Dead Rising

When all you have is a shovel...

Frank West, a freelance photojournalist (He's covered wars, you know!), follows a tip of unknown origin into the small town of Willamette, CO. A military lockdown of the town is hiding a Zombie Apocalypse from the media, and Frank is hellbent on getting the story. Via helicopter, he bypasses the barricades and enters the Willamette Mall in hopes of finding the secret behind the happenings...

So begins Dead Rising, Capcom's hit free-roamer for the 360. Armed with just about anything you can find (and in a shopping mall, that's plenty), your goal is to survive for three days while getting the story. Arguably the game's defining feature is the sheer number of zombies that can be on screen at once, greatly adding to the effect of a mall literally overrun with the living dead. While the game is short (Six hours, real time, not counting cutscenes or pauses), it's a haven for fans of One Hundred Percent Completion challenges (unless you want to get 100% in one playthrough), as different achievements require wildly out-of-the-way trips and are of varying difficulty.

It's somewhat difficult and has a rather strange way of rewarding the player up leveling.

While the game is a major success in the Western world, it sold poorly in Japan, largely due to its rating meaning no mass retail availability (Chop Till You Drop sold half as well, which was actually better than some thought) as well as the 360s lesser overall sales in Japan. Despite that, Capcom created a sequel set in Las Vegas Fortune City, starring new character Chuck Greene, and releasing across the 360, Play Station 3, and PC.

A third game, set in Los Angeles Los Perdidos, was released on November 22, 2013.

A fourth game, set in Willamette, Colorado once more and with Frank West as the returning protagonist, was released on December 6, 2016.

See Dead Rising 2 for the chainsawed-and-duct-taped sequel. See also Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, a Pragmatic Adaptation for the Wii. And speaking of Dead Rising and the Wii, Frank made his fighting game debut in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars. And speaking of fighting games, Frank makes an appearance in Marvel vs. Capcom 3's Updated Rerelease, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Tropes used in Dead Rising include:

