Metareview: Dead Rising Chop 'Till You Drop [update]

by David Hinkle { Feb 26th 2009 at 6:00PM }

Update: The reviews haven't exactly been pouring in for Dead Rising: Chop 'Till You Drop. We've added one more, but this can't be a good sign for the game.

It's been a rocky road to release for Capcom's Wii port, Dead Rising: Chop 'Till You Drop, and now that it is finally out, has all of the hate been warranted? Well, we can't answer that question, but we can offer you the next best thing: some reviews. Find the few scores available so far below and for those of you who have spent some time with it, be sure to drop your own two cents into our commenting fountain. We'll update the post as new reviews roll in.

IGN (69/100): "A lot of corners have been cut to get this game on the Wii and the result is not the impressive next-gen experience it was on the 360. Rather, it's a breezy weekend diversion with some fun gameplay and subpar graphics."
GameTrailers (69/100): "A more flexible save system is also a step in the right direction. Yet, the repetitive mission objectives and moronic AI ensure that the enjoyment you glean from it will be directly proportional to how much you enjoy using new weapons to kill zombies."
Official Nintendo Magazine (68/100): "A real let-down. There are some great ideas in here but they're just not executed very well. Stick to Resident Evil 4."
CVG (50/100): "Another example of a game that greatly underperforms on a perfectly capable console."

Gallery: Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop

Tags: capcom, dead-rising, dead-rising-chop-till-you-drop, metareview, port

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

sony boy @ Feb 26th 2009 6:13PM

i've seen the video review for this on ign and some of the zombies just move around like idiots and rarely attack you.

James @ Feb 26th 2009 6:16PM

That's kind of being true to the original concept. Obviously it doesn't work so well with fewer numbers.

Mr Khan @ Feb 26th 2009 6:16PM

Capcom should just quit worrying about this and hurry up with Monster Hunter 3 and the localization to Tatsunoko vs Capcom

Richards | PSN: F4WMR @ Feb 26th 2009 6:38PM

I hope Capcom loses money in this game. I'm sick of nasty ports, when developers should be sitting down, and crunching out fresh new ideas. There is no excuse to leave the Wii behind. With that said, I understand the Wii prints money, and as a Wii owner I refuse to buy such products. Give me something fresh, holla..

KILLZONE 2 >.>

ROb @ Feb 26th 2009 7:32PM

It's actually getting pretty decent reviews on Amazon.

And really, it doesn't sound like there was anything lazy about this port. Capcom's seemed excited about it for months, and there are counteless interviews talking about how much thought and effort the devs were putting into it.

Even if this specifically was a fail, it really does sound like the type of energy we want devs to have when working on the Wii!

ramuji @ Feb 26th 2009 8:31PM

I never played the 360 version, so my impressions aren't based on any type of comparison.

I wavered a lot about whether to buy it, sometimes changing my mind 2 or 3 times a day each time new videos popped up on the Internet. Finally, I decided simply to take a chance on having fun with it regardless of the negative comments (and because there weren't very many other new games this month to spend money on).

I've only spent about 90 minutes with the game so far (because I'm trying to get through Another Code: R before getting too engrossed in another game). While I certainly understand the disparaging remarks about this game "underperforming", it took me less than an hour to get beyond all of that and just get into the business of experiencing "Dawn of the Dead" in game-form. It certainly isn't perfect, and I probably paid too much for it, but so far the game is ridiculous, nasty, zombie-killing fun. (I should probably finish it before buying House of the Dead: Overkill, which I completely expect to be a much more fulfilling zombie-massacring experience.)

Mabui @ Feb 26th 2009 10:35PM

Well, I hope it does well regardless of the reviews. I'm not sure why I feel that way, but I just do. Not that I have intention of purchasing it for myself (Budget is super limited at the moment!)

Feba @ Feb 26th 2009 10:57PM

The problem isn't developers porting games to Wii. Ports are good. Ports increase game's availability. The problem is crappy ports. The problem is porting the game to PS2, and then porting the PS2 version to Wii. I, for one, have some games I would absolutely love to see ported to Wii. Some of them would need graphics revamped. Some of them would need graphics toned back. Some of them would need IR controls, some of them would be best left with no motion controls at all. Most of them would need a 16:9 mode added.

