Silent Hill 3

Hey all. So after the SNAFU (Situation Normal All Fouled Up) of the poll, I would like to apologize. While I simply forgot to check with the blog that I did Silent Hill 2, I feel I should make up for the goof. So we will look at another Survival Horror game and hopefully give you my best take on the source material. As this has been a long lasting franchise going back to Playstation 1 and we fans all have the love for it. This is Silent Hill 3.

My puffy jacket aids me.

Brought to us by Konami via Playstation 2 and developed by Team Silent, our game is a direct sequel to the first game as we follow the adventures or madness down the rabbit hole with Harry Mason's now teenage daughter Heather (formally Alessa and later reincarnated Cheryl). Yes made from a 10 year old girl and manifested back to an infant... I need to create context, right? Okay spoilers for the first game.

With the Cult headed by Dahlia Gillespie, her daughter Alessa was intended to be the vessel to said living god that manifested as an incubus and there was a need to have Aglaophotis (an concoction that dispels demons) and the Seals of Metatron to raise said beast, Harry Mason's daughter Cheryl was adopted by he and his wife Jodie. Harry makes his way through the dimensional shifted Silent Hill and faces mortal danger to save Cheryl.

17 years later, Cheryl, now known as Heather is running errands for her dad at the shopping center, she falls asleep at the fast food place having nightmares of Silent Hill, running through the amusement park and fending off monsters. She wakes and calls her dad to let him know she is on her way home with she runs into a P.I. Cartland. Hired by the Order to find her. He's all mysterious about her history of her birth and what she means to the Order. She makes her way home armed with a pistol to defend herself only to encounter a blond woman all in black calling herself Claudia Wolf. She tells Heather "Remember me, and your true self as well and that she will lead them to Paradise with bloodstained hands." Yeah normally a girl has to worry about potential pedophiles not prophecies.

I sense impending doom today.

Levels like the subway and Otherworld portals leaves Cartland actually is as baffled as Heather pointing out he was only supposed to find her but feels like this job is so much more than it was explained to him by Claudia.

Booking back home she finds Harry brutally murdered and slumped in his chair. Heather vows revenge and realizes it all goes back to Silent Hill. Cartland drives Heather to Silent Hill for her to find out more of her past, why her dad was gacked and in general is looking to mess some folk up.

Back with melee and firearms attacks, exploration and more puzzles, we have a standard third person view. We are also back with the pocket radio that blurts loud static when monsters are near. So we are treated to the map screen of streets of Silent Hill 1 and she makes her way to Vincent a priest of the Order and chief antiquarian (librarian) and he gives her vague passages, quotes, the creeper eye and just happens to have her late father's notebook and detailed accounts of 17 years prior. HUH??!!!

between that ulterior motives of Claudia, Vincent and other members of the Order, finding out which path for Heather is hit or miss. Like the first two games, your actions and words will dictate your outcome again. So yes the hospital is still creepy and faceless nurses are roaming about as Elessa was constantly hospitalized. That will happen when your soulless mother is siphoning the actual life force out of you. Hey readers? Your mom do that? No? Then go hug her and tell her what a good mom she is.  Can't be easily to walk around anywhere with three sets of memories rolling around your coconut like some psychotic game of Bingo.

Like the first game with have Lewis Carrol references, H.P. Lovecraft, Shakespeare quotes on the harder levels and a bizarre fairy tale spread on pages throughout the town and its many levels. The amusement park is so well done as the psychokinesis of Alessa is still haunting it almost with her memories tainting the whole area.

Now in my head, Harry actually preparing Heather for this would have meant a completely different story line. I grant you can't pop into causal conversation, "Sweetie, a dark prophecy, plus a previous incarnation of yourself doomed an entire town, warped the fabric of reality and did almost bring about Armageddon. Pass the salt, please." Yeah that would sound like Harry was mad as a box of cats. The phrase Tu Fui, Ego Eris (As you are, I was; as I am, so you shall also be) is found throughout Hilltop Center making one of the creatures only known as the Glutton monster to disappear. If this phrase has not been uttered by Heather, she cannot get pass the creature or even harm it.

