Game Classification

Dead Rising: Chop Till you Drop is an adaptation of Dead Rising, for the Wii. The freelance photojournalist Frank West investigates a zombie outbreak in Willamette, Colorado. He has three days at the mall to rescue survivors and solve the case before the helicopter that dropped him off returns.

The basic outlines are maintained from the Xbox 360 game, but numerous changes have been made to fit the game into the Resident Evil 4 engine and to accommodate the Wii's graphical capabilities and very different controller. The plot is the same and Frank saves the same people, though a few are missing. The map of the mall is almost the same, but Frank can no longer jump and it adds new barriers and eliminates some shortcuts, which changes navigation. While the game is still primarily about killing crowds of zombies, there are fewer of them and they are more aggressive. The cut-scenes are also unchanged, though they are now pre-rendered, but the structure of the game has been overhauled. You can have multiple save slots. It is no longer a real-time affair, but a series of missions given in sequence. Otis the janitor gives Frank side missions which are timed. You are scored on these missions based on how long it takes to complete them (or whether you complete them at all), the number of zombies Frank kills and the damage he takes. High scores result in more side missions and top scores earn various items. After a batch of side missions is done, you are given the next plot mission. These are untimed and represent Franks only real opportunity to wander around the mall. He still level-ups, but the bonuses he gains are different. Health is now a solid bar rather than discrete boxes, so the bar length just increases a little with each level instead of adding a box at specified points. Frank gets bonuses to weapon durability and damage and to book capacity, which is separated from the rest of the inventory. Books are used strictly for teaching him new moves for specific weapons or for unarmed fighting.

While he still can pick up and use numerous objects as weapons, from sensible choices like katanas and bats to silly ones like cash registers and shower heads to things that are more transports than weapons, like shopping carts, skateboards and bicycles, the number of usable items has been greatly reduced. Melee weapons all wear out and break with use. There are two classes. Smaller items can be pocketed, allowing Frank to fire a gun. Larger items, like rototillers and chainsaws, are dropped if he is attacked or enters gun mode. He can only have one melee weapon of each type at a time. These weapons cannot go into the inventory, which is used strictly for food and mixables and ammo-based weapons. There are multiple kinds of food which can be eaten to recover health or mixed in blenders to create shakes with various effects. Food can be found laying around the environment, recovered from dead zombies or found inside trash cans and boxes. These breakable items way also contain melee weapons. Dead zombies can also drop cash and ammunition.

The camera throughout the game has been changed to an over-the-shoulder view. When you go into gun mode, the camera zooms in and you aim manually using the remote. Other limited-supply weapons such as saw blades and molotov cocktails are also used this way. The role of guns has been greatly expanded. There are now five basic kinds of guns, pistols, shotguns, machine guns, rifles and magnums. Each has its own kind of ammunition. The ammunition does not take inventory space, though the guns do. Early in the game, there is a mission that gives access to a gun shop, after which you can buy better guns, for instance, replacing the rifle with a semi-automatic rifle. This is also where you buy increased ammunition capacity and books.

As before, missions are mixed between fighting bosses, which the game calls psychopaths and rescuing survivors (or frequently rescuing a survivor from a boss). Frank is now limited to escorting three survivors at a time and must do the survivor missions one at a time. Most of the boss fights are essentially the same, where he fights a powerful human enemy. Some of the bosses have had their story segments eliminated and are present as super-zombies. These super-zombies are visually distinct, have special attacks and drop bonuses when killed. Another boss fight has been converted to a QTE, where you must press buttons quickly when prompted. The game also adds new animal zombies, which are grenade-dropping parrots and very fast poodles. [source:mobygames]

Distribution : Retail - Commercial
Platform(s) : Wii

Links

• http://www.mobygames.com/game/dead-rising-chop-till-you-drop/