Touch the Dead

What I would hope for this title is for a sequel with improved graphics, sound, and control. If this one is just the first and spawns an entertaining series, then I can forgive the pilot's mishaps. So, here's hoping!

The two-player mode feels tacked on and the presentation has its hitches, but Touch the Dead still provides enough bloody joy to warrant a recommendation.

If you are too chicken to go through it yourself, there is always the co-op mode to have a partner hold your hand.

It's a straight-forward, fun, intense action game that does a decent job of what it sets out to do...even if that's just to steal the House of the Dead idea before Sega decides to port it officially itself.

Despite interesting controls, this quickly outstays its welcome. [Oct 2007, p.85]

While Touch the Dead is fun for a short while, it quickly becomes frustrating due to the cumbersome reloading controls and the designer’s cheap attempts to make the game more difficult.

Just make sure to keep the improper touching to a minimum -- you don't want to be completely freaky like these guys. It is still a prison, after all.

Unless you are desperate for some portable zombie blasting, I would recommend keeping this title on the rental list.

A cheap and cheerful shooter, Touch the Dead isn't revolutionary, but it's a relatively well put together game that will satisfy your lust for zombie zapping.

The replay value of Touch the Dead is limited. Players will either get frustrated with the checkpoints or they’ll be able to sit down and finish this in one day if they put focus their time in completing it.

The shuffling, drooling hordes of zombie fans will enjoy this pared-down, unpretentious shooter.

The concept was great, the only thing working against it was the fact that using the touch screen to shoot zombies could have proven to be too easy compared to its light gun cousin. To make up for this the developers seemed to go out of their way to make the game unfairly difficult when instead they should have increased the strategic elements of the game.

Touch the Dead is like a decent B-grade horror movie: sure it's laughably bad at points but there's a loveable camp quality to it that makes it worth enduring through.

Replacing a light gun with touch-screen support doesn't make up for Touch the Dead's contrived gameplay or its stiff, boxy presentation.

For all the frantic zombie-blasting and murky environments, however, the game fails to generate much suspense of horror. [July 2007, p.95]