Stevie Nicks??

So following loss, exploration, a past she was never made aware of; this would be conflicting for anyone but lumping this all at the feet of a teenage girl seems inherently cruel. This kid is in the midst of figuring out her identity, who she is as a person, only to find out that was she knew to be concrete and true is all sand and lies. Did her dad ever truly love her or was he attempting to keep the world safe from utter darkness? Is the Order right for her destiny?

Unlike the films, the story is pretty clear and unfolds in the usual odd fashion that Silent Hill fans have come to expect these games. With still the tank controls or D-pad, the map screen for your health and weapons. While we get some very strange exposition, the gamers know a fraction of what's going on but are still pleasantly surprised by all that is happening. It is a journey of discovery with all the trimmings of actions equal consequences. With a morbid past, a present of utter madness it makes you wonder Heather's future.

Don't worry Silent Hill movie viewers, no appearances of Pyramid Head (as that was only a direct link to James Sutherland of Silent Hill 2), no goofy witch burnings because of unwed mothers, pop tart jump scares and absolutely no unnecessary Sean Bean padding like the first film. Still could have made him Harry Mason, have him scour Silent Hill for his daughter and defeat the followers of the living god via Dahlia Gillespie but hey, the hell do I know? Just a critic...and a fan of these games and one who appreciate proper handing of source material.

Outfitted with as always, a right angle flashlight, a pocket AM/FM red radio from the 50s and 60s, maybe a knife and pistol, the devilish shenanigans are well on their way. Naturally melee weapons and firearms are strewn about the town. Still feel the lead pipe and the shotgun are the best weapons.

This continuation was eerie, clever and had its moments of breaking the fourth wall that really gave this dark content a lighter motif. I highly recommend this for fans of the first two games. 

Hmm disturbing corridor of flesh or a book? what to look at first.

Resident Evil 2

And I am back folks. Sorry about last week, I needed to scrounge funds for much needed services. So I attempted a poll last week and only two responded. Again I am on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and I will be adding more polls to vote on at a later date. As mentioned, the poll was for two survival horror games due to I haven't written on any video games in some time annnnd... I screwed up. I already reviewed Silent Hill 2.  Whoops. This is Resident Evil 2.

Cheryl? oh wait, wrong franchise.

With the same if not greater love, 1998 sees the puzzles, exploration and single-player survival horror and game wise, is two months after the original. Our story lines follow Rookie Cop Leon Kennedy and college student Claire Redfield. Claire, sister of Chris Redfield is in town trying to find out the whereabouts of brother Chris. I personally own the N64 version of this.

On his first day of duty and decked out in riot gear, Leon starts his patrol, attacked by zombies and joins up with Claire on the way to Raccoon Police Department. The two decide to split up and make their way through the police station, previously an art museum they look for supplies, ammo and survivors. Chris finds and encounters Ada Wong, claiming to look for an Umbrella researcher John.

While evidence of political maneuvering, bribes and more than a handful of notes, it is pretty obvious that Umbrella Corp. Is back to its old tricks again. No hard evidence of the events with Spencer Mansion, Alpha and Bravo company of S.T.A.R.S.and all the T-Virus zombies, Chris makes his way to Europe to trace and expose Umbrella's misdoings.

That is one moody looking lesbian.

Once again, herbs of green, blue and red treat the zombie attacks, first aid bandages and first aid spray are also at the ready. Ammo, weapon mods, tank controls (D-pad or direction movement) and fixed camera angles, the mood and atmosphere is decidedly horror. With two playable characters you have scenarios with different puzzles and storylines vary. With Leon Kennedy A, Claire Redfield B, Claire Redfield A and Leon Kennedy B, allows for a different of events unfolding and each offer a unique story. Claire's storyline involves her meeting up and protecting a little girl, Sherry Birkin (Daughter of scientists William and Annette) has been left behind during the zombie outbreak.