• Action Commands
• Action Survivor: A few, though Frank is the purest example.
• Affably Evil: In Larry the butcher's introductory scene, he's always smiling and/or giggling creepily and treats Frank as a "customer" (though having captured Carlito, he intends to serve said customer Mexican), one of the only Psychopaths who isn't fixed on ripping Frank to shreds and/or filling him with lead. In fact, when his actual boss fight starts, he'll ignore Frank, humming and sharpening his knives unless you attack first.
• America Saves the Day: Inverted. Later in the game, the military shows up on a mission to capture or kill any survivors in an attempt to cover up what happened there so it wouldn't get linked back to what started all this: the Santa Cabeza incident
• Artificial Stupidity: The survivors you have to escort are dumber than a sack of doorknobs, to the point where injured survivors are the easiest, because you just have to carry them to the safe room.
• Attack Drone: Looking like an RC helicopter with a machine gun slung underneath, they help the Special Forces patrol the mall in overtime mode.
• Ax Crazy: The Psychopaths (the local bosses - surviving humans most of which went completely insane when the zombies were let into the mall), practically as a rule.
• Badassery
  • Badass Bystander: In contrast to most of the survivors, who have to be rescued and armed by the player, Kendall the restaurant manager shows up armed with a shotgun and helps escort you during a story-based mission where you're unable to fight due to having to carry an injured plot-critical character. It's a shame the game's limited A.I. somewhat reduces his effectiveness, and that he also attempts a mutiny later on if he survives (although his mutiny is much easier to calm down than Ronald's).
  • Badass Grandpa: Cliff doesn't seem that old, but it turns out he's a literal example.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Frank West eventually learns how to disembowel people with his bare hands. Multiple times, usually with no fatalities to non-zombies, and infinitesimal damage dealt.
• BFG: The M2 machine gun is mounted on a jeep, but Frank can just carry it around after he defeats the prisoners.
• Big Bad: Carlito, strictly speaking, though he ends up seeming like more of an Big Bad Wannabe. From another point of view, Brock is.
• Bilingual Bonus: Carlito and Isabela occasionally speak in Spanish. Also, Larry the butcher has the kanji for 'Meat' (as seen in Kinnikuman) tattooed on the back of his neck.
• Black and Gray Morality
• Bloody Hilarious: The Excavator is a laugh riot. Using it impales a zombie on the tool's spinning auger, upon which you lift the spinning, flailing undead into the air and pummel other zombies with it. Limbs and bits of flesh fly off in every direction with each hit you land. Fun for the whole family!
  • Spearing Zombies with the Lead Pipe or the Shower Nozzle also qualify for this trope: the pipe slowly siphons the blood out of their chest cavity until they collapse, and the shower nozzle is plunged into the top of their skulls, providing them with their own private red shower until they too cave in on themselves from blood-loss.
  • Running down zombies with an industrial strength lawnmower, literally cutting a bloody swathe through the horde. Trying to frantically kill zombies in a toy store, plastic swords and tennis balls bounce harmlessly off the dead, biking/skateboarding directly into a mass until you inevitably get tossed, and at one point you get a ping pong ball shooting Mega Man gun.
    • Indeed, mentioned below, after getting the Zombie Genocider achievement, you can restart the game from that save to start off with a full suit of Mega Man armor, along with a respawning Mega Man Buster that fires actual plasma/electric balls of doom.
• Blown Across the Room: Cletus' shotgun has one hell of a kick, which is why his boss fight is so damned frustrating. To wit, the animation where Frank gets knocked backwards and staggers to his feet is only minimally shorter than the time it takes Cletus to rack his shotgun.
• Boom! Headshot!: A gun will kill any zombie instantly if you shoot them in the head (unless they're wearing a hard hat, in which case it won't work.) One survivor (Ross) will take his own life if you fulfill his request and give him a gun, another asks you to bring her a gun just in case she starts to turn, and some of them will put a bullet through their brain if you equip them with a gun and they run out of health from the zombies.
• Bottomless Bladder: Amusingly subverted; while Frank isn't required to use the restroom, doing so is the primary method of saving the game. This makes even more sense when you realize that liquids restore much more health than solid foods, so Frank is usually carrying (and drinking) lots of OJ.
  • Note that this explanation is Fridge Brilliance * ba dum tish*
• Bowdlerise: The Japanese version of the game is completely bloodless, due to rating restrictions that would get the game banned.
• Bragging Rights Reward: Several. Zombie Genocider, Saint, Clothes Horse, and more.
  • 7 Day Survivor is probably the most well known, given it demands perfection, a solid plan, and a LOT of spare time at once (You can't save and come back).
    • To elaborate on this, 7 Day Survivor requires you to play "Infinity Mode", where there are even more zombies than in the story mode, as well as regular run-ins with psychopaths and hostile survivors. In this mode, Frank needs to use a food item at least once every 120 seconds or start losing health. As mentioned above, there's no saving OR pausing. Have fun playing for fourteen hours non-stop.
    • Note that this game was released before Microsoft extended the warranty for the Red Ring of Death, meaning that playing for 14 straight hours ran the real risk of bricking your game system. Bragging rights indeed.
• Breakable Weapons: All weapons break over time, some last longer than others.
• Bullfight Boss: Steven the grocery store manager is easiest to beat if he crashes his shopping cart or gets the blades attached to the front stuck while charging Frank.
• The Butcher: Larry.
• Cabin Fever: If you've gathered enough survivors, by the third day some of them will have started arguing or occasionally knocking each other around. If you've gathered most of the survivors, by that time several of them will start actively pummeling the others (though thankfully they can't kill each other).
• Camera Sniper: Used in cut-scenes as well as incorporated into gameplay.
• Car Fu: The most-effective (and possibly only) way to get the "Genocider" achievement in the required 72 hours is to drive laps through the crowded underground parking garage running down zombies and changing cars as necessary.
• Chained to a Rock: A mall fountain, actually.
• Chainsaw Good: Both subverted and played straight. Subverted with the chainsaw you find (Slow, prone to needing startup time, and only usable by spinning or inaccurate flailing), played straight with the mini-chainsaw you can obtain from an early boss (One-handed, can be shoved into inventory, terribly damaging, and very fast).
• Character Level: This game implements a level-up system: you kill zombies and take pictures to gain experience, and each level gained results in either a stat boost (Speed, Power, Inventory, etc.) or a new move (Double Lariat, Disembowel).
• Chewing the Scenery: The grocery store manager boss. "This is my stooore!".
• Church Militant: Raincoat Cult leader Sean Keanan kicks ass for the mannequin-god Lord!
• Cold Sniper: Roger seems to be a pretty textbook example.
• Combat Pragmatist: Nearly everything you see in the mall can be picked up and used to clobber Zombies. This includes benches, rocks, and trash cans.
