Touch the Dead shows a lot of potential. Unfortunately potential just leaves you craving what might have been and displeased with what you got.

When I first heard about Touch of the Dead, I thought, "Awesome, SEGA is making a portable House of the Dead for the Nintendo DS.  I quickly submitted my request for a review copy.  It wasn't until much later that I realized the games name was actually Touch THE Dead and that SEGA had nothing to do with the game.  Well, I was a little disappointed but the premise of the game still seemed to be what I was expecting and I do enjoy shooting zombies, so I continued to look forward to the titles release.

Now that the game is finally here, I can officially state that I am back to disappointed.  Touch the Dead does fulfill on its promise of zombie infested shooting action, unfortunately it just doesn't do it that well.  This is mainly because some inherently broken gameplay mechanics, unfair difficulty, and some overall lack of polish.  Things are not a complete loss, however, as Touch the Dead features some good points that kept me coming back for more.

Touch the Dead places you in the shoes of Rob Steiner, a prisoner who one day miraculously finds his cell door opened, a gun abandoned in a nearby bathroom, and a prison full of zombies.  By wielding your stylus and tapping on the DS touch screen, players can shoot said gun (as well as three other additional weapons) to enjoy light gun style gameplay. 

Overall the concept is by no means original, but it is new to the portable scene and I am glad to see someone brave enough to bring a Mature rated game to the DS.  I was a fan of the House of the Dead series and even if this is a knock-off I hope it gives SEGA the idea that such a game could work on the DS.  Until that happens, I am happy to accept any imitation games that want to fill the void.