Hot Blood

With the recent reveal of a brand-new remastered version of Dead Rising on the way, everybody is excited to head back to the mall and kick some zombie ass. But what if you can’t wait for Capcom to finish the game? You’re the impatient type, then let me introduce you to Hot Blood, a 3D beat ‘em up where a busty woman in skimpy clothes fights through the local mall in order to buy new outfits. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like if Maxim magazine attempted to remake Dead Rising on a budget of about twenty dollars, then this is the game for you. But does that mean it’s bad? You might be surprised where I come down on Hot Blood, the newest brawler from EastAsiaSoft.

EastAsiaSoft is an enigma. They burst onto the scene with a number of well-respected adventure games and throwback shooters. While I was never a big fan of the Rainbow Moon series or even Lost Sea, I had no problem recommending the Soldner series and giving indie games like Z-Warp and Void Gore high marks. But then, in the early part of this decade, the company seemingly switched directions and started focusing on what can best be described as incredibly thirsty games starring barely-dressed anime girls. And it’s not just the line-up of “Pretty Girl” games they released, but also smutty titles like Waifu Uncovered and Hentai vs. Evil.

There’s no question where the new brawler Hot Blood lands on the EastAsiaSoft divide, because this is yet another game where a half-naked woman prances around in heels and fights zombies. And you know what, there’s nothing wrong with that. Is it crass and maybe even a little sexist? Probably, but I don’t care, I’m more worried about it being fun. If Russ Meyer can make an entire career out of busty women punching and kicking bad guys, then why can’t EastAsiaSoft?

In this case, the developer is DEKLAZON, who previously gave us the Drunken Fist series. Hot Blood trades the booze for a babe, giving us a much more straight-forward beat ‘em up set in a strangely familiar location. The game introduces us to Roxy, whose fun day shopping in the mall is interrupted by zombies. As the only survivor, it’s up to her to fight through hordes of zombies in order to not only clear every store in the mall, but also save her loving boyfriend.

That’s a good enough set-up for this style of brawler, and for a while, I had a good time going store to store kicking butt. It helps that there are a lot of store-specific items you can pick up, such as keyboards in the computer store, headphones in the electronics store, dumbbells in the gym, soda in the supermarket and so on so forth. There are thirty stores in all, with some only housing three or four zombies, while others are infested with dozens. These stores act like levels, and you’ll quickly notice that zombies can’t go in or out of them. Once you’ve cleaned out a store, it stayed safe, allowing you to move on to the next one without worrying about the wandering dead.

As a location, the mall is fine. The stores are interesting enough and the action eventually spills out into the surrounding shops and restaurants. As you progress through the game, you’ll run into a nice selection of different types of zombies, all based on different mall stereotypes. There aren’t really any bosses to fight, but the game does like to throw a bunch of bigger (tougher) zombies at you at once. Thankfully, you’ll find useful weapons, like an axe, gun and chainsaw.

Of course, all of the action is secondary to the main quest – to buy all of the outfits. You’ll notice right from the start that every zombie drops money, which you can use to dress Roxy up in a handful of different outfits. This may sound trivial, but it’s the most important part of the game. And you want to know how I know it’s the most important part of Hot Blood? Because it’s constantly reminding you to press the L1 button to buy new outfits. It’s not once or twice, but literally after every single store. We’re fighting for our lives at the end of the world, and all this game cares about is reminding you to buy new clothes every two minutes.

As a brawler, Hot Blood is fine. You have a punch, kick and leg sweep button, as well as the ability to dash out of the way, if needed. If you’ve played a beat ‘em up, then you’ll know what to expect here. There are rudimentary combos and new moves you’ll unlock as Roxy levels up. If she takes too many hits, she’ll need to take a moment to drink a refreshing cola beverage that is definitely not Coke. I appreciate that the zombies are courteous enough to wait for our hero to drink the whole bottle before attacking. You don’t see a lot of polite zombies anymore.

As the game progressed and I cleared out more of the mall, I found myself losing interest in Roxy’s plight. There comes a point about halfway through where you’ve basically seen and done everything, and the rest starts to feel like filler. I also found some of the levels too cramped and hard to fight in. A great example of this is the tiny diner located right outside of the mall entrance. It’s filled with massive, gun-wielding zombies, yet there’s absolutely no room to move around. This is where you’ll discover that it’s not always easy to turn around and dash out of the way. Roxy’s gameplay is a bit finicky, which becomes a real liability late in the game.

Of course, the biggest sin is that there aren’t enough outfits in the store. This is a game built around dressing up a hot woman, and yet the clothing store feels like an afterthought. A lot of the outfits are similar and you’ll quickly unlock all of them. And where are the accessories? It would have bee fun to find hats, purses, tiaras, bracelets and more accessories in out-of-the-way spots in the mall. Really put some thought into the outfit section. It’s the one thing this game keeps reminding us about.

Look, this is exactly what you think it is. It’s not an innovative new take on the beat ‘em up genre nor high art. It’s a low-poly brawler starring an attractive woman fighting zombies. It’s not any deeper than that. If it looks fun and you can put up with some weird gameplay decisions, then you’ll be happy to know that it’s cheap and better than the developer’s last game. That said, even with an incredibly short run time, I still found myself getting bored long before it ended. It’s not terrible, but I can’t recommend Hot Blood.