• Continuing Is Painful: Somewhat subverted. There's not a penalty for dying per se, but you won't get far towards the best ending unless you start a new game with some pre-gained EXP at the beginning.
• Crazy Survivalist: Some of the Psychopaths' flavor of crazy in the midst of Zombie Apocalypse.
• Deadly Lunge: Most zombies are rather slow, but they speed up once they get close. There's also the occasional zombie who starts sprinting from a distance.
  • As stated later, the word 'sprint' doesn't exactly characterize. It's more of a jog with a broken ankle. And it's thwarted by moving slightly to either side, seeing as it has about as sharp a turning radius as you would expect for a zombie.
• Defeat Means Friendship: You have to attack Burt before he teams up with you. Also, When Paul catches on fire, you can put him out and he will join you.
  • It also takes defeat for Isabela to start to cooperate with Frank.
• Depraved Bisexual/Depraved Homosexual: The alternate version of Kent's boss fight has left some either guessing or assuming.
  • Jo Slade is also strongly implied to be one of these, and in unpleasant ways.
• Did Not Do the Research: People from the Willamette region in Oregon do NOT appreciate hearing the name mispronounced. (It's Wil-LA-mette not "WILL-a-mette")
• Difficult but Awesome: The regular chainsaw is like this, especially in Infinity Mode before you get the Small Chainsaw. The standard swing is awkward as hell and leaves you vulnerable to attack after each swing, and you drop the weapon if you take a single hit from anything (forcing you to pick it up and rev it up again). However, the running attack absolutely scythes through zombies and bosses as long as you make absolutely sure never to stop moving, and if you constantly swing wihle running, it becomes nearly as lethal as the small chainsaw.
• Disc One Nuke: The Small Chainsaw can be collected from the clown boss, and will carve up all of the subsequent bosses with ease. If you get books to extend its life, the first one you grab will last you until the end of the game. Not only that, but if you grab it before you stop the roller coaster, you can get a second when the cutscene ends. Also, if you leave that section of the mall and come back, it will respawn at the control station.
  • The Mannequin Torso weapon is one of the best in game, easily dishing out more damage than most other everyday items. When Frank's strength is upgraded once it becomes lethal to bosses as well as zombies.
  • The machine gun on the back of the Convicts' truck. Kill the gunner, snatch the gun, then waste the other two. Hold onto it afterwards and kill more bosses with it.
• Driven to Madness: A rare accidental case. Kent probably wasn't all that stable to begin with, viewing a zombie apocalypse as an opportunity to score some great photos, but when Frank one-ups him, he does not take it well.
  • Carlito is one definite case. The loss of his hometown to the sinister livestock research program by the f***in' USA leads him into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge all over the Eagle Land.
• Doomed Hometown: Santa Cabeza, for Carlito and Isabela.
  • Wait...'Saint Head'?
  • Why, yes. It's not far from Santa Nariz and Santa Puta. All within Santa Malanombre, of course.
• Downer Beginning: A mother and a daughter are shown to be devoured by the undead inside a broken car at night in the prelude.
• Downer Ending: Endings B through F are all downers. Ending A, however, is hardly any better as the helicopter you have planned to get on crashes because of a zombie aboard. Although this one is narrowly averted later by the Overtime Mode, we arrive at the true ending - Ending S, which can be considered a major downer: you succeeded in escaping from the hellhole of Williamette Mall with every single bit of evidences you need to expose the government crimes that instigated the disaster to the whole world. However, the U.S. government, as morally cowardly as always, only acknowledges partial responsibility over the livestock research program that destroyed Isabella and Carlito's home, and refuses to admit its guilt over causing the zombie disaster. People in the rich men's society soon disregard every critical danger you fought so hard to make them aware of - including Carlito's chilling plan of using orphans to provoke the apocalypse in the entire United States, setting the stage for Dead Rising 2 5 years later.
• Do Not Run with a Gun: Made worse by the fact that aiming causes the camera to reset over Frank's right shoulder, meaning that in the time you come out of cover, stop, slooowly bring the reticule around to point at the boss, and fire, that boss has already done all four, and knocked you right off your feet with a single shot.
  • Ofcourse people forget that there's settings which can change how the aiming works. One sitting resets the camera over Frank's shoulder from where he is facing, while another resets the camera and Frank in the direction the camera is positioned. This could ofcourse just be a case of Did Not Read The Manual, or people not adjusting the settings.
  • The aiming system is quite close to RE 4's aiming system, but depending on what version you talk about. Ofcourse if you talk about the Wii version, it's just a re-build with RE 4's game engine.
• Drop the Hammer: The sledgehammer is one of the most useful weapons.
• Eagle Land: Type 2. The US Government doing horrible experiments in a foreign country? Check. Because Americans eat too much? Check. The same Government killing civilians and reporters who learn the truth? Check. Religious fanatics? Check. Right Wing Militia Fanatics? Check. The USA doesn't come off well in this series.
  • If anything Dead Rising can be regarded as the apotheosis of the core principles upon which George Romero created the modern interpretation of the zombie: Satirizing the fundamental flaws of Western culture and civilisation by using the undead hordes as an analogy for the selfish consumers that make up society. This ceases to be subtext and becomes blatant fore-text when Carlito exposits his hatred for Americans and compares them to zombies, the point when any remaining subtlety in the story evaporates. Kind of undermined by the fact that he's still a child murderer and a genocidist, and the DHS guys are decent.
• Easy Levels, Hard Bosses: Not kidding.
  • Well it is a game where the main enemies are undead corpses, and the bosses are mostly human. And the humans (read: psychopathes) are, due to the Nintendo Hard nature, stronger than Frank. Even at Lv. 50 they can kick your ass. Hard.
• Empathy Doll Shot: When Frank meets Adam. He glances into a passing Space Coaster car and sees two bloody dolls propped up in the seat.
• Escort Mission: A great deal of the game, some are entirely optional while others are needed for story purposes. The death of the character you were escorting results in no punishment, but a successful rescue gives a hefty reward.
• Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: Can be used as a weapon, but not effectively at first.
• Evil Laugh: Brock.
• Evolving Attack: As Frank levels up, his attacks become more powerful. He also becomes a ninja.
• Eye Scream: Sean Keanan's death.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Every one of the survivors in the intro will die, even when you beef up in a New Game + , they don't have the AI to follow you to the stairs.
  • Even when you have the ability to pick them up, you won't be holding the survivor once the cutscene ends.
• Fake Difficulty: The time limit is extremely tight and restrictive, leaving little to no room for error or leisure time.
