What is it about zombies? Is it the festering wounds? Maybe it's that shuffle-shuffle-stagger-stagger-shuffle gait or perhaps the unquenchable thirst for brains? Whatever it is, gamers love zombies. No, that's not quite right; it's more of an infatuation that we have with those undead buggers, and Capcom's Dead Rising is perhaps the most unapologetic homage to that infatuation we have with those walking, huggable corpses.

Over the past month, the "internet tubes" have been quite clogged up with Dead Rising media, but now, we can all go hands-on with Capcom's ode to zombie hunting thanks to a beefy (1014 MB) Xbox Live Marketplace demo. While not a complete level, Capcom is very generous with this demo's offerings. Players are allowed a maximum of 15 minutes of complete zombie-slaying debauchery in a somewhat cordoned off area of the Willamette shopping mall. For the most part, your time in the mall will be spent decapitating zombies, putting funny masks on them, snapping photos, and guzzling sweet, sweet orange juice.

Very little of Dead Rising's story is revealed in the demo other than that you are Frank West, a hardcore photojournalist with a peculiar dislike of the undead. Frank is so dedicated to "finding the truth" that he left the relative safety of a helicopter to document, first-hand, the strange occurrences at the Willamette Parkview Mall. The demo opens with Frank already trapped in the mall and about to waylay a woman in the hallways with a fire extinguisher. After nearly bashing the woman's head to a pulp, our suave hero manages to get her to handover her gun as well as coax a bit of information out of her (she has secrets!) and he probably managed to cop a feel somewhere during the whole episode as well. That's how hardcore Frank West is.

In the mall, Frank can use nearly any object he can find to cure the undead of their "affliction." Of course, by "cure" I mean "bash their freaking brains in." Benches, electric guitars, cash registers, soda cans, servbot heads (a nod to one of Capcom's favorite franchises, Megaman), oversized teddy bears, coat hangers, and more can be used as weapons. However, this freedom does lead to frustration when you come across items in stores that you can't pick up. I desperately wanted to grab a tennis racquet off the wall of a sports store to practice my serve on the undead but was left supremely disappointed when the only items that were actually available were a baseball bat and a golf club. That's not to say that having my own zombie-homerun derby wasn't a blast, it's just that when so many items are available to you, it stings when you find something that is merely artwork and not actually usable.

Zombie bashing takes its toll on your weapons. Each item will eventually deteriorate, so Frank is forced to maintain an inventory of weapons. Leveling up in the game grants Frank a larger inventory as well as increases his speed and the damage of his attacks. Dead Rising's coinage for the leveling process takes the form of experience points that you earn through a variety of means; taking out zombies, snapping good pictures of zombies, and completing side missions. The photojournalist in Frank does add a certain element to the combat in Dead Rising. You get more experience points for taking exciting pictures; you'll find yourself planning attacks so that your shot includes multiple zombies getting their heads blown off in front of a prominently displayed store sign and, if you're really good, a few zombies walking around eating their own limbs, wearing funny masks or pushing a shopping cart to boot. Such pictures will net you a huge increase in experience points compared to regular pictures of several zombies doing their trademark shuffle-dance.

Capcom's Dead Rising has a lot to offer in the fun department. The multitude of weapons keeps things interesting, but no matter how entertaining butchering hordes of zombies is, there needs to be a convincing story to keep you coming back to the Willamette mall. The demo does allude to several other non-zombie characters you will meet during your extended shopping trip: a survivalist gun nut and his two kids, three escaped convicts joyriding in a jeep playing "mailbox-baseball" with people's heads and a very disturbed cult leader that has set up shop in the mall's movie theater. With such an eclectic cast shown in the demo, the retail version shouldn't disappoint when it comes to meeting new and interesting people, and with such a crazy mix of characters, there's sure to be a few twists here and there as Frank unravels the mystery behind the zombie infestation.

Given the track record of XBL Marketplace demo's being nearly identical to the retail version, it's safe to say that the look and feel of Dead Rising isn't going to change much when the game is released on August 8^th, which is too bad. The only thing that leaps out at you as worthy of being "next-gen" is the number of zombies on screen. Visually, Dead Rising looks more like a very well done original Xbox title in high definition. Zombies only come in a very small variety of flavors, meaning you'll be staring down twin zombies quite often. It's certainly passable work, just nothing like the polish seen on other recent demos showcased on the XBL Marketplace (I'm looking at you Saint's Row).

Get ready to live out everyone's favorite post-apocalyptic fantasy of having to fend for yourself against a never-ending horde of zombies. Dead Rising may not be the most eye-catching title on the 360, but it's promising to be one of the most fun titles on the Xbox 360.

- Teal