The House Of The Dead 2 Remake | REVIEW | NINTENDO SWITCH 2

''SUFFER LIKE G DID''

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Developed: MegaPixel

Published: Forever Entertainment

Genre: On Rails shooter

Release Date: August 7th, 2025

Platforms: NSW/NSW2/PS5/Xbox Family

Review copy provided to me by Forever Entertainment

The House Of The Dead 2 Remake is a return of an arcade classic and its developed by Mega Pixel and published by Forever Entertainment. With the original House Of The Dead Remake releasing a few years ago to most peoples pleasure, Mega Pixel decided that it is now time to fire up the next installment as well and bring the arcade classic back to consoles. But was it a wise decision to on this arcade and Dreamcast classic? or should it have been left alone? Only one way to find out, so lets suffer like G did!

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''YOU CAME TO THE WRONG NEIGHBORHOOD''

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GAMEPLAY:

The prodigal son has arrived and yes I'm talking about House Of The Dead 2 Remake, this time on Nintendo Switch 2.. at least that's where I'm playing it currently. It kind of feels weird playing this on Switch 2 and then looking in the corner of my room and looking at my Dreamcast and seeing it and my case of the same game chilling there. Who would've thought 27 years later that not only is this game still going, but its reputation has lived on as well as not only being one of the best light gun shooters on Dreamcast, but in general, if we want to factor in the Arcade release too, that stood besides great Arcade shooters like Time Crisis, Silent Scope, Lethal Enforcers, with honorable mentions of Area 51. My point is this game has maintained a reputation for decades, even when sequels have come and gone over the years, some getting more ridiculous than others, House Of The Dead and House Of The Dead 2 remain at the top of peoples brains. BRAAAAAAAINS. Ugh, Chicky, handle this, we dont need a zombie interrupting this review right now. Anyway.... with these games squarely in our minds, fans have been anxious to be able to play them once again, but from the comfort of our own households, which we got with the Remake of the first one back in 2022, which I covered, and while it wasn't 100% the amazing masterpiece we expected, it was still a great time and a lot of fun. Flash forward now to 2025 and we finally got the highly anticipated remake for House Of The Dead 2 and... its, decent, at best. Its definitely not terrible but it does feel like a downgrade compared to the attention the first one got. I know that sounds bad to say right from the get go, but hang on, hear me out, you aren't going to Suffer Like G did over what I'm going to break down, so take a deep breath. I will explain things, trust me.

Much like the original Remake on Switch, this games revamp or rather revamp still holds onto two control schemes that the previous entry did, one that requires you to aim using your analogue sticks, which makes you adjust the sensitivity till you get it right and the other is using your controllers motion controllers, for example using Switch or Switch 2 controllers, allows you to aim using Gyro. Granted Gyro can get a little annoying to use, so I just stick to using the controller sticks to aim, but I'd prefer it if they updated the Switch 2 version to use Mouse Mode controls instead because I feel that would be WAY MORE ideal and intuitive. Shooting in the game remains the same as well, with L2 being your reload button and R2 being fire, or if you prefer, face buttons of B also allows you to shoot as well. I've seen complaints of people saying its too hard to reload with this control scheme and it gets you killed too fast, and to that I say, the heck? do you have hands the size of a Smurf or something? am I gonna have to shame you and call you a LITTLE BIT from the hit 1980s cartoon, The Little Bits?. Oh ya were going obscure with the insults on that one. I have small hands myself but by pressing L2 and R2 in unison with each other like the old arcade days of tapping the buttons at lightning speed, by doing both together, you essentially get infinite bullets and NEVER have to reload at any given time and constantly have a string of bullets due to simultaneous pressing of reload plus shoot together. So there you go Fraggles, now you have no excuses to venture off to the world of big people land and get those radishes, aka learning how to use the controller properly. Right off the bat you see this version of he game is genuinely a faithful remake of the original that released in 1998, this includes the fun on rails gameplay, multiple pathways to take, secrets to find in boxes and crates for extra health and money to boost your high score, saving as many civilians as you can as they give the cheesiest screams possible... well except for when they get in your way that is... GET OUT OF MY WAY BRO, IM TRYING TO GET REVENGE FOR G. ''There was nothing we could do'', I mean there was, but... I... just don't care. Go cry somewhere else woman, I got work to do. The terrible voice acting also returns which allows it to keep that ''so bad its good aura'', much like the appeal titles like Oblivion had with its corny dialogue, but here its ramped up to 11, only being surpassed by that legend known as Shenmue in that department. Adding on top the experience is limb dismemberment when shooting zombies, having their arms and legs fly off, alongside a newly added ragdoll effect that sends them flying with enough fire power, which is pretty funny, it sorta reminds of old spaghetti western ragdoll or even how people died in Mad Dog McCree. Oh? dont know that one? well.. lets just say...stay tuned for my Heretic and Hexen review coming up very soon, cause were going 90s.