With the same dangers of mass mutations similar to the T-Virus, the G-Virus or Golgotha developed by Birkin was attempting to give its host a regenerative property. Naturally the military applications means an unkillable soldier and an eugenics program. Twisting God's work and shocked of the horrible outcome. An massive Tyrant monster has been sent to RCPD to clean up any of the survivors so they don't get a chance to explain what truly happened and unravel the existing cover story. William Birkin near fatally wounded by Umbrella Corp mercenaries for not giving up the G-Virus, he doses himself with a large amount of the very same substance, giving his body wild levels of mutations and yup you guessed it, main boss battles.

So yes levels of creatures of the Lickers, Zombies, Plant monsters, a Tyrant known as Mr. X, things are pretty full. Now my major pet peeve is still the inexcusable need for puzzles and we have to take it as red that the architect that made Spencer Manor, clearly had a hand in deciding the museum. Still love the fact the RCPD managed to acquire the museum as some sort of tax write-off for the city.

With the remake made 21 years later and the graphics and characters look amazing, this was the version that got me truly interested in the series.

Amusing side note, George Romero directed the commercial for Biohazard 2 a.k.a. Resident Evil 2 and he also wrote a screenplay for Resident Evil film...and yet Capcom went with Paul W.S. Anderson's nonsense.

Bloody stairs you get locked up on.

Splatterhouse (1988 original)

Hey gang welcome back to the blog. Well being this close to Halloween I will...not being doing a horror film. Yeah a change of pace. I have also be neglecting my video games section of the Rotten Reelz Reviews so let's find a horror video game then.  Aha!  Loophole!  So with that in mind we journey to the far away time of yesterday in the year 1988.  Yes, they just discovered fire, religion and how to devise the wheel. So grab your terror mask, swing a 2x4 and hope for the best.

This is Splatterhouse.

Hmm this ominously lit, abandoned mansion seems safe enough.

Now many moons ago I reviewed the remake, so today we look at the original by Namco, founders of Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig Dug and Pole Postion so they ventured in with the TurboGrafx-16 handheld console. With this classic side scrolling action, our game is a a beat 'em up as we play Rick, a parapsychology student that was trapped in the spooky West Mansion after fleeing a major rainstorm. The house was owned by the nefarious Dr. West, a parapsychologist known for a host of illegal and evil experiments.

Rick is separated from his girlfriend and fellow student Jennifer as the door slams shut and the lights go out.  Should have brought boomstick and chainsaw.  Friggin amateur.

Hey batter, batter, batter. Swing batter!

Rick wakes from a thump on the noggin in a dungeon to realize he is wearing the legendary Terror Mask, told to give incredible strength to the wearer but at a cost. The Terror Mask just happens to resemble a hockey mask and Rick roids up from not enough to totally buff but he for some further unexplained reason seems to have Friday the 13th's Jason Vorhees' tattered jumpsuit. Right about the time of Kane Hodder playing Jason so hmmm, influence? The mask is supposed to be a Mayan sacrificial artifact that is also sentient so you know that is going to go well.

The mask whispers to Rick, convincing him to go completely sickhouse on these hordes of monsters, wave after wave and give him a berserker like fury. Rick must thump and crush his way from the dungeon, to the mansion grounds and back into the mansion. Using his own massive fists, Rick can also get a 2x4, wrench, meat cleaver and chainsaw to splatter his way through these mobs of monsters.

Standard D pad movement in a 2D environment, Rick can also punch, kick super move dropkick his enemies low punch and kick as well as jumping attacks. You will be sent to various check points throughout the game if you die, instead of having to start all over again. Its popularity spawned two sequels as the mask took on more of a skull look to it.

