Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What The Game's About
Wander back to those Sega Dreamcast days of yore with this compilation of the arcade/console classics The House of the Dead 2 and The House of the Dead 3. Players are led on an on-rails shooting adventure through wave after wave of grotesque zombies. Use the Wii remote (or Wii Zapper) to blow off their undead heads, rescue hapless would-be zombie victims, and stumble through the mysteries behind Dr. Curien's legacy of horrible monstrosities and crazed research into that fine line between life and death. Two players can even go hunting together, while ambidextrous gamers can go all the way and wield one remote in each hand, companion be damned.

What's Hot
The two House of the Dead titles provide some of the best point-and-shoot action to date for the Wii, and while it can be a challenge to properly aim the on-screen targeting reticule at a zombie's weak spot if one has jittery hands, the game does offer a calibration mode for hitting the sweet spot. Whenever ammo runs out, one need simply point the remote away from the screen to reload. Ammo is unlimited. Lives and credits are not, however, and it seems that the dreaded Game Over comes up too quickly and too often. However, lose enough times and the game will start to unlock credit boosts and other bonuses that can make replaying the action fairer. The game is even kind enough to identify boss weak points before the battle begins. This is a game that rewards persistence and memorization.

Movement through levels is self-guided, but that doesn't mean that each run through the game is identical. There are times when players are tasked with quickly rescuing some poor soul from becoming a zombie's lunch. Save a child, for example, to be directed into an otherwise unaccessible building in order to try and rescue the kid's father. Rescue him and he may hand over a bonus of some sort. Fail to save the child (or shoot him dead instead of the zombie) and the player will just walk on by, taking a different path altogether. House of the Dead 3 is a little more direct in its branching opportunities, as there are times where the player will have to directly choose which path to take through a particular area.

While there are two distinct games in this package, they both basically play the same. While the visuals have a distinct last generation motif, zombies and monsters appear crystal clear and vivid in detail. Blood and ichor are colored green by default, but can be flipped to red with a setting in the Options menu. The horrifying faces of the dead will haunt players long after the game is over, and while neither game in the set can rival the thrills and frights of the Resident Evil adventures, House of the Dead surely takes the award in overall good ol' fashioned nightmare fuel. Whether or not this is a good thing is left in the judgment of each individual player, but what's the point of creating a horrifying game if it isn't, well, horrifying?

What's Not
Considering that these are two games that originated in the era of horrible voice acting, it should come as no surprise that just about every character with a speaking role has issues with proper inflection. Questions are asked as declarative statements, shouts for help are issued as one might ask a friend to pass the ketchup, and bold threats come off as unsure wavering. This sort of thing knocks some of the terror out of the environment (or, rather, "This sort of thing knocks some of the terror out of the environment?").

Final Word
Speaking of games from an earlier time, while this set certainly looks good and plays well, it does come off as a quickie port of existing assets to popular console for some easy revenue. Both of the included games have been around for years, yet there's nothing really new here for rabid fans of the series to explore. Sure, there's variable levels of difficulty, a time attack option, and a few other modes that tweak the basic gameplay concept, but those without the patience to repeat the same levels over and over will quickly become frustrated. Newcomers who have never explored a House of the Dead title will get much more out of this disc than seasoned zombie slayers, but, again, only patient gamers need apply.