DEAD RISING MOBILE Review
PROS
- Plenty of objects including environments to use against zombies.
- Social features allow you to interact with friends.
CONS
- Limited amount of quests per day.
- Poor graphical restrictions; zombies pop up out of nowhere when walking forwards.
- Camera locked to movement controls.
- Waypoint system almost entirely pointless.
VERDICT
DEAD RISING MOBILE sets a low standard for adapting titles to handheld devices and while the gimmick feature of killing zombies with various weapons has remained, it only acts as a reminder of the real gameplay that's missing from this release.
- Full Review
- App Store Info
When you're stuck in a mall, surrounded by zombies and you're left with a mysterious letter that warns you of 15 super zombies responsible for the mess, then you're probably playing out another day in the life of Frank West, freelance journalist extraordinaire. DEAD RISING MOBILE by CAPCOM attempts to boil down the manic fun of its bigger console brother, but its shortcomings become apparent early on and it never manages to switch gears despite some interesting social features.
Taking the fight directly to the zombie masses is simple enough, with a virtual stick that controls your direction and camera at the same time and context sensitive buttons that allow you to attack, perform special moves or interact with the world depending on where you're standing. Killing zombies isn't especially difficult, even from the outset, so the inclusion of various weapons in the environment seems all but a courtesy to the sense of variety - though some weapons and environment objects still illicit a brief moment of joy as you brutalize a pack of undead shoppers.
Unfortunately there's just not much to do, with missions being doled out in sparse amounts and limiting the amount you can do in a single day. These missions do nothing to advance the story and Frank West is essentially turned in to the mall's handy-dandy whipping boy as he searches for useless objects, mows over hordes in a specified area or beats down a 'Mad' zombie with casual abandon.
Should you die you can call out to friends also playing the game to 'rescue' you, restoring your level and items in the process, however if you're playing by yourself you'll have to take the loss in stride. Crossing over in to other people's games may sound fun, but the limitations on quests, story, gameplay and the visuals renders DEAD RISING MOBILE as little more than a briefly entertaining title and a poor adaption of an otherwise great concept. It's an easy game to avoid unless you can dedicate some play time with friends.
Screenshots
$1.99
