WELCO METOT HENEX TLEVEL - Corpse Killer

Publisher: Digital Pictures Developer: Digital Pictures Released: 1994

Another of the infamous series of U-Direct films from Digital Pictures that greatly contributed to the horrible reputation suffered by the Sega CD. These games tended to fall into a limited number of genres – Corpse Killer is basically a video shooting gallery.

You are part of an elite military unit that has been dropped onto a tropical island that is apparently overrun by zombies. After getting hung up in a tree, you are bitten by one of these zombies before being rescued by Winston, the man who will act as your guide through the rest of the game.

It's not long before you meet Julie, a photojournalist who tags along in order to build her story on the whole situation. She hips you to the real reason you're there – Dr. Hellman, the man responsible for turning the island's inhabitants into zombies.

With me so far?

Game play consists of tracking left to right across various locales, shooting at the different zombies that come after you. Before and after each level you're treated to a bit of story either explaining the upcoming level or revealing more of the overall plot.

While most of the enemies you face can be defeated by simply shooting them, certain characters (mostly boss characters) require special bullets to bring down. The game also supports various light guns available for the Genesis, which was definitely the way to play, as moving the cursor around the screen with the controller makes the whole thing pretty difficult.

But that's about the extent of the variety on tap here. Sure, each level looks a bit different, but the experience is exactly the same.

One thing about Digital Pictures' games is that you can usually recognize at least one of the actors involved. Corpse Killer is no different. Dr. Hellman is played by none other than Vincent Schiavelli, who may not have been huge star, but is someone everyone has seen in a movie or two. He appeared in films like Ghost, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus, etc.

The director actually has some cred, too. John Lafia co-wrote Child's Play and directed Child's Play 2, as well as some television shows, including episodes of Babylon 5.

Corpse Killer is also one of the five Sega CD games that saw release on the 32X as well. The 32X version of the game plays exactly the same, but the visuals have been slightly upgraded. The HUD elements, video resolution and color have all be upgraded to take advantage of the Sega's 32-bit add-on.

In fact, Digital Pictures got a lot of mileage out of this game, as it eventually saw release on the 3DO, PC, Mac, and Sega Saturn. Subsequent releases included new elements such as new enemies, difficulty settings, and subtitles due to the fact that players complained they couldn't understand what the rastafarian Winston was saying half the time.