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Surprisingly it works

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: June 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you were a fan of the House of the Dead games in the arcade, then Touch of the Dead is definitely the game for you. This rail-shooter is more or less House of the Dead with touch screen controls. The end result is actually pretty cool. It suffers from a few flaws, but it's not so bad that you won't enjoy the game itself. Touch of the Dead actually works.

While playing the game, the first thing to note is that it's on rails. This means the game does the walking. All you have to do is shoot. The control of the game is exclusively touch screen based. When enemies come are present, you simply touch them and your character shoots where you touch. Blasting zombies has never been easier, and of course you can use all the rounds you like... except you'll have to reload at some point. In the arcade reloading is as easy as shooting off screen. Here, it's a little more complicated than that as you actually have to drag the bullets over to your ammo meter for it to reload. This means you'll take more than just a second to reload, and you'll be left open to take damage. It makes the game surprisingly hard in some spots, and sometimes you'll just end up taking damage because you had to reload. This is also because the game just has to show you the reload animation as well. At first this was pretty cool, but after a while you'll wish you could reload faster.

Speaking of challenge, this game provides quite a bit of it. For more than just reloading. For one, check points are few and far between. And when you actually do restart from a checkpoint, you've got the exact same health you had when you first got to it. This is a good and bad thing. The problem with this is that if you keep dying at the same spot, you'll probably continue to die at the same spot. It also really sucks if you didn't have a whole lot of health to begin with when you found the checkpoint. To a point, you'll find yourself having to restart the whole game simply because you didn't have the health to take on the enemies and the game never resets you with full health. The good thing about this, of course, is that gamers looking for a challenge will have found it. For the most part, though, you won't find yourself restarting often but you will find yourself frustrated in a few spots.

There are also additional weapons that you can find throughout your adventure, and you can switch between them using the directional buttons whenever you want.

The game is just a lot of fun. Even if you get frustrated with the checkpoint system you'll still have a blast. The game, like many on-rail shooters, is fairly short. You should be able to complete it in a day, but unlike House of the Dead, it isn't easy to do it. So you won't be busy for a while (and that makes the price tag hard to swallow sometimes), but at least you'll be having some fun. Even better, if a friend of yours has the game you can do some co-op play.

I wish I could tell you the game looks good, but in reality it does not. It's 3D and it has some detail to it, but for the most part, a lot of the game looks very pixilated, grainy and ugly. It's nice to see games taking advantage of the DS's 3D capabilities, but this game is downright ugly. The game runs perfectly fine, though. And even though it's ugly that shouldn't stop anyone from actually enjoying it. And just because it's ugly doesn't mean it isn't detailed. For example, if you shoot a zombie in the arm, they take damage in the arm. So while the game is fairly pixilated, the graphics on the whole are not bad. Again, it's just an ugly game, not a bad running game.

The soundtrack is fairly forgettable but it's appropriate for the game itself. You won't find yourself humming any tunes, but you won't find yourself annoyed with the music either.

Chances are you'll like Touch of the Dead. It's by no means the best Nintendo DS game out there, but it's a fun one and that's really all that matters.

Pros:

+Easy to pick up gameplay
+It's a lot of fun to play
+A challenge for those who want one

Cons:

-Checkpoints are few and far between, and the way the system works will without a doubt frustrate some gamers
-Reloading is too slow
-The game is just ugly

Bloody zombie action on the DS

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: May 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Seeing a mature rated game on the DS is a rare thing indeed. Seeing a mature rated game featuring hordes of zombies is even rarer (in fact, I do believe the only other game to feature both for the DS is Resident Evil: Deadly Silence). Touch the Dead for the DS seems like a first person shooter with zombies at first glance, but upon playing you'll realize how linear the game really is. First off, you play on a rail-based system; meaning you really have no control of where to go on a pre-determined path as you progress through the game, kind of like a light-gun shooter. The only thing you really can do is fire your weapon at the hordes of the undead that are all hungry for you. The catch of Touch the Dead is that the game is surprisingly difficult as these zombies aren't completely brain dead, which is a nice touch in the gameplay. However, most of the difficulty stems from the game's best feature. Tapping the stylus against the touch screen fires your weapon on the zombie armies, which in itself is a blast, but there is hardly any room for error. Graphically, the zombies themselves look fantastic despite the bland areas and backgrounds, and the game's control scheme works well, but be warned that Touch the Dead isn't for all gamers. The increasingly tough difficulty and some insane boss battles may turn you off, but if you stick with it, you'll find some fun with Touch the Dead. All in all, shooter or zombie fans that own a DS should give Touch the Dead a look, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Surprising for Nintendo

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: August 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It is truly an improvement that DS has finally put out an Adult title. If you liked games like Area 51, then you will enjoy this game. It has 4 chapters each with sublevels and a boss. The gameplay is interesting having to actually tap on the emeny with the stylus (thus touch of the dead). Reloading requires one to drag ammo across the screen, which can take a bit of practice to do it quickly.
My only complaint would be the way the game saves itself. First you can "resume" your game if you stop, it saves at sub-points within a level. This creates 2 probles, first only one player can have a game to resume, you can't have multiple players using the same DS. Second, if you die, you restart the level at the same point you did the first time you reached it, so if you have 1 or 2 health points you always start with 1 or 2. This is really frustrating because you have to restart often to advance well. Almost like you have to get good, go back and start again repeatedly. Overall I enjoy it and it will keep me busy for a wile. I hope that similar titles come out to the market.

