Zombie Revenge

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Zombie Revenge (ゾンビ・リベンジ) is an arcade and Sega Dreamcast video game released in 1999, a beat 'em up game. Armed with their fists, feet, and whatever weapons they should find along the way, players are tasked with ridding an unnamed city of zombies. Originally titled Blood Bullet: The House of the Dead Side Story, the game was later renamed Zombies Nightmare before Sega decided on the name Zombie Revenge.

This game also serves as a spinoff to Sega's popular House of the Dead series of light gun games and contains numerous references to its parent series. A port of the game for the Sony PlayStation 2 was to be released by Acclaim Entertainment, but was eventually canceled.

Tropes used in Zombie Revenge include:
  • Absolute Cleavage: Yoko, a hostage found in the first stage. It's not as evident on Linda in her default outfit, but definitely present in her catsuit outfit.
  • Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The second level takes place in a large sewer.
  • Action Girl: Linda is the first playable female character in the House of the Dead series, predating Lisa Rogan by three years.
  • All There in the Manual:
    • Even though they don't speak it, Stick and Linda both understand Japanese. Likewise, Busujima has no problems understanding their English.
    • Busujima has special punches that generate sparks that can set things on fire. Ki attack? No, it is from being a cyborg.
  • Ass Kicks You: One of Linda's combos ends with her slamming her butt down on a fallen zombie.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: UDS-04C, a giant zombie that is fought in the penultimate level.
  • Beauty Mark: Yoko sports one on the left side of her face.
  • Big Bad: ZED. He triggers the zombie outbreak and aims to destroy all humans for the death of his parents.
  • Bilingual Dialogue: Stick, Linda and ZED only speak English, and Busujima only speaks Japanese. They understand each other just fine.
  • Boss Rush: Of sorts. Two of the game's bosses are fought before the final two.
  • Bottomless Magazines: Averted. All weapons have limited ammo including the handgun. Thankfully, hand-to-hand works pretty well on most enemies.
  • Brick Joke: If you manage to save the girl at the start of the first stage, she gives you a disk from ZED, and you continue on. After beating the game, The Stinger reveals the girl is still waiting in the room you found her in, complaining about not getting paid from him.
  • Camera Screw: Certain bosses have an attack where they'll fly away and charge from a distance. During the attack, the camera will follow them as they go in for the kill.
  • Charged Attack: The characters can charge up their gun shots to hit multiple enemies with a single bullet. Not as powerful as a focused shot, but helps in a bind.
  • Competitive Balance: The three characters are measured by their physical strength (offense and defense), speed and gun power.
    • Fragile Speedster: Linda Rotta. She's the fastest playable character, but her hand-to-hand skills and physical defense is the weakest.
    • Glass Cannon: Linda also doubles as this, as her gun is the most powerful of the three.
    • Jack of All Stats: Stick Breitling. The most balanced of the three with decent shot damage, hand-to-hand skills, physical defense and speed.
    • Mighty Glacier: Rikiya Busujima. He's the slowest of the agents, but his hand-to-hand skills surpass his abilities with a gun.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • Icons of Rogan and "G" can be seen on Linda's laptop.
    • One stage, titled "House of the Dead", takes place in the mansion from the first game with a remix of the game's first level music. Only the courtyard is identical, the inside has a completely different layout.
  • Death Seeker: Before he's fought, ZED threatens the agents with releasing the God of Destruction from his body, and looks forward to reuniting with his parents.
  • Dual Boss: UDS-TP II, first fought on Mt. Sacrifice, is comprised of a large cyborg and a small zombie.
  • Final Boss: Black Magician Type 01, once it is unleashed from ZED's body.
  • Fishing Minigame: One of the VMU minigames has players fishing for zombies.
  • Flunky Boss: Some of the bosses and mid-bosses have zombies spawning throughout the fight.
  • Gameplay Grading: At the game over screen, the player is given a number rank based on how well they did.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Busujima has several scars across his body.
  • The Last of These Is Not Like the Others: Most of the bosses have the name "UDS" attached to them, except for the Final Boss Black Magician, who has a "Type" similar to bosses of the main series. ZED for obvious reasons.
  • Misanthrope Supreme: ZED really hates humans, but his reasons don't really go beyond finding them stupid.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Linda Rotta. Blonde, buxom and curvy, she doesn't wear much other than a yellow tank top, short shorts and sneakers in her default outfit. One of her alternate outfits in the Dreamcast port is a leather catsuit. Yoko to a lighter degree.
  • Multiple Endings: In House of the Dead tradition, Yoko will be shown as a zombie if she was killed in the first stage. Otherwise, see Brick Joke above.
  • Our Zombies Are Different:
    • Although most of your enemies are still man-made creations and cyborgs, unlike the main series, humans can also become zombies when they are killed.
    • Many zombies are armed with guns and use them against you.
  • Raising Sim: In the Dreamcast port, players can import a character and raise them to become stronger, which also unlocks cheats in the game's "Original Mode".
  • Revenge: ZED wants to destroy humanity for the death of his parents at the hands of Stick's father.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: The God of Destruction, Black Magician Type 01, who resides in ZED.
  • Sequential Boss: ZED's fight is immediately followed by Black Magician.
  • Ship Tease: Between Stick and Linda. Whenever they're in danger, they tend to the other's safety.
  • Sunglasses at Night: Busujima always wears shades, but the game takes place over the course of a single night.
  • Teleport Spam: Numerous bosses are capable of this.
  • Timed Mission: All stages are timed, and if it runs out, Black Magician appears and kills the players.
  • Token Minority: Marco Cloud, a black African-American pilot who appears in only two scenes.
  • Traintop Battle: One of the stages has you fighting on top of a speeding train and racing to slow it down before it crashes.
  • Unfortunate Names: Stick Breitling.
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: Busujima wears nothing but pants in his default outfit.
  • Who Wears Short Shorts?: Linda does. Some lower camera angles expose her rear.
  • Wreathed in Flames: Neclien, a midboss in the "House of the Dead" stage, is completely engulfed in flames, which don't go out until he's defeated.
  • Zombie Apocalypse: ZED manages to take out Woodside City and a fair amount of points beyond, and the apocalypse isn't done yet by the time the credits are rolling.