House of the Dead: Overkill is why I play videogames. Because every now and then I unwittingly discover something this inspired. If you come back next January, I can almost guarantee you'll see this game in the list of my ten favorite games of 2009.

After the jump, read ten reasons that you absolutely must play House of the Dead: Overkill.

10) It's a light gun game done right
After an evening of House of the Dead: Overkill, I corralled an unsuspecting friend into trying some other light gun games with me. I did this partly out of a sense of wondering if maybe I'd misunderestimated the genre. So we played Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Ghost Squad, and the previous House of the Dead collection. None of them can hold a candle to the over-the-top, hyperactive, super-accessible gunplay in House of the Dead: Overkill, which gets everything right to the point that it ruins other light gun games for me. I used to think the meticulous zombie shooting in the Resident Evil light gun game was pretty cool. No more. Overkill ruined it for me. Whatever it takes to make a good shooter or light gun game, the developers at Headstrong pegged it perfectly.

9) expletive deleted
I have no idea why some profanity is funny and other profanity isn't. But listening to detective Isaac Washington roll out F-bomb after MFing F-bomb never got old (not since Dan in Killer 7 has a character's use of the F-word been so effective). Whatever it is that magically makes some profanity funny is in full effect here. I think I'll go on record as saying this is the best cussing I've ever heard in a videogame.

8) Characters and cutscenes
I can't remember the last time I enjoyed cut scenes as much as I did in this game,. House of the Dead: Overkill introduced me to five characters I actually cared about (including one who I cared about in the sense that he was icky and I wished he'd go away). They were all ridiculous, but thanks to the combination of writing, voice acting, and cinematic sensibilities, they were all effective. In fact, the narrator is sort of a sixth character. That guy was great.

7) The future of the Wii
The conventional wisdom is that the Nintendo Wii is for families. And, yeah, that's largely true. But House of the Dead: Overkill is the kind of game that can change that. When one of the best games of the year is this violent, crass, and inappropriate for children, and when it comes out for the Wii, the conventional wisdom gets trumped. Support more variety on the Wii by buying this game!

6) Patriotism
This game is as American as blacksploitation, slasher movies, and rednecks. When your score multiplier reaches the level of "goregasm", your multiplier marker is replaced with an American flag. Why? Just because. The developers are British, but as near as I can tell, no disrespect is intended. Instead, they understand America, and they let that little flag wave up there while you shoot zombies and rack up what's sure to be an entry on the high score list. I suspect the British are a little jealous of our built-in Constitutional capacity to deal with the zombie apocalypse.

5) Guns, guns, guns
A copy of House of the Dead: Overkill and a pair of these may be the best eighty bucks you've spent on videogaming since the first Guitar Hero. Overkill is great with friends, but dual wielding on your own is like being the star of your own living room John Woo zombie movie.

4) Because it even got made
Someone at Sega let Headstrong Games reboot the House of the Dead franchise. Whoever that guy is - and he's probably some stuffy corporate dude in Japan - I want to buy him a beer. Then I want to buy a round of beers for everyone at Headstrong Games, and another beer on top of that for writer Jonathan Burroughs. I also want to buy another beer for whomever it was at Headstrong that let Burroughs run roughshod over the weird Japanese horror sensibilities you'd expect in a House of the Dead game, because none of that junk is in here (Burroughs' writing puts this game on par with Portal, BioShock, and Braid in terms of demonstrating the importance of good writing). Then I want to hang out and drink beer all night with those guys. The next morning, when I'm hung over, I will lie on the couch and listen to the House of the Dead: Overkill soundtrack using the ingame jukebox.

3) The soundtrack
Speaking of soundtracks, what happened here? Because as near as I can tell, all these songs are exclusive to House of the Dead: Overkill. I don't think I've ever heard a soundtrack that so consciously invoked other music, yet was so listenable on its own. From the riffs on Dick Dale's contribution to Pulp Fiction to the classic funk that's as good as actual classic funk to the sweet croon of "Beautiful Mind" over the end credits, this game's music is far better than a supposedly comedic soundtrack should be. It's been a long time since I played a game and immediately thought, "Holy cats, where can I get his soundtrack?"

2) Grindhouse of the Dead
I'm sorry to say I didn't think this one up. A Canadian told it to me. But it's so obvious. This stuff is all so 70s, complete with the pop and hiss of old film stock run through a crappy projector. Here are the hallmarks of the early middle portion of the second half of the 20th century: larger than life splatter and breasts and gross-outs and bad acting, all pushing the envelope of good taste.

1) House of the Dead: Overkill lurvs horror
Garth Marenghi's Dark Place, Robert Rodriguez' Planet Terror, and Mystery Science Theatre 3000 all make fun of cheesy horror. They understand that it's ridiculous. But when they mock it, they can't help but do it with an almost cloying sense of affection. Is it still satire when it's also a deeply mooning love letter? Because that's exactly what House of the Dead: Overkill is. From now on, any discussion of horror and videogames is incomplete without mentioning this game.