Dead Rising proves that a game can truly fill a niche like zombie-slaying madness with room left to spare. Literally everything is a weapon in this game. You eat food to regain health (or throw it to inflict damage on zombies), go to the bathroom to save, and can even skateboard through the mall slaughtering zombies along the way. Seriously, you could spend days playing this game, simply raining death down upon the zombies, without even noticing the storyline. This game is evidence that: 1) Microsoft's Xbox360 is capable of very well-defined cut scenes and 2) Capcom can do more with zombies than just make yet another Resident Evil game (not that there is anything wrong with making another Resident Evil game).

First off, let me say that the story on this game is intense. Not only are there a ton and a half of zombies begging to be slaughtered, but there are psychopaths pleading for you to end their reign of terror. You unlock the secret of what's happened to the town by completing parts of the main objectives, and you can bet the mysterious agents refusing to tell you anything are in the thick of it all. In fact, given that each story can unlock new modes of gameplay, and that the game is instantly replayable because of the hordes of zombies, the story can almost fade to the background. Honestly, any game that can provide the same fun when the story is followed as well as when the story is ignored is noteworthy. For this alone the game gets a solid, perfect score. Oh yeah, a ten.

The controls for Dead Rising, however, take some getting used to. Most shooting games use the right trigger to fire. Dead Rising uses the right trigger to select the weapon being fired and the X button to actually fire. Oh, and did I mention that you use the left analog stick to aim? Oh yeah, very hard to get used to for me. However, the advantage is that the game is able to use the same series of buttons to use every item you come across. If the game changed for conventional firepower, then it would become awkward switching from killing zombies with swords to shooting zombies with guns. As necessary as it might be, I don't have to pretend to be perfectly happy with it. Dead Rising only gets an 8 out of 10 here.

Graphically, this game is intense and detailed. The zombies you slaughter spray blood as they fall, and Capcom follows through on the promise that no two zombies fall the same. The shops you enter look real enough, as long as you don't expect each item to be rendered seperately on the shelf. The shelf is there, the items are more like pictures on the shelf. However, it would be impossible to get it much better than that, given the sheer number of shops. For the scope of the mall and the beautifully gory deaths of the undead zombies (I don't even care about the fact that the previous sentence makes no sense), this game gets an intimidating 9 out of 10.

Sound is something that this game takes on without any sort of hesitation. There are pained groans of dying- sorry- undying zombies and mobs of the poor savages make an unmistakable sound that will haunt you. Seriously, I keep hearing it at work, and one day I might snap and hit someone with a computer screen just in case. In the background, you can also hear some really corny music- the kind they always play at the mall to make you buy more. Must...buy...Capcom games. For the utter realism and frighteningly fitting sounds, this game gets its second perfect score.

Dead Rising is a must-have game for the Xbox360. Even with the slightly awkward controls, this game makes up for it all with stunning graphics, wonderfully unlockable story, and detailed sound. What Oblivion lacks in replayability, Dead Rising more than picks up, offering a unique experience over and over. It's a solid 9 out of 10. Just because the controls were too different for me to give it the elusive perfect score.