  • This isn't entirely true. Once you've been through a few cycles and are familiar with the events, you'll find there are several periods where you're simply waiting for the next event to happen, even in a perfect game.
• The Family That Slays Together: The Halls, a trio of zealous survivalist snipers--a father and his two sons.
• Fan Disservice: Zombies in cropped tops and short skirts. Taking photos of them nevertheless scores major bonuses for "erotica", as Frank leers "goooooood".
  • Frank does the grind when trying on women's clothing. Grab the Brain Bleach, you'll need it to remove the Squick and Nightmare Fuel.
  • Taking a Panty Shot of an elderly female survivor will score Horror points instead of Erotica points.
• Fan Service: Jessie and Isabela are drop dead sexy.
• Fat Bastard: Jo and Larry are among the nastier bosses (in Jo's case that includes personality). Ronald is probably more of a Fat Slob, but he's one of the more Jerkass survivors.
• First-Person Snapshooter: One of the most justified examples given that Frank is a freelance photographer. He's covered wars, y'know.
• Fisticuffs Boss: Naturally, waiting at the very end of Overtime mode.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: There's various ways to do this, for example, just grab a nearby skateboard, shopping cart, parasol or any other handy melee weapon and off you go.
• Fragile Speedster: The Halls. Their bullets tend not to do all that much damage, and only Roger is mostly guaranteed to actually hit you when he has a clean shot at you anyway (Jack is a fairly decent shot and Thomas is a somewhat lousy one). They would be a pretty easy fight if they were only easier to catch when they run. And being snipers, go after one and he'll definitely run. And since one of his family will probably throw you off with a bullet once you get close enough to hit, not keeping track of them can also draw the fight out.
• Friendly Fireproof: Completely absent. Other survivors are quite capable of shooting or smacking you to the ground, though it's often by accident. Dammit Isabela! Here I am trying to escort you and you had to go and get killed by my sledgehammer!
• Gameplay and Story Segregation
• Gas Mask Mooks: The Special Forces soldiers.
• General Ripper: Brock.
• Go-Go Enslavement: See "Shirtless Scene" below.
• Gosh Hornet
• The Government: Who enforces lockdown. There are Black Ops soldiers (who look like HUNK and have M-16s) on the loose. Oh, and they were involved with the Mad Scientist who found out what causes the zombies - a species of hornet.
• Glass Cannon: When Kent goes Psychopath he's easily defeated with a few good hits from a rock... but let him catch up to you and he'll kick the living hell out of you before you can land even one of those hits.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: At night, the Zombies' eyes start to glow and they become significantly more difficult to defeat.
• Groin Attack: Female zombies will often attack Frank's crotch. This is just as awful as it sounds.
  • Paul accidentally sets his crotch on fire when you defeat him, giving you the opportunity to save him with a nearby fire extinguisher. One mistake many players make is to use the aim button to spray the extinguisher, which causes Frank to throw it with all his strength...into the guy's groin.
  • Even Isabela also does this to Frank after being defeated in her boss fight and before going to his side.
• Guide Dang It: Many survivors have no in-game indication of their location or even their existence.
  • Actually, if you follow the story and hit all the scoops in a good timed fashion, you can stumble upon every survivor except Bill. However, you're supposed to get him after saving Brad and heading towards Barnaby, your only clues being the zombies randomly gathered around In the Closet, or the fact that Bill is Trapped in the Closet
• Guns Are Worthless: While handy for their range, firearms are largely inferior to a simple lead pipe. Far more effective against the living dead than they are against crazy humans.
  • The best weapons against all the psychopaths are swords and chainsaws... Though in Adam's case, having a handgun may still be the best route to defeat him.
  • You'd think that, since the Special Forces drop the best firearm in the game, that it would be the ideal weapon to use against them. However, they can take quite a few bullets, and most importantly they are not stunlocked by continuous automatic fire, so while you're busy shooting them they can still shoot you. A lot.
• Heroic BSOD
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Frank West is voiced by T. J. Rotolo, who you may recognize as the voice of Dark Specter from Power Rangers in Space.
  • Cliff, the insane Vietnam veteran, is voiced by Steve Blum. Blum also voices the Cold Sniper Roger Hall.
  • Adam the Clown is voiced by John Kassir, otherwise known for the Crypt Keeper and X-Men Legends / Marvel Ultimate Alliance Deadpool.
  • Isabela is voiced by Kim Mai Guest, who did Mei Ling and Ling Xian.
  • Carlito is voiced by Alex Fernandez, who voiced Seymour and Mangus.
  • Brock is voiced by Gregg Berger, who voiced Jecht, Galactus, Odie and Grimlock???
• Heel Face Turn: One of the boss fights gives you the option to save the boss you just defeated (a young pyromaniac) or let him roast. If you do choose to save him he regains his sanity and joins you, even giving you Molotov cocktails as a bonus weapon later on.
  • In Chop Til You Drop, the crazed gun shop owner can also be persuaded into becoming an ally.
• Hide Your Children: Infant Immortality is technically averted by referencing and heavily, heavily implying the disturbing deaths of children (the opening cutscene, Cliff, Leah, Adam...). As for onscreen, Paul is 19? Not too hard to see. Jack is 23? A little more of a stretch. "B-But Daddy" Thomas is 20? Hm.
  • Don't forget Carlito's literal Tyke Bomb plan.
• High-Pressure Blood: The Shower Nozzle invokes this by defying the laws of physics. Then again, what doesn't in this game?
• Holler Button: Used to call and lead survivors. Oddly, can be used in Infinity Mode, where the survivors are trying to kill you.
• Ho Yay / Foe Yay: Hinted at through Kent's alternate battle, the cutscene prior to the fight just drives the nail deeper.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Paul ends up setting himself on fire in the cutscene after his boss fight, though he can be saved, not to mention what happens to Adam and Sean...
• Homage: Hmm... zombies... in a mall full of goodies... and they only way to escape was by helicopter... Sounds familiar. Actually, an early warning was to inform that the game wasn't a game based on Romero's movie.
• Hot-Blooded: Burt, one of the survivors, swears in every other sentence and attacks everything that moves. Even if he has to go out of his way to do it, making him a somewhat annoying escort.
• Hot Scientist: Isabela is a competent pharmacist. She creates the first drug that delays zombification as well as a zombie repellant that allows her and Frank to safely navigate the underground tunnel near the end of Overtime Mode.
  • She's also a trained medical technician which means that she may also be a Hospital Hottie.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Averted. Frank, being a reporter, isn't familiar with firearms. The gun mechanics reflect this by having Frank feel very clunky while turning, and hitting faraway targets is naturally more difficult. He's competent enough with them without being useless.
  • He's also reasonably nervous about relying on his aiming skills to take on a nutjob with an SMG, which is only natural:

