Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop Review

By Christian Donlan Published 3 March, 2009

Critical malling?

Version tested: Wii

Dead Rising was a game about zombies, but it was also a game about shopping, the game's fierce appeal lying not with the moaning undead loping towards you so much as the shiny new golf club you had carefully selected in order to lamp them. One of those handful of special experiences that emerge early in a new console's lifetime, where the exotic new capabilities of the system are briefly, by themselves, enough to guide development, Capcom's mall-brawling ode to the joy of head injuries gleefully built itself around a simple technological challenge: how many enemies could the developer get on-screen at any single moment, and how many different items could it then offer you to do them all in with?

From that premise emerged a strange blast of brain-splattered whimsy, a panicky comedy with the stylings of a Romero movie and a mission structure that wouldn't be entirely out of place in Crazy Taxi. The conspiracy theory storyline may have been dead on arrival, but the kitsch expanses of the game's open world were more than capable of reanimating the corpse, giving you a playful chunk of action built from a chain of amusing choices: rescue or loot? Strip completely, or dress as Mega Man? Wade in with the frying pan or try your luck with the Telecaster instead? Now, thanks to the Wii, Dead Rising's back again, fuzzier, clunkier, and with fewer features and more parrots than ever before.

Actually, that's not an entirely fair assessment. Built from the same engine as the Wii version of Resident Evil 4, and co-opting that game's over-the-shoulder firing system, Chop Till You Drop sees Dead Rising's beating heart surviving the platform transition relatively intact, if not entirely without trauma. You'll still play as Frank West - an endearingly oafish photojournalist whose name suggests a suave air of Hitchcockian mystery that his lumbering body and hamster-on-steroids face brilliantly contradicts - and you'll still uncover the disappointingly rubbish truth about the zombie outbreak that grips Willamette Mall, while facing off against an undeniably magical range of weirdoes including a paranoid gun-store survivalist and the world's least suitable children's entertainer.

'Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop' Screenshot 1

Remember capitalism? If Dead Rising was set in 2009, there would be no unwitting victims in the mall in the first place.

Whatever the game's shortcomings - and it has several - on a very basic level, the Wii still manages to deliver on Capcom's promise of large-scale zombie slaughter. The ranks of undead ambling through Paradise Plaza may be significantly thinner, and they may have contracted the annoying habit of fading into view as you approach seemingly empty areas, but there are still more than enough of them to keep you busy. The game's mission structure remains more or less intact, too, albeit beaten into a far more rigid system of challenges, blending the rescue sub-quests much more tightly with the main narrative, and making a game which occasionally gave you too much freedom to set your own agenda into one which now gives you comparatively little.

While the Wii controls don't add very much, they don't damage Dead Rising either, the A button triggering a melee attack, and a bizarre combination of Z and A allowing you to interact with objects, while pointing the remote aims guns and a shake provides a stronger melee or knocks back attackers. Movement's still awkward, but there's a solid quick-turn option available for when the crowd gets too close, and the camera is as reliable as it ever was.

Chop Till You Drop has even found time within the transition for a few little improvements: the tiny text of the original is now fixed (obviously), and the unexpectedly hardcore single-slot save system, which some people liked, but many more hated, has been replaced with multiple slots and regular post-mission saving, meaning you no longer have to factor in lengthy trips to the toilet as you head out on brain-smashing business. The new enemy types are a mixed blessing, however: while there's a lasting pleasure in offing a poodle or a parrot, they're purposefully awkward to melee, breaking up Dead Rising's charmingly democratic pummelling by asking you to fight in two conflicting styles at once.

For every new addition, in fact, Chop Till You Drop has a habit of taking something away. For starters, you're now a photojournalist who can no longer take photos - a cut presumably imposed by system limitations, but which nevertheless removes one of the most creative risk/reward time-wasters of the 360 offering. More importantly, Dead Rising's central selling point - the bizarre range of weapons available - has been quietly scaled down, too, forcing a new emphasis on gunplay: a strange decision, as it was never shooting at zombies that made the original game so much fun. Add to that a skittish directional arrow which, like a bad case of glue ear, you'll eventually find you can live with even if you know you'll never actually enjoy it, and an increased incidence of loading screens, and the damage done in squeezing the game into its new home starts to become obvious.

And while nobody expected a Wii game to graphically compete with its 360 sibling, there's a lingering sense of the rush-job to Chop Till You Drop's visuals: the plot may tell you it's September 2006, but the graphics are waving to you from the dreamy realms of 2001, with blurry textures, nasty FMV cut-scenes, and enemies who clip through scenery a little too regularly.

'Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop' Screenshot 2

At least the game's masterstroke - the onscreen body count - survived the transition to Wii.

And yet, despite such irritations, much like Domino's Pizza and the repossession industry, the passage of time has made Dead Rising an unlikely beneficiary of the looming worldwide depression, as Capcom's Big Gulp-sized satire on capitalism-turned-rancid is given an unnervingly sharp aftertaste. Even if unwitting social commentary seems like a stretch too far for a game which features a deranged clown who juggles twin chainsaws, you're still left with an experience that's primarily concerned with finding the right kind of shiny lawnmower with which to chop up a generous parade of slack-jawed morons, and that can hardly be a bad thing.

