House of the Dead 4 Special reaches arcades

Like so many shambling undead, units of the House of the Dead 4 Special arcade game have started making their way into select arcades and amusement centers throughout Japan.

An expanded version of House of the Dead 4, the two-player game sports many features geared toward increasing the players' sense of immersion. For example, it is fully enclosed and features a pair of 100-inch screens positioned in front of and behind the players. A five-speaker sound system provides the audio. Players sit on seats that automatically swivel throughout the game. The seats are force-feedback-enabled to provide jolts at appropriate moments, and blasts of air will tell players when they've been hit.

The gun controller--which is shaped like a submachine gun--will also use force feedback and can be set to full auto for mowing down multiple zombies. Lastly, when played in two-player mode, the game provides a compatibility rating for the players based on how well they played together.