Parents' Guide to Dead Rising

It's violent, gory and completely ridiculous – yet mature gamers who spend time with this adventure game won't be able to put it down. By giving you an open-ended action-adventure game, Dead Rising lets you go virtually anywhere and interact with more than 80 survivors. It also lets you use anything found in the game environment, such as a box to climb over a tall barrier, a golf club or frying pan to whack zombies, or an air duct to travel to other areas of the mall. But your greatest asset is your digital camera as you must take photos for the rest of the world to see – if you can make it out alive, of course. Taking good photos – such as an up-close snapshot of a zombie's face (no easy task) or one that shows a drama on a survivor's face – earns the player Prestige Points, which can be used to upgrade skills, including attack power, movement speed, and throwing distance. The camera's battery will eventually run out so players must find replacement batteries in the mall to keep snapping photos. At any time in the game, players can look through their photo album and keep which ones they like best.

Missions are listed as "Cases," which will lead you to the truth behind the zombie outbreak. Some missions are mandatory while others are optional. As one would expect for such a game, fighting plays a big part in Dead Rising. Players will unlock new attack moves over time to better stave off the blood-thirsty mob (who grow stronger and faster at night, by the way). This is one of those "guilty pleasure" games. The premise is campy and the action is over-the-top, but it's also good-looking, fun, and addictive for mature players -- and it's never looked and played so well as it has with the 2016 remastered version.