32 Days Until Halloween
September 29th, 2009 by Price
32 days until Halloween. 32 for 32-bit video game systems, which included the classic Sega Saturn console. Poor Sega never got over the Genesis hump, but the Saturn still featured some good games, including the horrorific port of the class arcade zombie/monster shooter House of the Dead.
Now admittedly, the Saturn version was not nearly as crisp/smooth/and certainly not as fun as the arcade game. I remember dropping quarters upon quarters (in between the pounding of slushees and purchasing of comic books) on Saturday afternoons at the mall before I discovered females. In fact, I remember doing the same even AFTER I discovered females. But I digress.
When they released a console version of the game, I got super excited. You know what’s better than spending all of your hard-earned quarters on an arcade game? Spending fifty bucks on a version that will save you from the embarrassment of showing your face in public.
Seriously, how badass did you think any of your friends were you possessed the following goldmine:
This is pretty much equivalent to a badass entertainment system nowadays since we have grown up. Still the same geeky appeal and obvious attempt to make up for something else missing/lacking, but who am I to judge? I still squeal when I see shiny new toys.
But back to House of the Dead in general. What a fucking great arcade game. Some of the scenes and transitions scared the shit out of me, and I always enjoyed when a video game could do that to me. Furthermore, it’s zombies and monsters, which earned in brownie points. Finally, unlike some other horror games which refrain from gore, everything you shot in this one exploded with a ridiculous amount of blood and meat, which got lots of “OOOH” and “AHHH” from those watching me kick ass in the arcade.
The only shooter that can even come close to this one in my opinion would be Revolution X, quite possibly the dumbest yet most amazing video game in history. Shooting CDs while rocking out to classic Aerosmith? This game was boner-inducing for several weeks in my life, and I just have to give it a shout out.
My god. Look at all that amazing hair in that photo.
Tags: halloween countdown, house of the dead, revolution x, sega saturn, video games