Brad: Okay, we'll have to talk about this later. You know how to use that gun?
Frank: I've never fired at a person!

• • Interestingly enough, prior to that, Frank tells a different story when borrowing the gun from Brad's partner Jessie:

Jessie: Y'know how to use this? * handing him the gun*
Frank: Kind of. I've covered wars, y'know.

• • I've gotta ask; What does proficiency have to do with one's willingness to shoot someone? I'd always assumed Frank's "I've covered wars, y'know" meant he'd spent a lot of time around merc and soldiers, enough to know how to clear a jam and such. Then again, anyone going to cover a war and not think take a firearms proficiency class...
• The Hunters: The Halls.
• Improbable Weapon User: One of your best ways of clearing a path for yourself involves a parasol or mall umbrella.
• Improvised Weapon: Just about anything you can find. ANYTHING.
  • A small sample of the more unlikely weapons: Paintings; LCD Televisions; Park Benches; Bowling Balls; Baking Flour; Ketchup; Fistfuls of Diamonds; Traffic Cones; 12-packs of Canned Soda, and Ice Augers
  • Anything that the developers allowed you to pick up of course. But still, that's a lot of anything.
• Infant Immortality: Averted so hard. The extra cutscene accessed by waiting on the opening screen ends with a mother and her young daughter trapped a car surrounded by zombies, and once inside the mall, Cliff went insane after watching zombies devour his granddaughter, it's implied Adam saw this happen to his entire audience, and one of the survivors will tell Frank that her baby was eaten.
  • Averted in the second game yet again if Katey doesn't get her zombrex she will die. You don't see her turn but you know that she's dead.
• Infinity+1 Sword: A laser sword! With extend-o-hilt! The Real Mega Buster would also count, except that it's theoretically possible to get before completing any story missions, as long you don't mind spending an entire playthrough driving backwards and forwards through a tunnel first.
  • The small chainsaws. This overlaps with Disc One Nuke, but let's face it; The small chainsaw is much, much easier to get a hold of, you can carry more than one at a time, and if you triple-book it, it'll last a hell of a lot longer than the laser sword. King of weapons, hands down.
• Insecurity Camera: Averted. The cameras all do their job well, both for advancing the overall plot and allowing Otis to spot any survivors (or psychopaths) hiding in the malls many stores.
• Instrument of Murder
• Intrepid Reporter: Frank West, of course.
  • Although Brad accuses him of being nothing more than an opportunistic Paparazzi.
• Jerkass: Frank seems to qualify at a few points. In the cutscene where you first meet the raincoat cult, he seemed perfectly content to sit in the back and take pictures of a survivor being sacrificed up until their leader points him out and they attack.
  • Of course he could just be sick and tired of all the survivors being Too Dumb to Live.
  • A Jerkass he is, of course, but here he is trying to gather one of the evidences of the terror in Williamette Mall so that the whole world is aware of the terrible truth behind all these zombie atrocities done by the government of America - this is a part of his duty.
  • That makes him a Jerk with a Heart of Gold
• Joke Item: Several of the weirder items Frank can pick up, although the toy laser sword is at least useful as a flashlight at night.
  • You can beat zombies to death with a teddy bear. Greatest thing ever.
    • If you have nothing equipped and go into aim mode you can spit at your enemies. And with a certain powerup, your spit becomes lethal.
      • Placing Servbot and traffic cones over zombies' heads repeatedly is fun AND a great deterrent.
• Karma Meter: Handled about as non-intrusively as possible. There really is nothing stopping the player from being a saint who risks life and limb to save lives while desperately attempting to uncover the conspiracy, a sociopathic asshole who is so obsessed with getting a scoop that he photographs people being eaten alive by monsters, or even wearing a cocktail dress and purposefully murdering every survivor they come across, effectively becoming a Psychopath. The meter is present in that the player generally receives more PP for more altruistic work, but the choice really does belong to them.
  • Evil Is Easy
• Katanas Are Just Better: Well, they are good, but no more than any other non-motorized bladed weapon.
• Kill'Em All: Willamette, Colorado has 53,594 citizens. If you kill that many zombies, you get the "Genocider" achievement and the Mega Buster.
  • Note, however, that this does not mean that the mall runs out of zombies. They must be getting bussed in from somewhere.
  • This was Shouted Out and 1-Upped in Left 4 Dead, in which there is an achievement for 53,595 kills. And again in Prototype with an achievement that raises the bar up to 53,596. Re-uped twice in the sequel ((Dead Rising 2))...
• The Klutz: Paul. He even has a knack for getting caught in his own explosions in the middle of his fight.
• Laser Blade: The Beam Sword and Toy Laser Sword.
• Laughing Mad: Adam.
  • Paul also, whenever he ups his own confidence by getting firepower at the ready. It counts as a Photo Op if you snap a picture of him hyena-laughing in the middle of a fight.
  • Frank himself tends to let out a rueful little laugh whenever he's right up against his breaking point.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: One survivor will randomly decide that you are a terrible leader and demand to speak to you. If you don't return within a short time, he takes every survivor in the room with him and leaves, and the game registers them all as dead.
• Lightning Bruiser: An infuriating number of the bosses - Cliff for one, and Jo and Larry move much faster than their enormous sizes would lead you to believe.
  • Sean, the sword-wielding cult leader, has remarkable ninja-like speed and agility for a man who's nearly old enough to be the Pope. He can take a decent number of hits, too.
• The Load:
  • Injured or infirm survivors are unable to use weapons or run normally, and have to either be carried by Frank or left to limp around at ridiculously slow speed. While this is actually a benefit for solo escorts (Frank is much harder to hit by zombies when carrying a survivor), it can turn a group escort from manageable to TV-smashing frustrating as babysitting the injured survivor leaves you unable to defend the rest of the group.
  • Most female survivors are pretty much useless, being unable to use weapons, running slightly slower than normal survivors, and often prone to panic, making them even more of a chore to escort than normal. Some argue as to the extent to which this is Truth in Television, Unfortunate Implications or (given that the game is actually Japanese) Values Dissonance. For what it's worth, though, heavy-set or middle-aged women can use weapons and are generally capable combatants.
