The House of the Dead: Remake is a rail shooter developed by MegaPixel Studio and published by Forever Entertainment. The game is a faithful remake of an old arcade lightgun shooter, which doesn't fit quite as well on a console, thanks to its short length and the Nintendo Switch's lack of a lightgun.
The story of The House of the Dead: Remake, what little there is, follows two special agents: G and Thomas Rogan. The two are dispatched to the Curien Mansion, where horrific experiments are taking place in secret. Dr. Curien unleashes his own monstrous creations on the staff, and it's up to the players to shoot their way through the hordes of undead, in order to save as many innocents as possible and bring Dr. Curien to justice. It takes less than an hour to finish the story mode in The House of the Dead: Remake, but there are multiple paths in the stages and multiple endings to see, which extend the runtime a little for those who want to experience everything.
The House of the Dead: Remake's gameplay is faithful to the original game, with fast-paced lightgun-style shooting, where the player quickly moves from mob to mob, mowing down enemies and shooting projectiles out of the air. The game features multiple difficulty modes, as well as a Horde mode that drastically increases the number of enemies on the screen. Two players can take on the game together, but only in local co-op. The gameplay is fun in bursts, and it offers plenty of challenge for those who want to experience the original brutal difficulty of the arcade mode. There are also plenty of unlockables to find and achievements to earn. It's just a shame that the whole experience is over so quickly, which makes sense, considering the source material, but that's why the Nintendo Wii bundled two The House of the Dead games together in one package.
The biggest issue with The House of the Dead: Remake is its controls. The Nintendo Switch doesn't have an official lightgun peripheral, which means the player is forced to use a joystick or the Joy-Con's gyroscope functionality. The joystick method isn't particularly satisfying, as it's akin to dragging a mouse cursor around the screen to shoot at enemies. The gyroscope control scheme is even worse, as the Joy-Cons can never quite match the feeling of a lightgun, or even a Wiimote.
Games like The World Ends With You on Nintendo Switch have shown that the Joy-Cons can struggle to match the function of a pointing device, which quickly becomes apparent with The House of the Dead: Remake. The gyroscope controls feel inaccurate, even after lots of fine-tuning, and tapping a remote never feels as satisfying as pulling a trigger. The House of the Dead: Remake also took out the off-screen reloading, with the mechanic switched to another button, making the gunplay feel even less satisfying.
The visuals in The House of the Dead: Remake are serviceable and they match the original game's graphics well, while still looking pleasing on a modern display. There are issues with stuttering throughout the game, which are especially annoying in combat, and they are just frequent enough to be a distraction. The soundtrack is decent and the attempts to recreate the bad voice acting of the original are fun, save for one notable clip. The main character shouts "Reload" whenever the player reloads, which happens a lot. It's possible to turn this voice clip down in the options, or even switch it off entirely, but that also affects all of the other voices in the game.
The same studio that made The House of the Dead: Remake is also working on a remake of its sequel. It would have been better if the team had held off and included the two games in one package, as this would have alleviated the content issues. The issues with the control scheme are harder to solve, as the lack of a lightgun on the Nintendo Switch dampens the experience as a whole. The House of the Dead is an arcade series and any remake or console port needs a decent lightgun to truly emulate the feeling that made the original so special. The House of the Dead: Remake can be fun, but that lack of a decent controller is a problem that holds the whole experience back.
The House of the Dead: Remake is available now for Nintendo Switch. Screen Rant was provided with a digital code for the purposes of this review.