Although it always seemed like a natural fit, the Nintendo DS hasn't seen to many light gun style games. The only one I can think of is "Point Blank DS," which is more of a grab bag shooter than a light gun shooter. Well, trigger-happy DS fans, froth no more, because Eidos Entertainment is going to fill this gaping hole in the DS lineup.

And just how do they propose to do that, you ask? With a little gem called "Touch The Dead." The game starts with Rob Steiner (an homage to Rod Steiger, perhaps?), an convict who one day discovers that his cell has been mysteriously left unlocked. To make things even more strange, no one seems to be around, although Rob does keep hearing weird noises. Soon he finds a pistol lying on the floor, which is good, because he's immediately attacked by swarms of zombies. Just hordes and hordes of the undead.

As you might have guessed, there's not much more to "Touch The Dead" than slaying loads of zombies. That's my kind of fun. Just like a light gun rail shooter, all you have to do is point where you want to shoot and pull the trigger. Except, instead of a gun, all you have is a DS stylus. So instead of squeezing a trigger, you just touch where you want to shoot (get it? touching the dead?), and off the bullet goes. When you run out of ammo, you can reload by clicking on the ammo icon on the lower right corner and physically dragging it to your clip in the lower right corner. And that's about it.

That's REALLY it? You may ask. Well, there's a little more to it. You can get new guns and/or upgrade the ones you've got. Every so often you have to shoot a lock to continue forward, or choose from two diverging paths. But mostly, it's a straight on-the-rails shooter. And what game of that style would be complete without co-op gameplay? Luckily, "Touch The Dead" does feature it, but only via local multi-card. No Nintendo Wi-Fi for this one.

The other thing I loved about this game was just how much the designers got into it. From the blurb on the back of the case ("Other games want to train your brain. We just want to eat it!") to the cover art drawn by the artist who drew the already infamous "Marvel Zombies" comic miniseries, Eidos really bought into the whole zombie atmosphere. And really, other than blatant references to Dead-Alive, what more can you ask for?

The Graphics:
While the Nintendo DS is technically slightly more powerful than the Nintendo 64 (scary thought, isn't it?), I have not been terribly impressed with games that use its 3D engine. For every "Metroid Prime: Hunters," which looks great, there's a "Spectrobes" or "Pirates of the Caribbean," which look awful. "Touch The Dead" falls somewhere in the middle. The character models look pretty lame, but I did like how when you shoot a zombie, it does damage to that specific area.

The Audio:
Creepy music. Scary noises. There's not much to the soundtrack for "Touch The Dead," but I thought what we do get is effective. The gunshots have a nice ring to them, and the zombies stumble, shuffle, and groan effectively.

The Conclusion:
While some people may think "Touch The Dead" is too simple to be fun, I say "Yay!" to simplicity. There may not be too much to the game, but when you're slaying the hordes of the undead, how much complexity do you need? This is the most fun I've had with my DS in quite a while. Highly Recommended.