Ported games are by default good. They allow us to play games on Wii that we'd otherwise need to buy other consoles for. We just need to hold developers to a far higher standard than they have been. Demand at least Okami, not Rock Band.

Highlar @ Feb 26th 2009 11:25PM

From actually reading the IGN review, I'm not quite sure why it got
such a low score. He said that at its heart, the game is still Dead
Rising, and its still fun. He dinged it mostly, it seems to me, on
graphics, longevity/replayability (its a short game, apparently), and
a horrible, horrible storyline. So...if the game is still fun, just
with less zombies...and it is, at its heart, still Dead Rising from
the 360, just with majorly toned down graphics...how come this got
the score it did, but the 360 version got much higher? The story
would have been the same...the game would have had the same length,
I'd imagine....so is it the prettier graphics that do it for the 360
Dead Rising?

Hix @ Feb 27th 2009 1:13AM

Right on dude reviewers are full of shit check it out yourself and make up your mind. If i hadn't already played the snot out of it on 360 I don't need to go back

However if i only had a wii i would jump all over this.

Awaiting The Conduit !!!!

t_m @ Feb 27th 2009 1:46AM

It always seemed a really odd choice to port to the Wii. Its MAIN appeal was the simple number of zombies... and that the thing that gets lost in the translation.

That said, even the Wii should be able to manage more bad guys on screen than that does... GTA and all those battlefield-samurai games managed more onscreen characters back on the PS2...

such a strange choice all round...

korkidog @ Feb 27th 2009 2:15AM

More shovelware for the Wii. When are we going to see something worth playing? I haven't turned my Wii on in many months. My DS and PSP garner much more gameplay anymore.

Sisyphus @ Feb 27th 2009 6:09AM

Even if this game isn't very good, it's still not shovelware. Shovelware denotes that it's a cheap, quickly made game dumped onto a system in the hopes someone will buy it despite the lack of effort. Considerable effort and resources were put into this game. Whether that effort was wasted is another debate, though. And if you haven't turned on your Wii in months, either you've already beaten all of the good game (unlikely) or you don't what makes a good game.

korkidog @ Feb 27th 2009 6:06PM

Shovelware is in the eye of the beholder.

Michael @ Feb 27th 2009 7:55AM

Should have droped the "realistic" look of things for improved performance, people playing the wii are used to the less "life like" graphics for the most part. but... i dunno the overall defeat is probably just the high expectations set by the 360 vrs. probably would have been in their better interest to have made a similar game to dead rising which would have removed the high expectations. no complaints at lost aspects such as the camera, or the higher reliance on firearms vs the melee weapons... which really is what gets me, tagging it with "Chop till you drop" and makeing the main weaponry guns.... bah...! give me a good old parkbench and I'll killl you several thousand zombies before they even get into the mall.

nick @ Feb 27th 2009 11:01AM

Heres the thing about this game for the wii. If you haven't played the 360 version then it is a fun game relying heavily on the innovative wii controls. If you go into the game expecting the exact same thing as the 360 version with wii controls then it will be a let down. Still a fun game with an original concept if you havent played it before

Feba @ Feb 27th 2009 1:38PM

t_m; Your second paragraph points out the flaw in your first.

The idea that the Wii simply cannot handle large amounts of Zombies on the screen is absurd; especially considering Chop 'Till You Drop has graphics that would probably fit onto a PS2.

And Sisyphus, what effort? They took Dead Rising, decided not to bother doing anything other than shoehorn it into the RE4 engine, and took out most of what made the game great; even simple things like large amounts of zombies. The developers might've personally put in effort, sure. I bet the people that work on a lot of shovelware are only doing it for the sake of their careers. I bet a lot of them want to take time to improve the game. But the fact is that despite whatever personal effort they may put in, the COMPANY shipped it rushed, underfunded, and generally intentionally crappy for the sake of money.