Dead Rising

Some franchises on this list feel like they were never given a chance to become something big and successful. Then you have a series like Capcom’s Dead Rising, which feels like it’s been given a few chances and yet has exploded in the way you’d think a game about killing thousands of zombies would have. I think the problem isn’t just zombie fatigue, but that Dead Rising as a franchise is extremely inconsistent. Beyond the crowds of zombies and the ability to kill them all using anything you find, the games have changed a lot and that’s made it hard to develop a fanbase.

If I were to give Capcom some advice, it would be to look back at that first game and try again. But this time, embrace the harder and less flexible format of Dead Rising 1. People love that shit nowadays. Games like Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3 show that players crave challenges and difficulty in a way that maybe they didn’t back in the early days of the 360. And leverage the newer consoles to make the biggest zombie game yet, too. Imagine an open-world zombie game 10x bigger than any previous Dead Rising, but as hard and unforgiving as Dark Souls. That shit would sell like hotcakes! — Zack Zwiezen