Perhaps the most legendary lightgun shooter series of all time, The House of the Dead debuted in arcades in 1996 and spawned a massively-successful line of sequels and home console ports. Known for its frantic gameplay and hokey voice acting, the original is a celebrated classic that’s been more or less forgotten in a gaming era mostly devoid of motion controls and faux firearm peripherals. Fortunately, a recent gameplay trailer from Forever Entertainment confirms that a The House of the Dead remake will be coming to the Nintendo Switch in April.With less than a minute of footage to go on, there’s not a whole lot hyped fans may be able to glean from this gameplay trailer. However, the visuals certainly appear to be a step up from the almost hilariously polygonal models seen in the 1996 arcade version. The Nintendo Switch is, in 2022, far from a graphical powerhouse, but the game’s new looks feels like a necessary facelift that adds something new while respecting the source material. Plus, after the House of the Dead remake was originally confirmed back in 2019, the added flair will have made the wait more worthwhile for fans of the franchise.A selection of enemies and bosses was briefly showcased in the trailer, and, though certainly overhauled when compared to the jagged original or the pixelated mess that was the Sega Saturn port, the remake appears to be authentic to the slightly-silly House of the Dead brand. Of particular note are the hilariously horrendous bits of voice acting, something that was likely deliberately preserved given the notoriety of the VO heard in the original game. As silly as it may seem, Resident Evil fans went so far as to mod the terrible voice lines of the old games into their newer remakes, so there’s precedent for Forever Entertainment.
Most crucially, the House of the Dead remake will include a two-player mode as well as gyro support, meaning that players are a shotgun-shaped plastic shell away from reliving their arcade memories on the Nintendo Switch. While Nintendo has been fairly ho-hum about legacy content support, the remake of The House of the Dead could reignite fan interest in Switch ports of arcade games.
Fans of Nintendo’s hybrid console may overlook news concerning The House of the Dead as a result of the Kirby and the Forgotten Land demo debuting just a day prior, but the return of decades-old gaming content should be cause for celebration. First-party AAA endeavors are always a huge part of any Nintendo console’s lifecycle, but the preservation of older releases is, to many, of equal importance.
The House of the Dead: Remake will be available on April 7 for Nintendo Switch.
Source: The Mako Reactor
