Dead Rising 4 lets you bash in zombies to the tune of Christmas music.
Dead Rising 4 lets you bash in zombies to the tune of Christmas music.
Dead Rising 4 is not suitable for the whole family. But it is perfect Christmas entertainment. Chris Schulz explains.
If you find yourself opening a present on Christmas Day that contains a copy of Dead Rising 4, be wary.
This is not a video game suitable for the whole family.
"It's pretty graphic," warns Joe Nickolls, Capcom Vancouver's studio director.
"There's a lot of dismemberment going on, and heads blowing up and body parts in chunks ... [but] there are some amazing vistas as you're cutting a zombie from crotch to cranium."
Welcome to the grisly world of Dead Rising 4, the latest instalment of Xbox's exclusive zombie-bashing franchise that lets you run riot in a world overrun by the undead.
Fans of the series know what they're in for - thousands of zombies, heaps of ridiculous weaponry, and crack-up one liners from hardened zombie basher Frank West, who returns for this instalment after taking a break in the previous one.
But there's one thing that makes Dead Rising 4 the perfect game to play over the holiday break.
It comes with a Christmas theme, and Nickolls believes it's the first time a video game has been exclusively about Christmas.
"Christmas opens up this whole new world of stuff that we've never been able to do," he says.
"Snowmen are involved, penguins are in it, people are dressed up like elves. Suddenly a combo crossbow can have candy canes and weird stuff in it.
Frank West gets ready to take on some zombies in the Christmas-themed game Dead Rising 4.
Yes, the effect a candy cane would have on a zombie's face is an actual conversation Nickolls and his team at Capcom Vancouver have had.
"This is an oversized candy cane, and when you suck it down to a point, those things sharpen up really well," he laughs.
"It's fun to shoot a zombie with a spear, but when it's got a candy cane sticking out its head it looks ridiculous."
Crafting sweet weaponry is what fans love about the game, and Nickolls says that's exactly what they'll get in Dead Rising 4, with"dozens" of new tools to play with.
Nickolls admits it's the developers favourite thing about making the game.
"We say, 'What do we want to have happen to the zombie?' You come up with the effect of the weapon first and you work backwards. What would do that to the zombie? A grenade? A firecracker? A helium tank?"
Frank West gets dressed up to bash in some Christmas zombies.
But there's one weapon set to trump all other weapons. And it might just be one that New Zealand fans fall in love with.
It's called The Gandalf. Yes, it's inspired by the white wizard himself.
"Frank's got this staff, it's a great big oak staff and he whips it around just like a wizard. He does the 'you shall not pass' and this army of garden gnomes appears and marches off towards the zombies and they all explode," he says.
"I don't even know how we came up with that, it's just so stupid. If we all start cracking up when we're talking about it, that's when we go, 'That's the one'."
Thanks to the game's Christmas theme, weapons can be wrapped in tinsel or fairy lights, vehicles can be covered in Christmas wrapping paper, and Christmas jingles play throughout the mayhem.
It's all so Christmas, the question has to be asked: What do Dead Rising's zombies smell like?
Nickolls laughs, then replies: "They smell like pine."
LOWDOWN Who: Capcom Vancouver studio director Joe Nickolls What: Christmas zombie splatter game Dead Rising 4 Platform: Xbox One