Very fun!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Wow, this is a very fun game. My DS has actually been collecting dust for some time until i decided to get this game. The game itself is very very very fun, easily five star for fun. Five star for sound, five star for control (change weapons with dpad and shoot by tabbing where you want to shoot) and four star for grahpics (come on, its a DS you cant be so judgmental on it!) The game sounds easy by just tabbing and all but its actually pretty challanging. Ive been playing it all day long and am barely on chapter 3. There are only four chapters however. but at this rate i woudl be more than happy to play it again if i end up beating it.

Five stars!

I should have read and not skimmed the other reviews. You should too.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I purchased the game for two reasons: zombies and a great Amazon rating. Unfortunately, I barely skimmed the reviews and ended up with a game that just is not my cup of tea. I would recommend reading those detailed reviews first, then come back here.

The "rail system" can be very repetitive, boring, and challenging for, in my opinion, all the wrong reasons. The graphics, even by DS standards, are rather poor. The shortness of the game and the replayability are slightly below the "meh" range. The story is... well, there really is no story, at least not one that makes enough sense to follow. Overall, the game is about rapidly tapping the screen and not really about thinking.

That said, it can be an adrenalin jolt, and it has zombies, so, while I did somewhat enjoy it, I was let down. I was hoping for something along the lines of a Resident Evil 4 meets Metroid Prime Hunters, and instead I got a very short mishmash that seemed like a scaled-down port of an old mid-90s arcade shooter. I loved those games circa 1996, but in 2007 I expected a lot more considering how many innovative games have been coming out for the DS.

I give it 3 stars for those reasons, but have to bring it down one more notch for the following. Because the game is so simplistic, the programmers could have at least made it longer by adding a couple more levels and not just the same levels with different difficulty settings. Also, the save system could have more options. The way it is set makes the short game challenging but not necessarily in a fun way. An option to save more often or to allow multiple saves for a player to test better strategies could have helped this game reach a wider audience. And again, even for the DS, the graphics are truly subpar.

The positives: it is easy, it is adrenalin-pumping, it can be challenging, and it is zombies.

Just figure out whether or not the very short, very old school "rail system" shooter-style game is what you enjoy. (It's nostalgiac but not innovative.) If you're not into that, skip this one and wait until something more interesting is released.

Fun, but it get's frustrating

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is a lot like House of the Dead because all you have to do is shoot (tap the touch screen) and all the movement is controlled for you. You'll get 3 different guns throughout the game, one of which has unlimited amo. That's pretty much were all the strategy is. You'll have to quickly reload, switch weapons on the fly, and aim carefully since every bullet is precious.

The biggest problem with the game is that it just get's too damn hard. At the end of each level you'll get a tiny amount of health and that's it my friends. You'll be left with the same amount of amo you left off with and usually you find it easier to just restart the whole damn game then try to complete a level with 3 health bars and 20 shot gun shells.

Damn!! I had no idea they were making games like this for the DS.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: July 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Had I known good adult games would be made, I surely wouldn't have sold my DS..... I'd love to see Fallout 3 on the DS. In fact, I would buy a new one. I think I shall write to the company about this.

Boring game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: September 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is not like the arcade version. The bullets run out too quickly and the game play is repetitive. The scene makes you feel like you're walking around in circles. The game is BORING to play.

Bloody fun!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

By no means is this game pretty. the graphics are pretty gruesome, yes its handheld, but still nothing to get excited about. The sound is nothing special at some parts its just atrocious. It does tend to be difficult at times, but i love this game. It is silly zombies killing fun. Considering that there is a serious lack of violent gorey game for the ds, if you are in a sensless killing mood this game suffices nicely.
Bottomline, not a pretty game, it wont win any awards, its dirty,but its fun, simple fun.

Simple, but a lot of FUN! Resident Evil 4's baby brother!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I recently picked up this game, and I find it to be a lot of fun and addicting. Yeah it's simple, so if you are a hard core gamer you'll probably get bored, come over here and criticize it, but it's fun. I haven't gone through the entire game as of this posting, but so far it's cool. I LOVE Resident Evil 4, and I'm certainly not comparing this game to RE4, but the game does kinda leave that "suspenseful", "blowing off zombie's heads" taste in your mouth.

The only things that's kinda "ehh" is that you can't control your guy's movement, the computer decides which way to go, but you can decide to either go left or right when you come to a fork in the road. All you are in charge of is shooting zombies and items, and reloading your ammo.

If you like this game, another game I have recently gotten that has a very similar feel to Touch the Dead is: Dementium: The Ward . It also left a Resident Evil 4 taste in my mouth, and it's like a more advanced version of Touch the Dead - danger lurks around every corner, you shoot 'zombies', solve puzzles. And last but not least, try Resident Evil 4 if you've never played it (it's not for the DS).

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