Last week, Capcom announced Dead Rising Deluxe Remastered, a remake of the 2006 zombie smash-open-mortar game: Big Frank will return to the Willamette on September 19, 2024.

That's not all. According to the just-released Steam page, this is a complete audiovisual overhaul, along with "a variety of quality-of-life improvements, including autosaves, revamped controls, and an improved UI," while keeping the original gameplay intact. Among these changes, players will appreciate the ability to move while aiming. The game is fully voiced, and Capcom warns that it "may not be suitable for workplace viewing."

My favorite aspect of the game is that Frank West appears to be human again. One of Capcom's most memorable characters, Frank was initially a far cry from the yapping moron he was in Dead Rising 4. In subsequent films, Frank has moved closer to the generic pretty-boy protagonist, and much of the character's original fun has been lost, but it's clear that the developers of this remaster understand that.

Let's hope that extends to everything else. In fact, "Dead Rising" is one of the best games Capcom has ever made, and no sequel has come close to recreating its charm. Like Frank himself, the sequels also tended toward generic zombie-busting and goofy weapons. The magic of the first generation was not in chainsaws and assault rifles (although these are great), but in smashing soccer balls into zombie hordes, whacking zombies with frying pans, and dressing Frank in Speedos and Mega Busters from Mega Man.

Perhaps the most hilarious news is that Capcom is going all in on the name, not only with the standard edition ($49.99), but also with the Dead Rising Deluxe Remastered Digital Deluxe Edition. Say that five times fast. It includes 17 costumes for Frank (including costumes for Reg, Mega Man, and Street Fighter) and 17 additional songs, plus three costumes and songs for pre-orders The digital version will be available on September 19, with the physical version coming out in November.

Finally, the system requirements, though, are quite reasonable for a game that offers zombie carnage on an astounding scale: the only disappointment is that Capcom is still implementing Denuvo, which requires an Internet connection to play.

MINIMUM:

64-bit processor and operating system required

OS: Windows 10 (64bit) / Windows 11 (64bit)

Processors: Intel Core i7-6700 / AMD Ryzen 5 3400G

Memory: 16 GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB) / AMD Radeon RX 580

DirectX: version 12

Recommended:

64 bit processor and operating system required

OS: Windows 10 (64bit) / Windows 11 (64bit)

Processor: Intel Core i7-8700 / AMD Ryzen 5 3600

Memory: 16 GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070Ti / AMD Radeon RX 5700

DirectX: Version 12

Additional Notes: To support 4K/60fps, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 or AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT to support 4K/60fps