Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop was always going to be at a disadvantage, since most gaming fans see it as the bastard offspring of one of the best games of this generation. Funnily enough, many of these people are the very same ones that complained about the original game’s save system and mission structure, and thus should be ignored or locked in small cages for scientific observation. Chop Till You Drop may not be as good as the original Dead Rising, but it effectively channels the spirit of the game into a new format while bringing a few new tricks of its own.

Chop Till You Drop more or less follows the same story as the original Dead Rising. You are freelance photojournalist Frank West, a reporter who has flown into the town of Willamette, Colorado following a lead, only to find the town completely overrun by zombies, with a few select survivors, DHS agents and raging psychopaths hauled up in the local shopping mall. There are alterations, like the gun store owner crossing over to the player’s side to sell guns, but these are mostly minor deviations.


With the transition to the Wii, it was pretty obvious that Dead Rising would lose most of its technical lustre. Chop Till You Drop still manages to capture most of the atmosphere of the original game, but the sheer number of zombies on screen at any time has been reduced from about 800 to roughly 100. Other aspects of the game’s visuals have also been considerably toned down, particularly the quality of the game’s models and textures, which look simple and muddy. The game has this slightly obnoxious blur to it, which is slightly off-putting. On the other hand, you can actually read the text on a standard definition TV set. Some areas of the game, most notably the security room and its adjoining areas, have been broken up into smaller sections with quick loading sequences between them.

Capcom has seen fit to make a number of alterations to the core Dead Rising formula, some of which will please players, others which will baffle them. The game has been shifted over to the Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition engine, allowing for greater aiming control which has lead to a larger emphasis on gun combat in the game. Consequently, this change appears to have severely decreased the number of melee weapons and euthanized the photo taking aspect of the game, which more or less makes the character’s occupation superfluous.

Navigating the mall has become a little more delicate; although all of the same areas have been carried over, Frank cannot jump and several corridors have been roped off, for no reason other than to force players down a particular path. That means confrontations with zombies are no longer as easily avoidable. Zombies are not quite as oblivious as they were in the Xbox 360 game; rather than standing around or shuffling by, they automatically go into kill mode when Frank goes near them. It makes the game more action-packed, but it can be a little annoying when you’re simply trying to move between two places. They’re not the only foes you’ll have to worry about, as two new enemies have been added in the form of a zombified poodle (Madonna the dog, whose disappearance leads to the mall being infested) and an undead parrot.


The levelling up system has changed slightly, with upgrades no longer granted to your health meter (those come through mixing protein shakes) in place of other skill upgrades, like longer lasting equipment. Gaining levels is a slightly slower process without the picture taking. Inventory management has been significantly altered and improved. Players are always equipped with one melee weapon and one gun, and can use the directional pad on the remote to switch between items. An inventory screen has been added which allows players to manage their items, which are broken down into categories, with segments for regular items/weapons, mission critical items and books. It prevents a lot of the annoying deaths that occurred in the original game due to players having to manage their stuff on the fly. In addition to leaving behind ammunition and health items, enemies will also drop money, which can be used at the Gun store to buy weapons, ammunition and books.

Dead Rising’s controls on the Wii fall in line with one’s expectations, though there are a few button combinations that seem a little odd. Combat controls are simple but effective; Frank will swing his melee object with a press of the A button, or perform a harder swing with a shake of the remote. Aiming is handled in the same way as Resident Evil 4, with the B button bringing up the weapon and A firing. Targeting enemies is a lot smoother than it was on the Xbox, making gunplay much more effective. On the flipside, the process of opening doors and picking up items is triggered by the combination of Z and A – it seems odd at first that they need a combination to do the job of a single button, but it becomes second nature quite quickly.

The greatest change to the gameplay in Chop Till You Drop comes in the form of major amendments to Dead Rising’s structure. Unlike it’s free-form predecessor, Chop Till You Drop follows a rigid and linear storyline, forcing players to undertake the main story missions. You cannot miss the start of a mission and trigger the cancellation of the entire story. Rescue missions are also conducted in a structured fashion, with Frank needing to consult Otis (who no longer calls you out of the blue while you’re surrounded by zombies) before he can head out into the mall to find stranded survivors. For players who complained about the structure of original game should like this and the expanded number of save slots, since you can practically save all of the survivors who aren’t already pre-destined to die. Side missions are rated based on the amount of time you take, the damage you deal and the number of zombies you kill, with better ratings earning better equipment bonuses.


Knocking your way through the mall and completing Chop Till You Drop shouldn’t take any more than about 8 hours if you do some side missions along the way. To compensate for the more forced mission structure and removal of picture taking, Capcom has added some bonus modes which are unlocked after the game is completed. Odd jobs is a mode which has Frank running around the mall doing all sorts of ridiculous tasks, while Second Amendments is a mission based sniper game with a tight time limit. Like the original game, players can start a New Game+, which allows players to start all over again with their stats and inventory intact. There’s plenty of cool kit to be unlocked from completing bonus missions, including the new Bionic Commando suit.

Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop is a good game that would have been received a lot better by the general gaming audience had it been the first game in the series. While the game is quite obviously technically weaker, it has some interesting gameplay changes and bonus modes which make it worth checking out, especially for those who never had the opportunity to play the game in its original form.