Zombie Revenge[a] is a beat 'em up video game released for arcades and Dreamcast in 1999. Armed with their fists, feet, and whatever weapons they should find along the way, players are tasked with ridding an unnamed city of zombies. Originally titled Blood Bullet: The House of the Dead Side Story, the game was renamed Zombies Nightmare before Sega decided on the name Zombie Revenge.
A top-secret government plan to utilize the dead for military purposes called U.D.S., Undead Soldier is thrown into darkness by some unknown entity. A year later, the city becomes ravaged by zombies. Three of the best AMS agents are sent in: Stick Breitling, Linda Rotta and Rikiya Busujima. They are sent out to eliminate the enemy and track down the mysterious leader of this attack, known only as "Zed". After battling through the city, they eventually confront Zed, who reveals that Stick's father was involved in project U.D.S. Zed wants revenge for his parents, who were murdered as part of the project. He despises all humans and wishes to turn them all into zombies by spreading the virus. Zed unleashes a powerful U.D.S. inside of him that he calls the God of Destruction, that he plans to use to destroy the rest of the humans, before the three agents defeat him and save humanity.
Players battle zombies and bosses in each level through hand-to-hand combat, guns, or other weapons. Each player chooses one of the three characters with different attributes and various levels of proficiency in hand-to-hand combat and guns. The Dreamcast version of the game adds a Battle Mode in which two players can fight each other in one-on-one combat.
As a spin-off, the game contains various references to the original The House of the Dead game. Zombies sound and look the same as they did in the first game, and the main protagonists from both the original series and Revenge are AMS agents. At the start of the game, computer icons of Thomas Rogan and "G" can be seen on Linda's desktop. The Curien Mansion seen in the first House of the Dead appears as its own stage, called "The House of the Dead" and the music from the first stage is used. The final boss of Revenge is called Black Magician Type 01. The game's credits sequence are also similar, going back through the game's stages to the beginning of the game.
Upon release, the Dreamcast version received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[3] Chris Charla of NextGen said of the game, "It looks great, it plays OK, but you'll be done with it forever in four hours. Find a video store and rent it."[19] In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 32 out of 40.[10]
Also in Japan, Game Machine listed the arcade version in their April 15, 1999 issue as the third most-successful arcade game of the month.[20]
In one review, Four-Eyed Dragon of GamePro said of the Dreamcast version, "For those who didn't get enough beat-em-up action from Dynamite Cop, Zombie Revenge is worth renting. Otherwise, the boredom of the lobotomized hit-and-kick action will wear down any brawler."[21][d] Uncle Dust said in another review that the same console version "has its high-octane action and graphics, which translates into mindless fun for a while. But the frustrations of the game, including its limited replay value and annoying sound and controls, keep this game from being a 'must-own' for all action addicts, and just makes it a 'should-rent,' if you're bored and [you] have a friend who also likes carnage."[22][e]
^Torres, Ricardo (January 25, 2000). "Zombie Revenge (DC)". Gamecenter. CNET. Archived from the original on August 15, 2000. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
^Johnston, Chris; Smith, Shawn; Hsu, Dan "Shoe"; Chou, Che (February 2000). "Zombie Revenge (DC)"(PDF). Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 127. Ziff Davis. p. 176. Archived(PDF) from the original on March 16, 2023. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
^Justice, Brandon (January 21, 2000). "Zombie Revenge (DC)". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on October 4, 2022. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
^"Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - TVゲーム機ーソフトウェア (Video Game Software)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 585. Amusement Press, Inc. April 15, 1999. p. 17.
^Four-Eyed Dragon (January 2000). "Zombie Revenge (DC)"(PDF). GamePro. No. 136. IDG. p. 110. Archived(PDF) from the original on July 8, 2023. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
