Sega’s House of the Dead series of light gun shooters has always featured acting and dialogue on par with the worst B movies. The publisher is now embracing that cinematic parallel, as the next version in the series--The House of the Dead: Overkill for the Nintendo Wii--will adopt the aesthetic approach of classic exploitation B movies.

Describing the genre as "pulp funk horror," Sega appears to be borrowing cues from last year’s Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez film Grindhouse. The first trailer for the game combines scratched-up footage of zombie carnage with gratuitous go-go dancer shots and a classic horror flick voice-over spouting catchphrases like, "They’ve come for brains; you’ll give them bullets."

As for the story that will unfold amid the bloodshed, Sega is prepping a prequel tale about the notorious Agent G and his partner, Agent Washington. Washington plays the hard-boiled zombie killer role, while G gets his first taste of gray-matter guzzlers in the streets and swamps of Louisiana’s Bayou City.

Two players will be able to team up as G and Washington to turn back the undead horde using traditional point-and-shoot action combined with melee attacks using the motion-sensitive Wii Remote. Sega is also introducing new gameplay tweaks like the self-explanatory "Slow-MoFo Time" and "Evil Eye," which helps highlight interactive bits of the environment.

Sega has entrusted development on Overkill to Headstrong Games, formerly known as Kuju London. Previous projects from Headstrong include Battalion Wars for the GameCube and Battalion Wars 2 for the Wii. Overkill is expected to arrive next year.

By Brendan Sinclair