Later in 2010 the remake gave Rick a whole pantheon of new moves and attacks but if you want to read about that, I suggest you go and check the review.

A first real foyer into the horror survival genre that got parents a little nervous but not as much as the huge clamp down on Sega CD's Night Trap.   Lord what a bunch of hysteria over nothing.

A blast from the past to be sure and was a bit of fun to get through it. I just remember it taking me longer when I was a kid. Must have been complete crap because this run through was about 30 mins. 

Um are you deadites or puddies?  I can't tell.

Dead Rising Week: Dead Rising 2

Welcome back ladies and gents! Yesterday I was busy making a Halloween project. Here's hoping the juicy skeleton looks amazing. Back to the topic at hand, zombies on the rise! Grr. Yes this beloved subgenre of horror has gone through spurts since 1968 George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. The 80s, 90s and the 2000s give a bit of zombie craze until 2004 it gets back up again to ravage the world. The Walking Dead is on its 6^th Season, Z Nation its second and Fear the Walking Dead to Season 2 as well. So let's get off our butt and get back into smiting the undead. This is Dead Rising 2.

Airball!!

Following after the exploits of Willamette Colorado, the zombie virus is a plague running rampant throughout the states. Five years after the first outbreak is the town of Fortune City, Nevada. A reality sport game Terror Is Reality. A game show where the contestants kill off zombies for money and glory. This time around our protagonist Chuck Greene (Peter Flemming of Replicant, Good Boy!, Love Sick: Secrets of a Sex Addict, Becoming Redwood and Almost Human) a former Motocross champion that is in need of money. His daughter Katey was bitten by her zombified mom when she was 5 and the only thing to keep the virus at bay is Zombrex(daily injection to suppress the zombie viral strain). The show's gaggle of zombies prepped for the contest get loose and Chuck scoops up Katey head to an emergency shelter. The lone security Raymond Sullivan (Phillip Maurice Hayes of Unforgiven, Powder, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sabrina, the Animated Series, Gadget and the Gadgetinis, Dinosaur Train and Wolves) is hesitant to allow Katey to stay but Chuck assures him he can keep her stockpiled on Zombrex.

Nope, I'm no Frank West but I'm good.

It looks worse and worse for Chuck as it looks like he went backstage and let loose the zombies of war to lunch and munch the competition. Chuck now has to venture out into Fortune City via air duct (Come out to the coast, you'll have a great time. Have a few laughs.) and make his way to more Zombrex until the Army is due to arrive in three days. Yup another 72 hours in our open ended, survival horror game with some new mechanics.

A Co-Op and Multiplayer option giving four players to compete in Terror Is Reality. The story progresses to offer the achievements and trophies. The health bar is a large collection of squares rather than the two small ones. The AI of survivors are less dopey. Meaning they can nut up and fight, the zombies like to have man meat Chuck and makes the escort mission less painful and maddening. Chuck can get distracted in mini games via casinos to gamble for more money. The vehicle mechanics are so much better but mostly bikes to maybe fit Chuck's former lifestyle as a motocross champ. 

Our combo weapons have gotten a bit screwier with things like: Dynameat (A stick of dynamite crammed in a ham), the Paddlesaw (two chainsaws duct taped to a kayak paddle ) the Hail Mary (a grenade taped to a football) and finally the Spiked Bat (ballbat with nails hammered in it) and you will need it as your boss battles are just as loopy psychopaths have either gone crackers due to zombies or the panic in the air inciting fear giving them jollies. Love the additional weapon Boomstick (a pump action shotgun duct taped with a pitchfork) and the ridiculous activist Stacey (Robyn Ross of Mega Man, Juno, Dead Rising 2, Fairly Legal, Suck it Up Buttercup and Cedar Cove) who was at the show protesting for zombie rights and equality.

It is dark humor, warped mini-games, squashing a zombie with a motobike so yes this is gorefest of goofiness. 