That lingering strength of the premise is why, as with so many Wii ports, Dead Rising almost deserves two verdicts. As a standalone experience, it's shambling but lovable: two parts quirkiness to one part tedium. Compare it to the original, however, and it's hard to escape the fact that a once-brilliant game has been put through a mangler. Somewhere along the way, Capcom's zombie apocalypse has been bludgeoned into a zombie compromise, and, unless you really like poodles, the Wii offering can't really be said to add anything that the 360 version was lacking. For a game about shopping then, it's a strange, thematically-appropriate kind of punch-line to discover that Chop Till You Drop simply doesn't have that many persuasive reasons for most people to go out and buy it.

6 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Christian.

About Christian Donlan

Chris Donlan writes about games for Eurogamer and some magazines. His heroes include Eugene Jarvis, Errol Morris, and Linus Van Pelt.

Read more articles from Christian by visiting the Christian Donlan archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (40) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • morriss #1 3 years ago

    Shame. Hope Dead Rising 2 will be better.

  • JohnnyWashnGo #2 3 years ago

    was never gonna be great was it?

  • bad09 #3 3 years ago

    That review reminded me selling the Wii was a good thing and convinced me to pick up another copy of DR and replay on 360. Cheers!
    Edited by 1 at 03/03/09 @ 07:27

  • secombe #4 3 years ago

    Headstrong managed to make a far better game visually than this in HOTD: Overkill, so if nothing else it's nice to know it's possible.

  • Tonka #5 3 years ago

    I was expecting a harsher score

  • Der_tolle_Emil #6 3 years ago

    I didn't expect such a good score either. Thought it would be worse than average but appearently average pretty much covers it. I'm still interested in this so I might get it when it's cheap.

  • Darren #7 3 years ago

    My nephew bought this on Saturday and so I had a brief look at it. While the graphics are understandably blurry and less impressive than the 360 version, it did a good job of replicating the game on what is vastly inferior hardware. Looked OK and my nephew seemed to love it. It's a bit stupid that the photography elements has been removed though considering Frank is a photo journalist...

  • Darren #8 3 years ago

    The Wii has a larger user base than the PS3, that's why. More hardware owners = potentially more sales you see. Also I'd wager that the Wii version would have cost a lot less to make than the PS3 version too and so that is more money in Capcom's pockets.

  • DFawkes #9 3 years ago

    I'll still have this eventually, but admittedly this review has bumped it to my "will buy eventually" list rather than my buy next payday list.

  • Toonster #10 3 years ago

    yep, looked meh from the start

  • Evolution #11 3 years ago

    Why does it look worse than RE4 on the GC, even though is uses the same engine and more powerful hardware? Oh yes that's right, 3rd party developers can't be bothered.

  • septimus #12 3 years ago

    I hope they fix the save system and that crappy time limit on the sequel to this. I love Dead Rising, but I can't be assed to be forced through the game by these restrictions, I don't have the time. Made we want to put the disc back in the 360 again though for a quick run through.

  • Les #13 3 years ago

    "it baffles me why they didnt simply port it to the Ps3, at least it would have been comparable to the original"

    Like Darren said, Wii has a bigger audience and is cheaper to develop for. And besides, PS3 owners are more hardcore so less likely to buy a game that's almost 2 years old already. And then there's Capcom working on DR2 for both 360 and PS3.

  • ZuluHero #14 3 years ago

    From reading the reveiw it seems you can add a few points to the score if you haven't played it before. If i only owned a Wii, i'd probably be pretty happy with this port.

  • Meho #15 3 years ago

    Exactly: if you have played this on the 360, you will grit your teeth and complain abut the game being dumbed down for the Wii audience. If you haven't played it on the 360, though, the game really looks and plays great. I'd say it's a mandatory buy for any discerning Wii owners who haven't played the original.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #16 3 years ago

    Why does it look worse than RE4 on the GC, even though is uses the same engine and more powerful hardware? Oh yes that's right, 3rd party developers can't be bothered.

    Even though it is the exact same 3rd party like the one who did RE4? That doesn't make sense.

  • CallousB #17 3 years ago

    What a waste of money by Capcom. Should have put the cash towards a new Resident Evil for the Wii. I'd be all over a side scrolling Resident Evil point and click adventure with a gameplay engine similar to Zack and Wiki.

  • Xerx3s #18 3 years ago

    Did they leave the zombies in?

  • Evolution #19 3 years ago

    @ Der_tolle_Emil

    This is a "new game" however, as opposed to RE4:Wii edition which really was just a port. You can't exactly say Capcom were pushing their brains to the limit adding motion controls to a GC game.

  • andromeda #20 3 years ago

    reads like a 7

    that last screenshote tells a sad story

  • jonsaan #21 3 years ago

    6/10 would have been a fairer score for the 360 one too IMO.

  • darm #22 3 years ago

    The original was praised by hardcore audience but hated by normal people. This remake - judging by the review - does make the game less hardcore, but it does not have anything to offer instead. Let's face it, what does dead rising have except for fighting zombies and remembering the map against the ticking timer? It's nothing really worth mention. So I won't even touch this.

