Please Don't Make The Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster Too Goofy (2024)

For almost as long as I’ve been playing video games, Dead Rising has been one of my all-time favourites. It doesn’t quite measure up to the best that Capcom has to offer in its legendary library thanks to Devil May Cry and Resident Evil, but mowing down endless hordes of zombies with bowling balls, katanas, and frying pans has always been more my vibe.

As much as I love Dead Rising and have missed it dearly over the past seven years, I also accepted long ago that we wouldn’t see the series ever again after the colossal ball drop that was Dead Rising 4. That made it all the more surprising when Capcom randomly announced in the middle of an ordinary week that the first and best game is getting a Deluxe Remaster (which basically seems like a remake) at some point in 2024.

The reveal trailer was only short, but it was enough for a Frank-West-loving nerd like me to get misty eyed over the thought of hearing Gone Guru blast from my speakers while I try and herd idiotic survivors with a death wish to a safe room. A remake of Dead Rising has been one of my most-requested games for years now and as happy as I am to finally be getting it, the trailer did have me raising my eyebrows at more than Frank West’s even uglier remastered mug.

A Dead-Set Tone That Needs To Be Kept

I have my concerns about Frank’s new voice actor and how some of the specific Dead Rising quirks like the timer are going to be translated to a remake, but my biggest concern from the trailer is that it’s not going to keep the first game’s more grounded and serious tone. The trailer for the Deluxe Remaster features a heroic and colourful splash screen when introducing the cartoonishly overdesigned Frank, and then plays some circus-esque celebration music when he’s jumping out of the helicopter whooping, unaware of the hellhole he’s stumbling into.

That, combined with how unnaturally happy Frank sounds compared to TJ Rotolo’s performance, makes it seem like the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is retroactively trying to make the first game more whimsical and silly than it actually was. Don’t get me wrong, any game that lets you run around in your pants using teddy bears as surprisingly helpful battering rams is inherently tongue-in-cheek, but the first Dead Rising in particular juxtaposed the player’s goofy zombie shenanigans with real terror, blood, and gore.

The first game in the series is the only one with a masterful blend of humour and horror. The main story is played completely straight and shines a spotlight on how tragic the outbreak has been on the survivors and those who it has driven to a breaking point. There are no quips or banter about how easy it is to kill zombies, and even the somewhat silly bosses like Adam the clown and Steven the supermarket worker are dangerous people who Frank is rightfully terrified of.

Even Frank isn’t the character that later Dead Rising games make him out to be. The first game paints him as a total jerk who is more interested in telling a story and getting famous than being a down-and-out zombie-killing anti-hero with more jokes than Ash Williams. I don’t get that same vibe from the excited sounding Frank we see in the remaster’s trailer, which is just another reason why TJ Rotolo is essential to the series.

Dead Rising’s dark and serious story was matched by its tough-as-nails gameplay, which had Frank constantly struggling to fend off hordes of zombies that could prove deadly even to players at max level. Sure, there were some wrestling moves and silly weapons chucked in there which added a bit of humour to things, but it was still more about survival than taking out zombies in whacky ways. It was perfectly balanced and always scary, even if you were running around chugging orange juice to counter a zombie bite.

Dead Rising 2 Changed The Series Forever

As the series progressed, that balance stopped being a priority and the series leaned heavily into the silliness, especially with its combo weapons. While Frank ran around Willamette Mall desperately fending off hordes with a baseball bat, Chuck Greene taped some chainsaws to a paddle and laughed in the face of danger, unaware that his game’s mechanic would change the series’ focus forever.

I loved Dead Rising 2 and nearly every other game in the series that followed, but Fortune City’s larger-than-life characters and even whackier weapons took Dead Rising in a new direction that it never came back from. There was still some horror to be found, but by the time Frank West was running around in a mech suit with a slushie machine strapped on to it that could make ice tornados, it was impossible to take it seriously.

We’ve only seen less than a minute of the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster so far and it seems to mostly be sticking to the original game’s recipe, but the more jovial tone and proud cries that it’s a “zombie paradise” already have me a little concerned. Capcom likely wants to make a clear distinction between the silliness of Dead Rising and the seriousness of its other zombie-focused series, Resident Evil, but the first game isn’t the place to do that.