Zombie combo platter!!!

Dead Rising Week: Dead Rising

Well folks we are back for the week and I apologize for the last week being too short due to sinus headaches. The zombie genre is so beloved by all for some reason. Morbid curiosity? Gore fans? Whatever the case may be, folks cannot seem to get enough of the undead. This time around I thought we would look at a series of games involving the shambling dead folk. This is Dead Rising.

Zombie munch party!!!

So we are speaking of the PS3 and PC games that originated from Capcom because... Resident Evil just didn't covet enough of this genre but we follow the story arc of Frank West, photographer/photojournalist (voiced by stuntman and voice actor Terence J. Rotolo of Masked Rider, Big Bad Beetleborgs, Power Rangers in Space, Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, Dead Rising, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and Devil May Cry 4) First off, this guy looks like he should be paparazzi getting latter age Disney girl up-skirt shots but I digress. Frank has covered world events, major wars and impressive scoops of that nature. Toodling around Colorado, he stumbles in on a town gone batshit. Military convoys blocking the roads and all forms of communications going in and out of Willamette Colorado have been jammed. The whole town seems overrun by zombies. He beelines for the local shopping mall because maybe Colorado has less gun restrictions so the possibility of boomsticks a plenty!

Zombies or Mallrats?  Only Kevin Smith knows for sure.

With a fistful of lettuce, Frank charters a helicopter to get some aerial shots of the place Frank wants more visceral close ups so he tells the pilot to drop him off on the roof of the mall and come back in three days for more scratch. Turns out the mall may have not been the wisest choice as the place is packed almost wall to wall zombie mob. Frank starts snapping pics left and right showing the utter pandemonium. Frank hooks up with some fellow survivor characters giving a story path and moving towards goals and side quests via sandbox game.

This is classified as a third person horror survival fending off zombie attacks, rescue survivors, fight with nutters and stay alive to get the full story. The funniest part of this is finding any available item as a melee or bludgeon weapon. A TV, kayak paddles with chainsaws duct taped to it, chucking soda cans, beating a zombie to death with a mannequin arm or maybe a neon sign plugged in.

72 hours to get the story, get out and not get bit. Without weapons, Frank has some decent hand-to-hand street fighting/wrassling moves from some gut punches, tossing people and using the environment. There are no combos to remember or any of that crap. You stab, clunk or shoot out your way to the next level. FYI, the friggin mall looks about the size of Mall of America.

Zombies are plentiful, the boss battles are off their nut and the story line is a bit odd but overall loads of replay ability. So if you want to hack and slash the undead without deep, profound matters of the heart, hearing people flip out or for the Resident Evil fans want to collect more than 6 or 8 items, this is your jam.

Escort missions will forever blow!!!

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Sequels: Camp Blood 4

Hiya gang. Well it's that time again. You know of what I refer. When the blog goes back to its horror roots, digs in deep and finds either a necessary or absurd evil. The findings of course can swing either way but I will say 7 out of 10 times I will not find unpolished gem but more often a fresh turd or someone looking to put a new spin on an old thing. Yeah I'm looking at you Squagel. This week I am calling this the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Sequels. Apparently Brad Sykes (Camp Blood, Camp Blood 2 and Within the Woods) has wandered away from his trilogy opus and director Dustin Ferguson (Doll Killer, Die Sister, Die!, Gloved Murderess and Cheerleader Camp: To the Death) has picked up the baton to bring us this next installment of (Yawn) horror. This is Camp Blood 4.

Chemistry not since Tracy and Hepburn.

Okay with a grainy pseudo link back to Within the Woods, we see a smattering of what almost looks like our half-assed reality show contestants getting gacked left and right but the survivor is never mentioned, made a cameo or even touched base upon. Personally I am still pissed that Tricia (Jennifer Ritchkoff of Camp Blood, Harrington's Notes, Camp Blood 2, Spin City, Spartan and Angel Wishes: Journey of a Spiritual Healer) has not made a comeback yet, or gone completely crackers and starts killing folk in a clown mask or traveling around the country killing clowns. All good options for this but what the hell do I know? 

