House Of The Dead 2 - Sega Dreamcast Review

We here at The Games Shed founded our friendship in an arcade in Oxford Street, London. Both Mark & Jamie spending free A-Level lesson time in a dingy smoke smelling room amongst hard core fruit machine addicts and general crazy folk, our conversations drowned out by button bashing, manic laughter and the endless kerching of machines both being filled up and paying out.

The year was 1998 and we were both 17 / 18. We'd met in a photography class and cemented a now 14 year friendship on our mutual dislike of the others football team. Mark, supporting Spurs and Jamie a Gooner.

One summers day on a trip down to Oxford Street to look at the new range of Reebok Classics Foot Locker had just got in we decided to nip into an arcade before hitting up McD's for a bite to eat.

In this arcade we shoved pound after pound in to various arcade games, moving on to the next machine once our credits had run out.

We decided to play a co-op game with our last few quid and after shuffling round each of the machines we decided to try the new House Of The Dead 2 arcade by Sega.

The love for this game was sparked immediately. Jamie grabbing the red gun, Mark gripping the blue, we were hurled into a zombie filled street where we unleashed more bullets than we knew and laughed like little school girls when we each first registered a head shot.

Years later and we still hook up to play the House Of The Dead franchise, but now in the more civil surroundings of our homes.

Despite numerous releases on different platforms like 'OverKill' on Wii & PS3 Move, a pining was bubbling up deep within us for that initial pang of excitement we got from HOTD2...

Cue the Sega Dreamcast, a pair of blue light guns, a copy of the House Of The Dead 2 port for Dreamcast & a big, hefty CRT screen.

The joy was instant, if I stopped to take a breath I swear I'd have smelled that musty old arcade. For this port is not only as good as the original game for Sega Naomi, it surpasses is.

Okay, so the Dreamcast light gun isn't anything special, but hey, once you are knee deep is green zombie blood you won't even know which room of your own house you are in.

This game is pure perfection; it is everything an arcade port should be. It is everything a light gun on the rails shooter should be and for that reason it gets a big filthy 9.5 out of 10.

Watch our video gameplay of House Of The Dead 2 for Sega Dreamcast now

 

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