In this version of the game you have multiple modes to choose from ranging from campaigns that offer original and arcade modes, a Boss rush mode to fight all bosses in the game to test your skill, training mode that let you get a grip on the game but also offers you challenges to compete like save everyone and DO NOT kill everyone you see. Ugh...fine fine, I'll be good. There, you happy? see? completed the objective without harming anyone. Ok ok, they were the last ONE I swear. Training mode is definitely useful to help you get your bearin.... ok now THAT was the last one, sorry. Training mode is great to get your bearings to face challenges in the actual main game. The goal of the main game is of course to find Goldman and put a stop to his antics and his experiments by fighting a giant knight a ghoul, sea monster with a spear that looks like Sahagin from Final Fantasy 7, giant with a chainsaw, multiple head serpent that reminds me of the demi god, Shesha, and many others, all of which have weak spots like their chest, mouths, body parts, their head, that you blast in order to exploit to gain an advantage. This is where aiming comes into effect, and I'm telling you now, USE CONTROL STICKS, do NOT use Gyro. This is because Gyro is hard to configure properly without out it being erratic and all over the place, whereas control sticks can be changed with its sensitivity within a minute or so for easier use without having to constantly recalibrate it. The game as stated previously is very faithful to the original, to a T even, which makes it a lot of fun and offer quick and fast playthroughs that can be played in roughly 40 minutes, but while yes, its extremely fun, there are issues I've run into that that not only hinder its performance, but also make it worse than the House Of The Dead Remake from 2022 and even less serviceable than its Wii counterpart port from 2008. For one thing, the graphic fidelity this go around is not as sharp and pronounced as the 2022 remake of the original was, in many cases its worse with more muddied textures, less sharpness, less details and coloring pallet being way off, which the 2008 Wii port actually got right over it. Another issue, which is a more major one, is the hit detection being off too. You can have the reticle right on the enemy and shoot and it will not pick it up, making you take a hit when on the Arcade, Dreamcast or Wii version, you would've killed an enemy. Its also a two way street for this as well with enemies being able to hit you from further away than usual, similar to the issues found on Top Gun 1 and 2 on the original NES. What normally is avoidable and a non issue is now a major threat that can get you killed faster due to how bad it is in this version of the game, which can lead to frustrating hits or even forcing you to use one of your continues. It makes me just want to shoot another civilian... ooo I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it. Nope nope, deep breath, I won't let the game anger me into doing it again. Goosefraba. Breath in and out.

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''HES ATTACKING WALTER WHITE! GET OUT OF THERE WALTUH!!''

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OVERALL:

At the end of the day, House Of The Dead 2 remake is a really fun time, contrary to what my negatives say about it. It gives you that good ol in house classic arcade feel in the comfort of your own home, fun pick up and play experience, boss rush mode, informative tutorial mode, cool gallery to view all the baddies in the game, thats fine, but with the lower graphic fidelity compared to part 1's remake resulting in lesser quality, Gyro controls still being a nuisance, hit detection being off for both the players reticles AND enemy types which makes things more frustrating.... it definitely creates a mixed bag for this title. While the game itself is only launching at $25, that still gives me need to pause, on one hand the fangirl for the series is thinking, ya this is a no brainer, buy it, but consumer side and thinking of the buyers on that end, coupled into it being worse quality production wise than first one, which is a downgrade, my critical thinking side is telling me, I'm going to have to say this one is a Wait verdict. Sure its $25, again, I get it, but I'd feel much more comfortable telling people to spend there money when the game hits a $15-$16 price range with a price drop and I hate saying that since this is a game from my childhood. But this is fact OVER feelings, so with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says WAIT. BAM! I'M SORRY I COULDNT HELP IT OKAY!?

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