E3: Dead Rising: Off The Record’s amusement park explored

At Captivate, Capcom was hinting at an all new area of Fortune City that Frank West would get to explore in Dead Rising: Off the Record. If you guessed “amusement park,” pat yourself on the back.

Capcom has revealed the “Uranus Zone” amusement park for Off the Record, a sci-fi themed playground of wonders and games. Oh, and yeah, and a bunch of flesh eating zombies.

While the small demo was area was devoid of any exposition, it was a good opportunity to sample some of the new and wonderful toys West can use to slaughter (and taunt) the undead.

• The Molten Cannon: Here’s what you get when you mix a tennis ball launcher and motor oil: a cannon that shoots flaming tennis balls with the expected results. I set it up and watched as it turn a crowd of soulless corpses into barbecue.
• Cryo Pod: A combination of a space escape pod and a fire extinguisher, just plop this on a zombie and watch it do the work for you. It’ll quickly turn them into a block of ice, which you can then smash to bits. 
• Laser Eyes: Pew pew pew! In real life, inserting gems into an alien mask might look cool, but that’s about it. In Off the Record, when you put it on Frank’s head, it becomes a weapon of pure destruction… you shoot laser beams out of your freakin’ eyes, man. 
• Alien Probe: It’s an electrified baton, and you can beat zombies with it if you want. Or you know, shove it up their asses. Seriously, you can bend over a zombie and stick the probe into their decayed rear ends. It’s not as graphic as it sounds; the camera shifts so you can only see the front of the zombie as Frank works his magic from the rear. But… ouch!

I spent quite a bit of time exploring the amusement park, particularly hoping that I could hop on a ride or ply a carnival game. I couldn’t interact with “Molemen From Uranus,” a life-sized whack-a-mole game where creatures pop out of holes on a space rock. I was able to push zombies into the weird alien squid-shaped whirly ride, but couldn’t find a way to stop it so I could go for a spin. The space-themed Jump Space 7 bar was probably also more exciting before the undead tore its bartender and customers to pieces.

Dead Rising: Off the Record is out this year. Unlike Case West, it’s a full retail experience, which means laser eyes and alien probes are probably just the tip of the iceberg.