to in Resident Evil 4 — an over-the-shoulder camera that stays fairly tight behind Frank... [Photographing zombies] doesn't work so well with the tighter camera we have in Dead Rising Wii. Another factor is that the zombies in Dead Rising Wii are quite a bit more aggressive, so it wouldn't be nearly as easy for users to set this situations up [to take pictures of zombies]... You're not going to have the extra time you need to set up these cool situations with the camera.

Nakai goes on to say that they were hoping to reach a new audience with new hardware and the photography element didn't add much to the Wii version of the game. The in-game text, however, is bigger and the game is "more user friendly."

Listen Here [Bionic Commando]