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #23 3 years ago

    I hoped for the best but expected the best – sounds like it’s fallen somewhere in between. Doesn’t sound like it’s worth if for 360 owners but for Wii owners it’s probably one for the bargain bin rather than a must buy.

  • varsas #24 3 years ago

    lol @ dream.

  • drumbaby #25 3 years ago

    Preorders...something else.

  • Browntracky #26 3 years ago

    Needs more.... Nah!

    Will pick it up when it lands in the bargain bin. Weekend purchase then.

  • smelly #27 3 years ago

    "more proof the wii is shit"
    "im selling my wii"
    "wii is poo"
    "hahaha wiilol"
    "glad i sold mine"

    There.. now none of you fangirls need post.

  • secombe #28 3 years ago

    ^^^ Or maybe - just maybe - there are those that can look past the hardware and enjoy the games. The Wii is currently getting my hours free time every night at the moment (mainly due to HOTD: Overkill), couldn't give a darn what system I'm playing it on, it's a cracking game.

  • smelly #29 3 years ago

    @secombe: Shh.. it's not worth the hassle.. he has the bestest machine and he knows it.. Telling him otherwise will make him cry

  • rogueJT #30 3 years ago


    Dead Rising is probably one of the best 2 games on the 360.

    Although it averaged about 85% on the critic sites it was criminally underrated - the save system was genius. As were the achievements, the weapons, the plot, the characters, the camera, the mall, the secrets, the unlockables. I could go on.

    Amazing game, I played and finished it on a standard def TV so may lob it on on my 32" inch Sony...if I didn't have so many other games ot get through - damn you redhotukdeals forum!

  • smelly #31 3 years ago

    @rogueJT: Did we play the same game? It's one of the few games i own i never bothered to complete because i just didnt enjoy it (That and gta4).

    The "genius" save game system was the worst part imho.. Suffers from the same problem as metroid prime or gta4 had..

    "oh look, i failed at the boss battle.. oh look.. i now have to reload.. oh look i'm back in the security room.. oh look it'll take me 10 minutes to trapse back to the boss battle again.. including waiting for loads at each door.. Oh look .. i died on the way to the boss battle.. oh look.. now ihave to reload... oh look.. im back in the security room.. Oh look - i'm turning this pile of shit off never to play it again"

  • TRUTH #32 3 years ago

    Wii is just a fashion console for girls!...Every game you buy, you need a extra piece of peripheral...This has the largest collection of below average to total shit games in gameplay, variety and re-playabilty!.

  • gudnikristinn #33 3 years ago

    I hope this game sells great because i have a feeling Capcom is testing the water with this one to see how much money is to be had off the Wii market with titles like this. If this sells a million or so, then they might start thinking about porting #2 also, or even better, how about a RE2 remake to make it up to Wii owners for not getting RE5........somebody start a petition.

  • gudnikristinn #34 3 years ago

    @TRUTH
    Aren't you guy´s out of wind yet, it´s been over two years now.
    And there is only one peripheral(ad-on) you need to buy and that is Wii motion Plus.
    Why do you need to buy the wheel, or a gun holster, or whatever... you just do it if you think it´s cool.

    Do you NEED to buy a arcade stick to play street fighter 4? I think i´ll just play it using the d-pad.
    Edited by 1 at 03/03/09 @ 22:37

  • FooAtari #35 3 years ago

    I don't own a Wii, although I am very tempted to get one having played the awesome HOTD Overkill.

    But I can't stand retarded comments so TRUTH, dream and sigmagoat, say hello to my ignore list. Maybe while you in there you can think long and hard about growing the hell up.

  • smelly #36 3 years ago

    (wonders if "truth" has seen the review for "afro samurai" - on his beloved console - which got a shit score.. no doub that means his machine is shit too)

  • smelly #37 3 years ago

    "Do you NEED to buy a arcade stick to play street fighter 4? I think i´ll just play it using the d-pad. "


    Have you USED the 360 d-pad??!?! ewwww! :-)

  • smelly #38 3 years ago

    "Publishers should stick to games specifically designed for the Wii, and stop butchering successful 360 and PS3 games in a desperate attempt to cash in on a titles popularity"


    But imagine you'd never seen the 360 version of this game.. imagine it never existed.. now imagine this game was reviewed as a brand new game (not existing on other machines).

    What would you say then? What would the review score be?

  • Reihn #39 3 years ago

    Capcom, 'Chop til you Drop' is a rubbish title, I'm afraid.

    That said, I *adored* Dead Rising. It + Oblivion were the games that got me to buy a 360 way back when. I really liked Frank West as a protagonist, and for me, it was the first game to do 'zombie apocalypse' right. Resident Evil certainly hasn't ever managed it - four zombies total on screen screen, dressed as lumberjacks armed with sledgehammers isn't proper zombie action. Not that RE games are bad - they're just a very different style of (campy) horror. Give me Dead Rising any day!

    Please please please please make Dead Rising 2 awesome!

  • Kryon #40 3 years ago

    Wii Game: Lol Till You Drop