Zombie bashing is one of the better hypothetical pastimes out there. Universally appealing and morally justified across the board, it could even be considered fun for the whole family were it not for the excessive gore and requisite braining of animated corpses... "Don't look, Junior, Daddy's gotta whack-a-mole on this guy's head."

So it follows that Dead Rising for Xbox 360 has all the patent charm of re-deading the undead. What's more, it plays more like a black comedy than a survival horror game, with you as a freelance photojournalist looking for the scoop on the recent quarantine of a small town and the local mall as epicenter. Considering the setting, the game is well lit and cheery (as opposed to the typical dank and gloomy environs of horror games), like a good shopping center ought to be, minus the zombie infestation and new blood and giblet decor.

Keeping pace with the hordes (read: hundreds and hundreds and hundreds) of undead infesting said mall (along with a few hapless survivors that need to be rescued and the occasion psychopath that must be de-psychoed), there are hordes (hundreds) of ways with which to dispatch them--in fact, almost anything goes. It's a mall, after all, so a power drill from the hardware store, a Louisville Slugger from the sports shop, a TV from the electronics department, a guitar from the music store, a pop can from the vending machine and, of course, a gun from the gun shop, are all handy impromptu weapons. There's also hand-to-hand combat options and funny diversionary tactics the dimwitted undead are pathetically prone to fall for.

More than that, however, is your tool-of-trade, your camera, which you use to snap photos of the every varying scenery and actually score points based on the qualitative elements of each press-worthy shot.

Too, the game is mission-based (with side-quests) and runs on a timer--72 hours to rendezvous with your chopper home--, which permeates Dead Rising with a thorough sense of angst, though not enough to squelch the persistent hilarity of it all--you won't really mind failing and starting over, because it's always fun.

• TIP: In Dead Rising, you can unlock Overtime mode by completing all missions in 72 mode, talking to Isabella at 10am and returning to the helipad by noon on the 22nd. Completing Overtime mode will unlock Infinity mode.



• Also, you can only save one Dead Rising game per Xbox 360 storage device, so even if you have a hard drive, getting a memory card or two will add to your save point collection if things get tough.