  • Aaron, who you meet relatively early on, gets a special mention as he seems to have a unique "spastic coward" A.I. setting. He has a bizarre running animation that can only be described as mentally challenged, and even though he can be equipped with weapons, he rarely uses them and instead cowers, cries, or runs in circles when zombies approach him. He also tends to get separated from the group or stuck in one spot more often than normal. On top of all that, his AI actually prioritizes "run over to Burt, the not-entirely-incompetent NPC" above "follow Frank, the highly-competent Player Character".
  • Gordon The Coward (who's actually known as that in-game) one-ups Aaron in terms of uselessness, as he'll often collapse to the floor and start crawling around like a baby while crying in terror instead of doing anything useful. He'll also occasionally freeze in place and refuse to move until you issue a waypoint order, which can really mess up your other survivors if you'd parked them at a previous waypoint (which gets canceled by the new one). Of course, he's parked right next to the safehouse for less headaches.
  • I think someone may be confusing Gordon from DR2 with Gordon from DR 1
    • Some NPCs become more self-sufficient an aggressive depending on which weapon you give them.
    • Can be lessened by setting Waypoints, rather than using the Holler Button. NPCs will sprint full-steam toward any set waypoint.
    • Somewhat Averted in Dead Rising 2 by picking up the Leadership magazine, which increases NPC "self esteem" in combat quite a bit.
• Lost Forever: Or at least until the next playthrough.
• Mad Artist: By the time Kent wants you to photograph a human becoming a zombie, you know he's lost it - and indeed, he's one of the Psychopaths.
  • An interesting thing is that during Kent's first scoop, if he's attacked by Frank, he says that he's a pacifist. Even though that might not be true, due to him attacking and killing zombies. Also missing his scoop kills him. Which, depending on how the player sees it, it's probarly a better fate his psychopathic end. That means that Kent (depening on player actions) makes him either a amateur photographer that died, attempting to get a good scoop like Frank, or to create a What the Hell, Player? moment, YOU made him a psychopath, trying to beat him at his own sport.
• Mad Scientist: Barnaby.
• Made of Iron: Pretty much all the Psychopaths can take dozens upon dozens of bullets to bring down and are unrelenting in their desire to turn Frank into meaty chunks.
• The Mall: The main setting, as part of the game's Homage to Dawn of the Dead.
• Meganekko: Jessica.
• Magikarp Power: Jewelry, plates, CDs, and cases of soda are fairly useless when you first start out. It's when you gain some levels and up Frank's attack stat that you all of a sudden have a plentiful supply of deadly ranged weapons. This rises to Boom! Headshot! levels once you've maxed out your attack stat.
• Male Gaze: Used on Isabela once or twice, but Carlito's there for all the ladies to get their share.
  • Lampshaded the first time. Isabela is revealed using the standard POV shot panning up from the knees...only for a fat guy to jump in the way. "This is NO TIME to ogle pretty girls, son!"
  • Jessica gets a few of these herself - and the easiest way to beat Kent's photo challenge is to take a shot of her in just the right angle for a cleavage plus panty shot.
• Malevolent Masked Men: The Raincoat Cult.
• Man On Fire
• Meaningful Echo: Pachamama
• Meaningful Name: As all of the names in the game are realistic and not particularly unusual, this could be coincidence, but say, what are the last five letter's in Paul's full name, again?
  • Well, what are they?
    • Paul Carson.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: Almost exclusively, the Psychopaths are male.
• Million Mook March: In the ending credits.
• Mobstacle Course: Zombies. Are. Everywhere.
• Monster Clown: Adam.
• Multiple Endings: They're also ranked accordingly.
  • A: Complete all cases, talk to Isabela at 10 PM on the last day, and be at the helipad when time runs out. Ed shows up to rescue Frank, but there's a zombie in the copter, which causes him to crash, stranding Frank in the mall and unlocking Overtime mode.
    • True ending: Complete Overtime mode. Frank escapes from the mall with Isabela, and breaks the story to the public. They care, but only a little.
    • The 2011/2012 IDW tie-in comic, Dead Rising: Road to Fortune, extends the true ending slightly and expounds on how Frank escaped Williamette.
  • B: Fail to complete all cases, but be at the helipad when time runs out. Frank escapes the mall with any survivors he rescued, but his story is missing the most important parts. Eventually, other cities fall victim to similar zombie outbreaks.
  • C: Solve all cases, but don't meet the other requirements for ending A. Ed lands the copter, but gets eaten by a zombie. Willamette is lost to the zombies, and nobody ever finds out what happened.
  • D: Be in Special Forces custody when time runs out. Given the conditions, you can imagine where this ending goes.
  • E: Don't be at the helipad when time runs out. Brad and Jessie evacuate the survivors Frank rescued, but they have to leave without Frank. He may or may not have survived.
  • F: Fail case 7-2. Carlito's bombs go off, destroying the mall and spreading the zombie parasites through pretty much the whole country.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Carlito really overprepared for overrunning America with the zombie plague.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Steven Chapman seems to have a moment of this just before he dies, when he realizes that his STOOOOORE doesn't have much purpose when he's killed all of his customers.
• Narm/Memetic Mutation: "I've covered wars, ya know." Intentional, though. Frank is supposed to come off as an impetuous idiot in that scene.
  • Additionally, you can put Frank in ridiculous outfits, resulting in otherwise unchanged scenes featuring Frank looking like this.
  • THIS IS MY STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • WEEEEEELLLLLLL...
  • I've covered wars, y'know. I've shopped at stores, y'know. I've slept with whores, y'know. I've opened doors, y'know. I've had s'mores, y'know. Zombies are carnivores, y'know. I'm covered in sores, y'know. I've polished floors, ya know.
• Never Split the Party: If Frank puts too much distance between himself and any of the survivors he's escorting when he moves into a different area of the mall, their life bar will slowly drain until they die.
• New Game+: The game is practically dependent on it. If you game over at any point in the game, you are given the option of starting over at the level you currently are. You might as well just use this tactic to level up past 20 before you tackle the storyline.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Kent comes across this way.
  • Frank does as well whenever you take a photo that could be categorized as 'erotica'. That leering 'yeeeah' is unsettling.
• Not Using the Z Word: Completely averted. Pretty much every living person uses the Z-word without fail.
  • The very first survivors Frank meets straight-up call the undead "zombies", much to Frank's confusion (though he's not aware of the situation yet).

