Having a Corpse Party

Although I know full well that zombies don’t exist, I can understand why there’s zombie paranoia out there. It seems that the undead are everywhere these days.

They’re the highest rated show on TV with The Walking Dead, they’re on the best-seller lists with World War Z, and of course, they’re in video games too. 

We’ve previously reported on Dead Island, which looks like it’s taking an even more dramatic turn with the new installment, Riptide, and Lollipop Chainsaw, which is a more lighthearted and fun zombie massacre game. There’s tons more zombie games out there, and the latest that caught my attention is Corpse Party, which first debuted last year from XSEED Games.

As Gaming Blend tells us, this is a “PlayStation Portable text-heavy survival horror game” and the second installment in the game will be coming soon to U.S. shores. If you’re not familiar with Corpse Party, you can also play it at a 50% markdown on PlayStation network. (Originally $19.99, you can now play Corpse Party for $9.99.) 

Not only do I like the title Corpse Party, but I also like the setting of the game, which takes place in a school, Heavenly Host Elementary. With a name like that, you know there’s going to be supernatural trouble. As we’ve seen in Battle Royale and Suspiria, a stuffy, uptight school where you have to wear a uniform is a good environment where all kinds of ghastly mayhem can ensue. 

The next game in the series is called Book of Shadows, and as the site kotaku points out, Shadows will have a lot of backstory linking back to the first game. As an XSEED executive told writer Jason Schreier, the game is “divided into eight chapters, each of which tells its own self-contained short story. Some of them fill in the blanks of what happened during crucial off-camera scenes from the original game. Others go into the back-story of various characters, helping to flesh them out and make their roles in the series mythos a bit clearer.”

Furthermore, “Fans of the first game are virtually guaranteed to love Book of Shadows, and fans of survival horror who haven’t already given this series a try are strongly encouraged to do so…”

There’s no official release date for Book of Shadows yet, but now is a great time to get acquainted with the first Corpse Party game if you’re not familiar.