The House of the Dead III (2002)

Holy crap, was it ever exciting to finally cross this one off the list . A staple of just about every Dave & Busters and random boardwalk arcade across America, House of the Dead III was the one with the big green shotgun controller (with realistic cocking) that was always slightly decalibrated and frequently sticky with beer, snot, and god knows what else. It was something I always enjoyed but never had the patience to actually drop the dough on and play through the whole damn thing... until the House of the Dead collection for Wii let me bring the experience into my very own home, which is, in a word... sublime. There really aren't many arcade shooters on par with House of the Dead, but I will say III is certainly a bit weaker than II in several regards. I'll save the review of House of the Dead II for later (spoilers: it's a masterpiece) but suffice it to say that III definitely is a shorter, overall less punishing game. It's still a lot of fun though and you can get through the whole thing in under an hour. I highly recommend bringing a friend, obviously. There's nothing sadder than playing an arcade shooter without a P2. Sorry, that sounded mean.