Ryan: Hey! You lookin' to get yourself eaten alive by zombies!?
Frank: What? Did you just say "zombies"?
Ryan: Take a look out there! [points toward the mob of undead outside] If those ain't zombies, what would you call 'em?

• • Possibly forgivable because of his delirious state, but...

Frank: Dr Barnaby, answer me! Were you involved in experiments with zombies?!
Barnaby: (as if everyone hasn't been talking about/surrounded by zombies for 2 days) ...ZOMBIES?! Yes...

• Obliviously Evil: Cliff is a Shell-Shocked Veteran caught in a Vietnam flashback when you fight him, and doesn't realize what he's actually doing.
• Older Than They Look: Just about everyone short of being middle-aged, check the profiles. The Hall brothers are 23 and 20 but look as though they were actually designed to be about 14 and 17, but were bumped up to a different age because in video games, it's against regulations to show children die violent deaths onscreen or something along those lines.
• One-Man Army: Actually averted. Despite all you can do, there are very few situations where you can just take on the zombies in your way (the cars being one of them).
• One Size Fits All: Averted. While Frank can try on clothes from any shop (including children's shops) the clothes sometimes don't fit him properly, which only adds to the surrealism.
• One Steve Limit: Conveniently, no survivors share names for easy identification.
  • Hilariously, you end up killing the only Steve in the game.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Brad and Isabela are both seriously wounded by gunfire, and recover almost completely over the course of about 5 or 6 hours. Carlito gains about 10 pounds over the weekend which is JUST bullets, but skips around the mall for nearly 3 days before succumbing to possibly-unrelated wounds after being abducted by Larry.
  • And then there's the fact that Carlito was strung up on a meathook through his ankles.
• Only Sane Man: They do exist among the Psychopaths. Isabela could count, and Thomas Hall isn't exactly comfortable with it when his dad orders him to shoot the clearly non-zombie Frank in the face unprovoked.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Zombies in this franchise are more or less pretty close to standard zombies, with two exceptions: Their eyes glow red at night, and the cause of zombieism isn't a virus; it's wasp larvae. This isn't too far from Truth in Television as far as some of the hideous things certain wasps do to their victims.
• Power-Up Food - Food and drink replenish your health.... but if you take certain foods, put them in the completely working blenders/microwave, their health benefits double and garner status effects!
• Psycho Lesbian: Jo Slade comes across this way, with an added dose of Nightmare Fuel.
• Pyromaniac: Paul, one of the Psychopaths (suitably).
• Quicksand Box: Many people complained about the structure of the game making it hard to tell what to do next.
  • The game also has a tendency to punish you for sandboxing. If you attempt to ignore the plot on your first playthrough, you're left with a very weak Frank and most of the mall shut off to you.
• Real Time Weapon Change: Choosing which weapon or power up to use on your available slots.
• Removable Turret Gun: On the convicts' car.
• Redemption Demotion: Paul is significantly less capable as a survivor than he was as a psychopath, given that he loses all of his special attacks and enhanced speed and A.I., trading it for the regular dumb-as-rocks survivor A.I.
• Respawning Enemies: The zombies, cultists, and spec ops forces. Also, the gang of convicts in the jeep respawn once per day. Contrary to popular belief, destroying their car does nothing to stop this.
  • Most annoying, zombies will respawn on the same map, as soon as you get more than about 100-200 feet away from their starting location (you can even see them appear out of nowhere in larger areas). This can often result in a horde of zombies spawning right on top of your escorted survivors should you run too far ahead of them.
• Sarcasm Mode: Frank laughs bitterly upon Isabella's revealing of Carlito's plan to bomb the entire mall - "Oh, great!"
• Say My Name: The Halls do this for each other as you take them down.
• Scenery Porn: A very overlooked aspect of the game is the detail in the mall. Gamers just think the zombie count pushes the system, but the environments are some of the most varied of any video game. And unlike the areas in typical sandbox games, it's all in one area, although not without some streaming.
• Shell Shocked Senior: One of the bosses is a Vietnam veteran who reverts when he sees his granddaughter eaten. He thinks you're Viet Cong. A fight ensues.
• Shirtless Scene: For whatever reason, enemies that capture Frank love to strip him to his skivvies.
  • You are under super secret military arrest! I guess you can keep your camera and your 2-way radio, but give us them pants!
• Siblings in Crime: Isabela was helping Carlito carry out his revenge by Zombie Apocalypse plan originally, if against her better judgement. Of course, up until her Heel Face Turn.
• Skyward Scream: After completing Overtime Mode, Frank lets rip a glorious one of these whilst on top of a tank, complete with the camera pulling out and spinning.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: During the mall's opening hours, you can hack away at the zombie hordes with cheery muzak being piped in over the speakers, as well as pre-recorded advertisements to many of the mall's special offers.
• Sprint Shoes: The skateboards, and the "quickstep" blend of drinks.
• The Stinger: Steven provides a particularly hilarious one.
• Stop Helping Me!: Otis' phone calls mean you cannot attack. Or jump. Or pick up items. Or hold on to large items you're already carrying. He will keep ringing until you answer. If you hang up or get hit, he will just call you right back, yell at you for hanging up on him, and start his painfully slow explanation over from the beginning.
  • Unfortunately, answering every single one of his calls is tied to an achievement, meaning you have to go through at least one playthrough dealing with him for 100 percent completion.
• Suicide Attack: The Cultists will from time to time attempt to grab or pounce on Frank while holding a lit stick of dynamite.
• Take Your Time: Mostly averted. The game is brutal with time limits but it's possible for Carlito and Brad to engage in a two day long gun fight while you wander about.
• Taking You with Me: Carlito's plan B in case of being rendered incapable of carrying out his scheme as planned? Blowing up the entire mall, the blast sending zombie parasites all over America.
• Television Geography: Averted, the terrain and city you fly over looks a hell of a lot like western Colorado. The only thing blowing the illusion is that the game is set in late September but the sporting goods stores do not stock any skis.
• Term Confusion: The Special Forces Soldier's main weapon is called a "Machinegun", which is wrong for two reasons. One, the weapon is clearly an AR-15 type assault rifle. Two, they spell it "Machinegun" instead of "Machine Gun".
• The Voiceless: Otis, a surviving mall security guard, never speaks during cutscenes.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: You still have to go pick it up though.
• Throw-Away Guns: You can't actually reload your guns after they run out of ammo; you can only drop them and find another.
• Timed Mission: The game is one long timed mission, often on very tight schedules to make it between Scoops and Missions without failure.
• Too Dumb to Live: Early on, things seem to be under control - some of the survivors have successfully barricaded the mall entrance, and no zombies are getting in. However, when the hysterical old woman sees her pet poodle who appears to be a zombie outside surrounded by other zombies, she takes down part of the barricade and opens the door to get the dog - not only becoming overwhelmed by zombies, but letting them at everyone else, too. Granted, with the psychopaths - and Carlito - on the prowl, they probably would have gotten in eventually, but that doesn't excuse letting the zombies in before the survivors could cluster in a safe locale.
• Trigger Happy: Cletus. And how!
  • On the 3rd day, you will find 3 rednecks (one who looks a lot like Francis if not for the fact that this game came first) holed up in the gun store. They shoot first and ask questions later. Once you walk in, they open fire from three directions. If you manage to make your way back out of the store, one of them walks up and asks if you're still alive. Trying to go back into the store makes them open fire again, so you have to somehow persuade them to follow you back to the security room from the door.
    • They won't actually shoot you until you pass the Francis guy. if you stay in front of him and move in slowly, you should be able to talk to him
• Trust Me, I'm an X: After Larry Chiang sticks Carlito on a meathook, he assures to Frank, "Trust me, I'm a butcher."
• Twisted Ankle: Jessie gets one early on, which is why the reporter is the one running around slaughtering zombies and not the government agent.
  • Though, really, she deserves it. Wearing heels at the start of a zombie outbreak, understandable. Continuing to wear them, less so.
• Tyke Bomb: It turns out Carlito is responsible for organizing adoptions for orphans with temporarily dormant infections all over America.
• Ultra Super Death Gore Fest Chainsawer 3000
• Unlockable Content
• Unwinnable by Design: For a definition of "win" that requires an ending higher than D.
• Who's Laughing Now: An aspect of Paul's psychopath status, as implied by himself.
• Weapons Kitchen Sink: It's like Jackie Chan made a zombie film...
• Weld the Lock: When you and a few survivors first barricade yourselves in the Security Room, Otis welds the entrance door shut.
• Wide Open Sandbox: While the game tries to nudge you to meet plot requirements or rescue hapless people stranded about the mall, you can choose the ignore everything even vaguely resembling a story and just find inventive ways to cave in zombie skulls or take on psychopaths. {There's a catch however. In a particularly annoying instance of Yank the Dog's Chain, the game punishes you for not following the storyline by cutting your play time short and giving you the bad ending.)
  • It only does that if you advance to a specific part of the plot and then stop. Normally, the game just shuts down the plot missions and asks you if you want to continue. If you do, you still get the full 3 days.
• Wolverine Publicity - Not reality yet, but Capcom intends to turn Frank into this.
  • His inclusion in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom seems to be one stepping stone to cement his status.
• Wrestler in All of Us - You'd be surprised how effective a German Suplex is when cornered by a bunch of zombies.
  • Leon already knows that.
  • One of the unlockable outfits is a set of blue wrestling tights and yellow wrestling boots. You can also keep Frank's default hair or shave it off and pretend you're Kurt Angle.
• You All Look Familiar: Those two people in the intro, where Frank and Ed are flying over Willamette? Take a close look at them. The one on the white car is Rich (one of the three people that was held hostage by Cliff), and the one of the building is Michelle (one of the five people held prisoner by the cult). And speaking of Cliff, the little girl in the very first intro is the same girl that's on Cliff's family photo.
• You Are Too Late: Carlito's plan largely succeeds.
• Zombie Apocalypse: Well duh.
• Zombie Gait: For most of the zombies, though there are exceptions, such as the (very rare) zombie sprinter.
  • 'Sprint' is a bit of a misnomer. The closest a zombie ever comes to sprinting is a jog...and a jog with a broken ankle, at that.
  • This was one of the unlockable abilities. It allowed Frank to shuffle his way through the hordes undetected, a la Shawn of the Dead. It's severely disadvantageous, however, as Frank's zombie shuffle is (necessarily) extremely slow, so it's usually much faster, if not necessarily easier, to just slaughter your way through them.
• Zombie Infectee: Repeatedly. One survivor will kill himself if you give him a gun. One will take his own life if he has a gun with him and loses all his life from the zombies, and another will refuse to follow unless you can prove that you can cure The Virus. Frank himself becomes one at the end, and using kids as Zombie Bombs was Carlito's whole plan.

