Although it wasn't mentioned at E3, Capcom just announced that it's developing a Dead Rising game for the Nintendo Wii and the people who play it. Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop will be out this winter.

"Chop Till You Drop"? Really, Capcom? That's how you want to play it? Because the thing about zombie humor is that it stops being funny as soon as you start trying to make it funny. Zombies shambling into mannequins while muzak plays over the mall's speakers? Funny. Donning a dress and a toy lightsaber for no good reason while you're in a zombie-infested mall? Funny. Pointing out that these things are funny with a pun about shopping? Not funny.

(At 1up, Kevin Gifford's Famitsu reading skills reveal that it'll be called Dead Rising: Zombie Sacrifice in Japan. It may sound awkward (Who's sacrificing whom and how are zombies involved?), but at least it's not portraying the serious business of zombie slaying as a joke.)

As you can tell from the subtitle, Capcom is lightening up the game. Those of us who played on the 360 had our fun. Now it's everyone else's turn. Wiimote waggling tricks are just the beginning. The time limit is gone; get to the chopper at your own pace. The restrictive save games are gone; play in discrete episodes that you can probably reload at will. The photography stuff is gone; no more undead erotica photo shoots. Also gone are probably about half of the zombies.

Capcom quickly points out that, hey, Resident Evil 4 looked pretty good on the Wii, didn't it? Since Chop Till You Drop uses the Resident Evil 4 engine, then you can expect Chop Till You Drop to look just as good! But Dead Rising wasn't special because it looked particularly good. It was special because it presented zombies as they need to be presented: by the hundreds, in crowds so thick you could literally walk on top of them. So when the Wii press release mentions an "endless stream of enemies", I can't help but recall that Dead Rising on the 360 was a flood. But for the people playing Animal Crossing and rocking out with Wii Music and doing their daily Wii Fitnessing, a stream is probably the upper limit of how many zombies they can handle.

Frankly, I hope Chop Till You Drop sells a few million copies so Capcom can get down to the business of making a real Dead Rising sequel. I'll be patiently waiting.