Zombie Revenge is an arcade Beat 'em Up from Sega released in 1999 and a spin-off of the House of the Dead series.
It features the same...creative approach to English and voice-acting as its parent franchise, and follows three government agents: the hilariously-named Stick Breitling, the uber-masculine Rikuya Busujima/Gregg Powered, and the comparatively-normal Linda Rotta. Their eventual mission is stopping "ZED", a mysterious yellow-eyed man who claims responsibility for the zombie outbreak. It is an unapologetic quarter-muncher where players can fight the undead with their guns, their fists, or a wide variety of other weapons including flamethrowers, drills, and rocket launchers.
Rikiya Busujima, in his alternate fedora costume, reappeared years later as one of Sega's representatives in the 3DS crossover Project × Zone.
This game provides examples of:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Fishing Minigame: One of the VMU minigames has players fishing for zombies.
- Final Boss: Black Magician Type 01, once it is unleashed from ZED's body.
- Final Boss, New Dimension: The final boss fight takes place in some kind of wormhole. A rather colorful one.
- Flunky Boss: Some of the bosses and mid-bosses have zombies spawning throughout the fight.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Busujima has several scars across his body.
- Gameplay Grading: At the game over screen, the player is given a number rank based on how well they did.
- Hellbent For Leather: One of Linda's outfits for the Dreamcast version is a leather catsuit, while Busujima receives a leather jacket for his biker outfit.
- Inconsistent Dub: Rikuya Busujima is renamed Gregg Powered and is an AMS agent in the American version of the arcade game, but this is not retained in the Dreamcast version nor in Project × Zone.
- 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.
- Multinational Team: Stick and Linda are American from AMS while Rikiya is Japanese on loan from the Ministry of Interior's Special Affairs Investigation Divisionnote
- 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.
- Navel-Deep Neckline: 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.
- Odd Name Out: 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.
- 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.
- Shout-Out:
- One stage gives you a pair of suspicious weapons: A pair of guitar cases that conceal machineguns, and a larger one with a rocket launcher inside.
- Busujima's alternate black and red outfit is one towards Michael Jackson.
- Stronger Than They Look: One of Linda's combos ends with her grabbing a zombie with one hand and swinging it around before slamming it against her knee.
- Sunglasses at Night: Busujima always wears shades, but the game takes place over the course of a single night.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: ZED has one golden eye, and he possesses supernatural abilities such as flight and teleportation.
- 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.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Busujima wears nothing but pants in his default outfit.
- White Hair, Black Heart: ZED sports white hair, but seeks the destruction of the human race.
- 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.
