When Epicenter, developer of the sleeper first-person shooter Real Heroes: Firefighter visited the IGN offices earlier today, the guys pulled no punches in describing its next game. "Picture Typing of the Dead but with Guitar Hero guitars instead of a QWERTY keyboard," they told me. And what unfolded up on the big screen was exactly that: a Typing of the Dead-inspired action game where you take out zombies and other undead critters by strumming on the Activision (or Harmonix Rock Band) guitars to "shoot" them into submission.
Chalk this one up for the "Why didn't anyone think of this before?" department. There are several million Guitar Hero and Rock Band guitars out in active use on the Nintendo Wii, and Rock of the Dead targets those peripheral owners with something that's not just a music game.
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Rock of the Dead features jump-in/jump-out, two-player cooperative/competitive gameplay: players share lives and continues but work independently to beat each other's scores. One player's blue, the other purple, and the first one to hit the enemies' fret combo gets the kill and the points. It gets pretty aggressive trying to get your strumming speed higher just so you can beat the other player. The developers anticipate a five-hour run-through with encouragement for multiple plays through thanks to its high score focus as well as its branching path towards the end of the game.
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Like Epicenter's last game on Wii, the final product will be a "budget" release on the system, targeting a pricepoint between $30 and $40 when it ships. The game's got about another month to go in development and then it's up to Conspiracy to get it out on shelves. Expect a release in the late spring or early summer.
Kairon, we await your review.
Kairon, we await your review.
Sorta...want...
Day One.
Nice. That makes me wonder if there's actually music played by your zombie killing. That might get my interest.
The game doesn' feature licensed tracks as such, but you will be jamming along to some rock-remixed versions of familiar tunes. Perhaps the greatest aural-treat though comes from the voice talents of Neil Patrick Harris and Felicia Day.
Nice. That makes me wonder if there's actually music played by your zombie killing. That might get my interest.That would be an improvement over the one video of it I watched (there are 5 at the link).
If this a hit in any way, I expect Activision and EA to come out with similar products centered around Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
Zombie Hero or Monster Rock Band? Scream in the mike to blow up the zombies head!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYPwYfbi8jA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYPwYfbi8jA)
