Those of you who remember the old style stand up arcade shooters are bound to remember the House of the Dead series. If you don't, shame on you, they were one of the best arcade shooter style series ever (the original Time Crisis not withstanding!).

House of the Dead was commonly known by the term "quarter sucker", because they would suck you in until you just kept feeding the damned thing quarters until you beat it. You couldn't help it. I know I couldn't. My wife fondly remembers the time she dumped nearly $20 worth of quarters into House of the Dead I just to beat it for the first time. She was such a big fan of the House of the Dead series, she even bought the oddball typing tutorial they made out of it for the Dreamcast, which was then later ported to the PC. And let me tell you, nothing is funnier than watching some of the sentences that pop up for you to type out to shoot the shambling zombies!

But anyway, I digress. House of the Dead is an old style "on the rails" shooter that moves you through the game on a specific path, and you shoot everything in your way. Depending on which installation you're playing (I, II, or III. There's a IV, but I've never seen it) you also need to rescue civilians running away from the hordes of undead. When I heard that House of the Dead II and House of the Dead III had been 'ported to the Nintendo Wii, I made sure it was in my hot little hands as fast as possible because I knew my wife would be insanely happy. And really, it brings back so many pleasant memories, I couldn't resist buying it even if I had tried. Let's take a trip down memory lane.