Sterling Entertainment returns to produce and distribute our movie so we are in good hands with folks that handle titles like: Iron Thunder, Studio 666, Things, Tower of Blood, Death Factory and The Curse of Lizzie Borden II I already know we are in for a treat. Also I never needed to remember the production company that brought me Death Factory. EVER AGAIN. Our movie opens with footage from some even crappier offshoot of the Camp Blood series Camp Blood: Blood Slaughter of which I was told has NOTHING to do with the original three. Again alternative titles make a play and this flick instead of Within the Woods is easier to find and confuses folk that only research on IMDB.

Ah!  Evil floaty head!

So our gaggle of jag-offs are off to hit a concert but rather than pool money and stay at a hotel, they opt to stay in the same woods. Now by this point, the original three films has established a big warning to piss off since 1999 but I guess that craziness all died down. Think of this as the lesser Crystal Lake and maybe the locals renamed it Forest Green as well. Oh sorry I meant Camp Black Tree according to the badly stenciled spray painted sign.

So having no connection to any of the originals I can completely believe these kids have no idea about the ominous and foreboding urban legend. Blah blah blah killer in clown mask slabs away, blah blah padding of pointless walking about, blah blah blah topless scenes and all shot on a DSLR HD but I guess camera boy doesn't understand how exposure works well on it. I guess jagging off while filming topless girls makes it difficult to work that option. I miss anything? Oh yes female survivor survives given the cliche' name Raven (Shuylar Craig of Shockumentary, Blood Claws, Camp Blood 4, Blood Model and The Amityville Legacy) and manages to deal with "Clown" cuz that's so Raven. Ha ha ha, kill me.

Apparently no one explained that we actually need a foley artist for sound effects so the machete sound effects sounds like a squishy diaper that leaks and on the further note, no one bothered to realize that you don't STAB with a machete, you would slash with it. If you would concerned about your lack of stuntmen, get some foam rubber, make an improvised dummy painted whatever skin tone you need and fill it of sytrene rubber you have burned enough to make interesting shapes and fake blood!!! (Blood is Karo Syrup, black and red food dye and you are good to go) Most of the music is not so much public domain but filler music from Sony Sound Series of royalty free music.

Let's see... something good about the flick... oh I like the cover art for the box. Shuylar Craig actually can pull off acting but this was a poor example of the horror medium to working in.

What's a cornhusker girl to do but be chased by a psycho.

Number 850!!! Zombies for Halloween: Zombie Town

Well folks we have reached that plateau of the week as always. The end of it if you will. I hope your Halloween plans work out, that you play it safe and avoid drinking and driving while costumed. Oh and ladies skip the “Sexy” outfits. Seriously for most of the country it is going to be too cold to wear a fraction of that flimsy material outdoors. Now then I decided to take a peek at some of the indie titles via zombie films and after reading titles like MILFs vs Zombies, Porn Star Zombies, Ninjas vs Zombies and A Zombie Invasion I just threw up my arms in the air in disgust. So settling for an indie title I found a flick shot on film stock and not some crappy HD Camcorder. This is Zombie Town.

PACKERS!!!!

Normally I cringe at the prospect of a writer/director combo because it can lead to misery and pain but Damon Lemay knocked it out of the ballpark with a comedy horror film. Hillbilly hunters up in a cabin in the woods(Are you kidding me?? At least the name of two horror movies, man!) are getting hammered and bitching about their wives when they accosted by zombies. One infected attacks the others and it is fairly gory but looked impressive on film. Roll opening credits as we have no rhyme or reason why there are zombies other than a nod to the local swamp.

