Dead Rising 4: Frank's Big Package

This mature action game spreads a healthy mix of holiday cheer and macabre horror in a game that's perfect for older gamers, and the extra content boosts the humor and chills. It's been 16 years since Capcom first introduced gamers to the little town of Willamette, its pesky infestation of the undead, and the man caught in the middle of it all, Frank West. Now, more than a decade and a half later, he's headed back to where it all began, a little tougher, a little wiser, and a whole lot more fun. One of the things that made the first Dead Rising such a hit was its insane mix of dramatic horror and off-the-wall slapstick humor. With each subsequent entry in the franchise, though, the games got darker and more serious, losing a lot of the laughs that gave the original its charm. Dead Rising 4: Frank's Big Package goes back to its roots, not only with its star and setting but with its deft blending of humor, horror, chuckles, and carnage. One minute you're fighting for your life by chopping your way through a swarm of zombies, and the next you're stopping long enough to get a few quick selfies with your photogenic foes.

Dead Rising 4: Frank's Big Package isn't just a rehash of everything from the first game. In fact, in an odd twist, it's what it has dropped from the previous games that makes it a better experience overall. In previous games, there was always a fixed amount of time to get things done, a deadline hanging over the head of the player that was a source of artificial tension and very real frustration. Dead Rising 4 nixes this, giving players more of an opportunity to make the most of the game's open-world environment. Fighting against the series' signature psychopaths and rescuing civilians trapped among the zombies has also taken a bit of a step down in priority, more like optional side quests than any essential story element. Admittedly, this sort of makes those encounters feel more like pointless filler, but it's still fun to take a break from smashing undead and throw down against sadistic Santas and the like. What's great about this expanded edition of the game are the included DLC extras, like playing a zombified version of mini-golf, as well as an epilogue of the campaign where Frank takes to the streets as an undead journalist, taking on targets with his undead powers. But the clear standout comes from the Capcom Heroes mode, where Frank gets the chance to step into the fireball throwing shoes of Ryu and Akuma, the blaster wielding boots of Mega Man, or even the paws of Amaterasu from Okami. Giving players a new tongue-in-cheek way of destroying zombies just adds a ton of replayability and fun to the gameplay. Overall, Dead Rising 4: Frank's Big Package feels like a near-perfect bookend to the Dead Rising series and a weirdly satisfying holiday experience that's only slightly less violent than some actual Black Friday shopping events.