The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return

The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return is a compilation of The House of the Dead 2 (1998) and The House of the Dead III (2002), released for the Wii in 2008. The game features the original arcade versions of both games, along with bonus content. It is compatible with the Wii Zapper peripheral.

Gameplay
Aside from the arcade mode, The House of the Dead 2 also features “original mode” based on the home ports of the game. In this mode, player’s can select up to two items from their inventory before starting the game (which include a variety of new weapons, health and continues). These items are collected throughout the game, given by rescued civilians or found hidden, which are then stored in the player’s inventory for future games. It also includes a boss mode in which any boss from the game can be battled. The House of the Dead 2 also has a training mode, a set of minigames designed to increase the player’s speed and accuracy.

The House of the Dead 3 features a bonus mode called time attack, in which health is replaced with time, encouraging the player to shoot faster and avoid damage as much as possible. The House of the Dead 3 also includes a new unlockable 'extreme' game mode, with tougher enemies and reduces the blast radius of the shotgun, although the weapon can now be used as a melee attack against nearby enemies. The melee attack requires the player to reload after each use.

Reception
The game was met with average to mixed reviews upon release. GameRankings gave it 65.97%, while Metacritic gave it 66 out of 100.

Nintendo Power gave the game 7 out of 10. They stated that the lack of extras was disappointing, but the game was praised and they felt that the price seemed quite reasonable. IGN gave the game 6 out of 10. They praised the IR functionality, saying it is one of the Wii's best, and the flawless port of The House of the Dead 2, but stated that The House of the Dead 3 suffers from some technical issues and criticized the lack of extras, stating that the price seems almost too high; however, they did state that the games are still great and fun to play and recommended the game to die-hard fans and anyone wanting a great lightgun game. GameSpot likewise gave it 6 out of 10, commenting that "The 'dogs of the AMS' make their move to the Wii in this fun but brief port of the on-rails arcade shooters."