Local mechanic Jake LaFond (Adam Hose of Zombie Town) and his brother Denton (Phil Burke of Hell on Wheels, Dirty weekend, Wind Walkers and Legend of the Lich Lord) are trying figure bills and how to make ends meet inheriting their late father's garage. They get the call for an abandoned truck in the woods and our brothers LaFond make their way to the plot device. A quick nod to his ex-girlfriend Alex (Brynn Lucas of The Vault, Convict, Eve of the Dead and Mondo Americana) Denton tells Jake he needs to get off his slacker ass and make something of himself.

Wow, never seen projectile vomiting like that before.

Denton is attacked by one of the hillbilly zombies and has a few issues with that. Otis is a remote town up in Vermont, mountainous and isolated so only one major road leads in and out of town. Jake notices something odd in the town of Otis as people seem to be keeling over. Bad batch of KFC perhaps? Whatever the case may be, there are some of the residents getting back up and becoming ravenous zombies in search for the flesh of the living. Alex is an environmentalist/scientist of obscure notion finds something unusual.

Jake's rival Randy (Dennis Lemoine of The Hiking Trip, Illegal Aliens, Tricks of Love and The Invention of Lying) teams up Jake trying to figure out what in the nine hells is going on. Randy is a decent enough guy but has his eye on Alex.

Parasitic slugs seem to infect and incubate in the bodies of the victims creating more incubators i.e. zombie hosts. Their reproduction is exponential creating more parasites.

Can our trio handle this infection before spreads? Will the whole town be infected? Must everything be solved with a napalm strike?

Between the fairly amusing dialogue, gore effects are pretty effective and keeping the cast down to a few allows for clever interaction. Contained in a small town with local support, the silly gorefest was fun.

Scaffolding protect us!!!

Evil Dead Games: Evil Dead: Hail to the King

Welcome back for Day 2 of Evil Dead Games and I am not gonna lie to you but that previous Commodore 64 game was frightfully dull after about 10 minutes. This next chapter in the video game foray however is complex, easily hung up on corners, boxes and even chairs. The pixelation is a bit rough on the eyes and the levels are difficult but I think we have a more entertaining round of boomstick and chainsaw fun. This is Evil Dead: Hail to the King

Ax MURDDEEEEEERRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

Developed by Heavy Iron Studios (Evil Dead: Hail to the King, Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights, The Incredibles, WALL-E, Up and UFC Personal Trainer) and produced by THQ (Peter Pan and the Pirates, Red Faction, Red Faction: Armageddon, Company of Heroes 2 and Metro: Last Light) recounts 3 years after Army of Darkness' theatrical ending in that Ash swallowed the juice, said the magic words and ended up back in his own time to Dearborn Michigan. He is back to working retail at S-Mart and even lucks out meeting a girl from Housewares, Jenny. Racked with guilt and nightmares the two of them come to the conclusion that Ash simply needs to face his fears and go back to the cabin where it all started...cause that sounds sane. No sooner they are there that Ash's former hand plays Professor Knowby's recorder unleashing the evil back into the world, an unseen entity scoops up Jenny and Bad Ash from the mirror is off to do horrible things.

It's a fixer upper kinda house.

Ash of course is apprised in voice by Bruce Campbell. With pre-rendered backgrounds and those damn semi-fixed camera angles you feel a certain Resident Evil vibe, along with limited ammo for the boomstick as well as limited gas for your chainsaw. Standard d-pad or analog stick left and right to rotate the character then move the character back and forward for the d-pad up and down.

There are puzzles to be solved, deadites to slay and Hellbillies to contend with. Along with the usual bag of nasty to deal with, you also need healing packs from attacks, watch your ammo, health and gas reserves. With the typical tank motion movement, you have a few special attacks with the chainsaw and boomstick, there are other weapons to be found and improved on. A double-headed ax, Knowby's .45, rock salt for the boomstick, steel spikes for the .45 and a Winchester .30-30 modified with spikes as well do to more damaged to these dead punks and like Resident Evil a converter to make more healing and useful items.

