The House of the Dead Remake Could Save the Rail Shooter
By Daniel Sumpton | Misfit Media Columnist
Brand-new rail shooters on current gaming consoles with light gun accessibility are very rare to come by. While some might find the gaming genre a great way to pass time by themselves or with friends, most find the genre to be a relic of the past. After all, the off-rails first-person shooter (FPS) has definitely filled the demand for blood, guts, and bullets. For years, this gaming genre has lay dormant with seemingly no hope of resurrection. That is, until one of the most important titles in all of video game history The House of the Dead (HOTD) was announced to be getting a full remake on the Nintendo Switch earlier this year. The remake of the horror classic could result in a full revitalisation of the rail shooter with a new, enchanting way to experience the genre.
The Joy-Con
The HOTD remake coming to the Nintendo Switch would be a head scratcher if not for the Joy-Con being the best way to play a rail shooter on current generation systems. While the style of play is not confirmed for the remake on the Nintendo Switch, it is obvious that pointing a single Joy-Con at the screen and shooting enemies with a single button is the best way to play a game of this genre. This style of play, if other game dev companies catch on, would compensate for the Nintendo Switch’s lack of FPS titles, and could potentially match them in popularity. Point and clicking with a single Joy-Con is not an unfamiliar way to play on the Nintendo Switch, and it is possible that it will only take a return of the HOTD to make it the most common way to play a shooter on Nintendo systems.
What’s next?
Nintendo actually has a prior relationship with the rail shooter that it could easily rekindle in order to establish the trend. Not only has Nintendo exclusively had a House of the Dead title (House of the Dead 2 & 3 return) published on their Wii console, but the Wii is also where the on-rails shooter series Heavy Fire got its start as a WiiWare exclusive. Now is a great time to bring titles like Heavy Fire: Special Operations and Heavy Fire: Black Arms to the Nintendo Switch. While this train of thought is wishful thinking, it is clear that one way or another, there is a strong likelihood that the rail shooter will have another run of popularity due to the new HOTD remake. Is the Joy-Con the new light gun? Only time will tell.