Rock of the Dead rises on Wii this Spring @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on February 10, 2010

News: Kill those zombies with the power of ROCK!

Do you want to guarantee that your game zooms to the top of my must play list? Describe it like this in an interview:

"Picture Typing of the Dead but with Guitar Hero guitars instead of a QWERTY keyboard."

That's how Epicenter Studios described their latest project for the Wii, Rock of the Dead, to IGN yesterday. In Rock of the Dead, players will pick up their guitar controller and use it to literally shred the undead.

Like in Typing of the Dead, zombies and other things that go bump in the night will charge the player. But instead of having to type a hilarious phrases with a keyboard to kill it, Rock of the Dead asks players (either alone or with a friend) to strum a few notes on the guitar. As IGN said in their preview, "[c]halk this one up for the 'Why didn't anyone think of this before?' department". I couldn't agree more.

The game won't feature much in the way of licensed songs, aside from a few Rob Zombie/White Zombie tracks. In its place will be rock versions of public domain classical music. As you may have guessed, Epicenter and publisher Conspiracy are shooting for a budget price in the $30-40 range.

Thankfully, Epicenter didn't skimp on the voice acting for Rock of the Dead. Neil Patrick Harris will play the game's lead character and nerd queen Felicia Day will portray his love interest.

Rock of the Dead is currently on track for a late Spring/early Summer release. In the meantime, you can check out a quintet of gameplay videos over at IGN.

We'll have more soon.