Initially, There is a lot to be excited about for Wanted: Dead. The lineage of the developer, the bizarre mix of shooter and slasher, and just a bat-shit-crazy premise. The game is helmed by Takayuki Kikuchi, who had worked at Tecmo on Team Ninja and was a producer for Ninja Gaiden 2. The truth hurts more than having a samurai sword plunged in the heart by your plushie Leonardo you had as a kid. Wanted: Dead looks bad and has terrible voice acting, but I still had a lot of fun with it and it makes me crazy.
Give it to me straight, Doc.
Let’s start with the positives and there are many good things about Wanted: Dead.
The visuals look dated but with some modern character models. Weirdly, it is like those 2.5D games where you have pretty backgrounds with flat sprites, except here, it is the opposite. There is a very interesting soundtrack with a mix of retro-inspired synth-wave, pop, and metal tracks. I often found myself jamming to the music while I was idling.
The roster of characters is diverse and unique; they all seem like stark stereotypes from popular movies though. Vivienne, aka Gunsmith, is one of the more interesting characters. She will give you some interesting tidbits while working on your weapons. There is an oddly large variety of mini-games to play along with the main campaign. In between levels, you will play rhythm games akin to PaRappa the Rappa. There’s a claw game to collect figures of the game’s cast and a fully fleshed-out side-scrolling space shooter called Space Runaway. All that aside, the combat is the best part of Wanted: Dead. At times it feels really damn good and will make you nostalgic for some of your favorite action games. The anime cutscenes are gorgeous, breathing some cool variety into the odd bit of the story. Let’s break it down.