The enemies are a bit out there. We have an assortment of what the hell with standard deadites, raised skeleton warriors, the undead hillbillies are called Hellbillies and a troop of boy scouts known as the Wolverine Scouts. So yes lots of Michigan references as well as Tennesee references. As time travel via portal in Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness, there are a few gags there as well. This is not insanely hard if you are a Resident Evil fan and understand how much time you have between respawns. Yeah it is a bit rough and the save features are identical but Ash gets 8 item slots so suck it Chris Redfield, with your crappy six.

Made for Dreamcast, Playstation and PC this is a dark horror survival first player game that has limited saves, fast paced in some areas while it lulls you into a false security and them boom...possessed boars coming at ya! Yup, bad piggies! Will Ash save the girl and the world?? Is he doomed to be the "Chosen One"? Will he speak the exact words??

HE WHO FALLS FROM THE SKY!!!

Evil Dead Games: The Evil Dead for Commodore 64

Welcome followers of sugar and the boomstick to Day 1 of Evil Dead Games. I had to do quite a bit of digging for our first game in question. From the British video game publisher and developers of 8-bit joy that is Palace Software (Cauldron, Cauldron II: The Pumpkin Strikes Back, The Sacred Armour of Antiriad, Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior and Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax) comes a game that was linked to the UK's 8-bit personal computer known as the ZX Spectrum as well as the Commodore 64. This is The Evil Dead Commodore 64.

Terrifying graphics of doom!!!

Now there are many young readers that have no clue what these antiquated computer systems are. Well shush youngsters, and you may learn something. Commodore 64 was created in January 1932 by Commodore International which outsold the IBM PC and Apple at the time. That 64 stands for 64 kb of RAM and 20 kb of ROM and required 5.1 Floppy drives, dot matrix printers and a CIA 6526 joystick (2 of them usually came with) and it sold over 17 million units. Palace Software is the first officially-licensed publisher to tackle today's game in question and being it is based on then deemed a "Video Nasty" it became known as a "Computer Nasty" and did not have that wide a release in the states.

The game of course is low res 8-bit in the cabin for The Evil Dead took place in the film. You, the player get everyone's loveable, cheeseball goof Ash. Ash must close the cabin windows up in order to prevent monsters from entering the cabin. Yup, a bookcase against shutters keeps evil at bay. Who knew? You are also required to gank the monsters already in the cabin. As you defeat the monsters, there are a variety of weapons (shovels, shotguns and axes) to dispatch some accursed Evil Dead. As Ash's energy levels start to wain he can pick up new weapons in order to increase his energy in order to slap the baddies about. Ash has to get his mitts on The Book of the Dead and destroy it in order to send the evil back from hence it came from.

Must...get...shovel.

The controls are a bit jerky, this is a single-player adventure-survival horror game that honestly felt like you were slaying the monsters or just shooing them out of the cabin. The window shutters pop open over and over and over again. There are dangerous poisonous clouds??? It simply looked like dirt-infused gusts of wind but hey I didn't write or program the game. The emulator was easy enough to download as many of the few existing copies for the Commodore 64 are very scarse.

I hate to say this but this was fun for about 5 minutes and you know I love me some old school games but the repetition is daunting. The intro sounds like a cross between Castlevania and Legend of Zelda as you get this weird text scroll crawl across your screen telling you the being of the story... in case you missed the movie. Thankfully the tinny music does not continue when you start playing but it has all the hallmarks of the boops and bleeps of the day. Better luck next game I hope but again for its day it is a piece of cinema history.

Also keep in mind this is one of the few 8-bit games that was horror related like the Atari 2600 Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Now why don't those games get a reboot love huh?

Let's see what tomorrow has in store for me when we tackle the Playstation game Evil Dead: Hail to the King.

Guess he didn't like the porch swing anymore.