Zombrex: Dead Rising Sun Provides Examples Of:

• Big Brother Instinct: Shin
• Bittersweet Ending: The standard ending. Shin is dead and both Mary and George are infected, but they've found a massive supply of Zombrex.
  • It turns out to be hardly even bittersweet if you look into the Zombrex commercial after the credits, which is a sign of the evil Phenotranx now controlling people around world with its vile clutches of greed.
• Dead Big Brother: Shin was shot by one of the thugs.
• Death by Irony: Takahashi told his girlfriend she was here "to give him head". After George did some serious damage to him and flees away, he ran into his zombified girlfriend who gave him a "zombie blowjob".
• Downer Beginning
• Downer Ending: Oh Lord, the Extended Ending. Mary dies from her wounds. Then, George, who is finally able to find the strength to use his legs to a degree (and fight!), gets shot in the head by Dan as he's escaping the warehouse.
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: After fighting their way through zombies and George's wheelchair getting destroyed in the process, George and Mary finally found the zombrex and instead of injecting themselves with the zombrex immediately they start laughing happily knowing that they will survive. The End. Seriously, that's how the movie ends.
  • The "Extended Ending" carries on past that, though.
• Foreshadowing: When George imagines how he will die at the hands of the psychopaths, he pictures a gunshot wound in his forehead. In the Extended Ending, Dan, on the rooftop, puts one through his head and he ends up with an exit wound in his forehead.
• Genius Cripple: George when he created his modified wheelchair.
• Handicapped Badass: After George becomes brave and creates his zombie-fighting modified wheelchair, he beats Takahashi by drilling his right ear off, burning his face with a blowtorch, and cutting his ankles with blades that appears under his wheelchair.
• Heroic BSOD: When George realizes he should not rely on others to help him.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Shin, George's brother, got himself killed by the psychopath thugs in order for George to get away from them.
• Hospital Hottie: Mary
• How We Got Here
• Karmic Death: Takahashi suffers this after getting beaten into humiliation, coupled up with a painful expression with a burnt face.
• POV Cam: Some of the movie is taken place through George's eyes.
• Recursive Canon: In Episode 1 George is playing Dead Rising 2.
• Shout-Out: Considering this movie is directed by Keiji Inafune, who worked on a lot of Capcom games, you will expect to see some of them in the movie.
  • In episode 1, George is playing Dead Rising 2 in the beginning and the overweight thug is wearing a shirt that has a Servbot on it.
• The "Goblin Mask" is a mask of Blanka from Street Fighter.
• Super Wheelchair: George's wheelchair is modified with a blow torch, a drill, blades (on the side and bottom of the chair), a shell that prevent him from getting shot, and he uses a chainsaw to move himself forward in his chair.
• The Determinator: Mary. Who has been bitten several times by the zombies and been tortured by Takahashi and Dan.
• Took a Level in Badass: George
• Zombie Infectee: Mary. She's been bitten many times and still hasn't turned into a zombie. And now George in the finale.