Please Sega, bring back The House of the Dead series

The House of the Dead feels like a wildly underused IP that needs to be brought back

I recently earned all of The House of the Dead: Remake achievements, and honestly, it was some of the most fun I’ve had with a game in quite some time. Playing the title solo was an absolute hoot, but diving into the campaign with a friend was ultimately where the game shone for me. My friend and I replayed the game around 11 times in total as we hunted for achievements and attempted to uncover every element of the zombie shooter.

Replaying a game that many times should make the experience stale after a while, but we were never bored throughout the whole experience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvj0fck89Rw That could be down to the fact that the game only consists of four short chapters that you can fly through in around 30 minutes or less. However, those short chapters are loaded with collectibles to find, diverging paths to follow, and lots of zombies to slaughter.

It's simply addictive and is brimming with content to uncover. There is definitely a lot of nostalgia there for me, as my friend and I actually played the first two original The House of the Dead games in co-op on my Dreamcast a very long time ago.

We were obsessed, and clearly that obsession is still going strong now. And yes, I have already picked up The House of the Dead 2: Remake for when we next see each other. This recent experience has got me thinking about The House of the Dead and how we haven't had a new game on consoles since The House of the Dead: Overkill back in 2009, which came to PS3, Wii, PC, and mobile.

Sadly, the game skipped over Xbox for whatever reason. In 2018, we did get a continuation of the main story with The House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn; however, this was only released in arcades and never came to consoles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqxX4NGazK0

This series has some real potential behind it. The cheesy dialogue, the over-the-top onslaught of zombies, the incoherent story; it's a goldmine of campy perfection. Seriously, if Sega put in a little bit of effort, I don't see how this series couldn't become a huge hit again, especially amongst those looking for a solid co-op experience.

Sega has already started to remake some of its Sega Dreamcast-era franchises for Xbox Series X|S, with Crazy Taxi: World Tour set to launch next year, and a new Jet Set Radio reportedly in the works. I say, why stop there? Keep the classics coming and bring back this co-op arcade gem!

I'd start by remaking the third and fourth entries, and then bring over Scarlet Dawn to consoles. After that, we absolutely must get a new game that expands on this goofy zombie-riddled world. Sega is actually working on a House of the Dead movie right now, and alongside its release could be a great opportunity to launch a new title, getting movie lovers and gamers hyped up on all fronts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dxShvsg5bY

If that doesn't happen, then all I can do is hope that the film makes a big enough impact for Sega to consider continuing the series. I need more frantic cooperative action that allows me to forget about my troubles for an hour or two, and just fire grenade launchers at hordes of the undead. I mean, doesn't that sound like the idyllic dream?

That reminds me, I need to get Staff Writer Tom to update his list of the best Xbox zombie games, as we're clearly missing one of the best from it. What do you think of The House of the Dead? Is it a series you'd like to see back in full force?

Let us know in the comments below.