Keiji Inafune, the creator of Mega Man and the producer of Dead Rising, was originally a graphic designer for Capcom on such games as Street Fighter and Breath of Fire. He later graduated to directing and producing games, but it was the sensibilities he had to learn and use for his initial work on video games that made him the game creator he is today. Dead Rising is a very Western piece of game design for an Eastern game, and proves that Japanese titles can be successful, both in terms of quality and sales, on American platforms.

It’s one of the best game concepts in years, you play as a photojournalist trapped in a mall full of zombies for three days. It sounds almost like an amateur project, but the way it was realized by Capcom is truly professional. The cutscenes in the game are incredibly cheesy, but brilliantly voice-acted, animated, and directed. They’re a lot like the cutscenes gamers have come to expect from Capcom due to the Resident Evil series, but taken to the next level. With this and a few other next-gen titles, like Mass Effect and Bioshock, the Uncanny Valley has been jumped entirely.

From shortly after the start of the game, the entire mall is open to you, and virtually every item in it can be picked up and used to battle zombies. Just the very act of exploring all the weapon possibilities really makes the game, and the fact that most of the items haves two attacks (strong and slow; weak and fast), as well as the ability to be thrown, keeps the gameplay fresh. The aiming isn’t as smooth as in Resident Evil 4, but the guns feel good and work the way they should against the throngs of zombies you’ll face.

Like how Black was advertised as “gun porn,” Dead Rising should have be advertised as zombie porn. People who are at all into zombie movies and games will absolutely love Dead Rising, and it’s the first zombie game on a system capable of rendering the hundreds upon hundreds of models a good zombie game needs to have. As the game goes on you’ll feel truly swarmed by them, and will feel the same panic you’ve wanted to have in a zombie game since the first time you watched Night of the Living Dead.

The most often complained about part of Dead Rising since release has been its save system, which allows players to record their progress, rather than the norm of saving at any point in the game, only at certain spots around the mall. If at any point you die you have two choices: either load your previous save, or start the game over keeping the experience points you’ve gained. It’s more forgiving and smart than people give it credit for, and the game wouldn’t be at all improved by a save system that let you save anywhere at any time. Gamers these days. spoiled by games like that. shouldn’t expect it from every title.

Dead Rising delivers one of the first truly next-gen gaming experiences due to its gargantuan hordes of zombies you will face playing it, and is one of the most worthwhile and complete 360 experiences released to date.