So I guess I'll throw in my own submission. The thing is, until now I've only really ever submitted characters for "they're a big character and it'd be weird if they missed out on this vote" reasons - I never really got to submit a character I myself really wanted. So I thought that hey, I think it's time I get to self-indulge a bit and shill one of my personal wants. And of my top 3 most wanted characters that aren't in "probably getting in anyway" status, I think Temjin can wait and I honestly don't feel like I can do Nei justice - which only leaves one character. Guys, gals and non-binary pals....
The man.
The myth.
The legend.
I said I'd submit him one day, and I'll make good on that promise.
Job #63 - New Series Character: Rikiya Busujima from Zombie Revenge/The House of the Dead
So first things first, a quick summary of House of the Dead:
If you have enough of an interest in SEGA to participate in this thread, then I'd honestly be very surprised if you'd never heard of House of the Dead. Among SEGA's stable of properties, it stands out as one of their most iconic and popular properties that aren't, like, Sonic/Megami Tensei/Yakuza/Puyo/Phantasy Star/Sakura Wars-level big. Having graced us with zombie shooty since the 90s, it spans multiple games, helped usher in the light gun shooter revival of the 90s along with other franchises like Time Crisis and SEGA's very own Virtua Cop, is about to get two remakes, has made consistent appearances in SEGA crossovers, and was even big enough to get its own ****ty live-action movie. So yeah, pretty big! And when looking at this roster and the series that aren't in yet, I'd absolutely put HotD among the ones that have Gotta Be In.
Particularly relevant to here, however, is the fact that House of the Dead actually has quite the amount of spinoffs with followings of their own. There's Typing of the Dead, House of the Dead: Overkill, Loving Deads, and probably the least remembered of all of these:
So just what the hell is Zombie Revenge and who the hell is Busujima for that matter?
Zombie Revenge is a 3D beat-em-up that was released by SEGA in 1999 for the NAOMI arcade board and later the Dreamcast too. The story revolves around a goverment experiment to "recycle" the dead for military purposes, nicknamed "U.D.S.", standing for "Undead Soldiers" (the above flyer isn't the most accurate). Suddenly, one year later, a zombie outbreak is unleashed upon the city, with no one knowing where it came from. And as such, it's up to three AMS agents - Stick Breitling, Linda Rotta and our man Busujima - to save the world and figure out who's behind this.
Rikiya himself is a Japanese man (most likely in his 30s) with a mysterious past, who employs his own style of martial arts in battle. Despite what his appearance and fighting style might suggest, he's actually the most collected of the trio (an example of this is when (ZR ending spoilers)
Stick begins to feel shame over his father's actions and the role they played in the main villain's motivations, Busujima immediately tells him not to worry about it and that it's in the past. What a bro!). He also seems to not fear death and have the ability to sense evil in others, and the bizarre implants in his body and the properties of some of his moves have led some to theorize that he might actually be a cyborg of sorts.
Zombie Revenge can basically be described as a House of the Dead game, but with the gameplay of something like Spikeout or Dynamite Cop instead of the series' traditional rail shooter gameplay. So you don't just shoot the zombies, you also get to beat the **** outta them! Honestly...this game fascinates me. It's such an interesting part of the franchise's history and it's got some genuinely really cool stuff. This era of SEGA arcade games had a lot of cool weird ****, and Zombie Revenge is the perfect representation of that.
Though.....why pick Busujima as the HotD rep for this game? I understand that having such a relatively obscure character represent the franchise seems like a hard sell, so I'll try my best to explain why he'd be my personal choice:
So first of all, unlike the rest of the franchise, Zombie Revenge is a beat-em-up. Which means that any characters from the game would have an easier time transitioning to a fighting game. While I do believe that the mainline characters
can be brought over to a fighting game, it just so happens that we have an alternative option that fits in more. But even then.....the game's cast is pretty damn obscure. At that point, wouldn't it just be more worth it to go for someone from another part of the franchise anyway? Well, yeah, I'd say that would be the case....for Stick and Linda. But not my man Rikiya. For two reasons:
A. Compared to the other two members of the trio who frankly aren't super interesting....Rikiya is
cool as ****. And I think it's that "cool" factor to him that makes it so that even if he isn't the most recognizable character in the series, he's at least justifiable as a "fun deep cut" sorta pick. Our roster's pretty normal so far, and that's perfectly fine given we're not even halfway through yet, but I do think that sooner or later we'll have to start infusing this roster with some Unconventional Pick Energy (TM). And I think this man would be a great pick! Overall, I feel like even if he isn't the most well-known HotD character, he still makes for a fun left-field pick and he has enough of a cool and standout design to make people that pick up this hypothetical game but don't know him go "bro who the **** is this dude he looks cool as ****".
B. And even if he's not the most recognizable HotD character...he's honestly the only character from Zombie Revenge specifically that I still see people talk about. Like, there have been occasions where I brought him up in places that aren't really dedicated SEGA fan circles or anything (including this very website) and it shocked me to see some people actually recognize him. That's not to say that he's this ultra-iconic superstar, because he isn't, but I think the fact that he's, again, pretty much the only ZR character people still remember does help him! Even if the story and some of the marketing gave off the impression of trying to push Stick as The Main Dude, at this point it's pretty safe to say Busujima has basically become the "face" of Zombie Revenge - well, as much of a face as you can be for a game like this anyway. And we'll get back to this later.
Next point: moveset potential. In my honest opinion, Busujima would have the coolest moveset of any potential House of the Dead character. Of course, he has martial arts as we've already discussed, but he can also pull off some flashy and over-the-top stuff. Not only is there the usual punchy-kicky stuff, of course, but he also has some ki attacks where he sends out energy blasts, a couple of which can do such things as make you explode or set you on fire. He can also perform leglocks. So yeah, pretty cool. But that's barely scratching the surface. If you've been paying attention, you'll remember that Zombie Revenge is a beat-em-up. And what do beat-em-ups have?
Pickup items. And this game in particular has a really good arsenal to pull from. So if we also pull from this, which I don't think there's any reason for us to not do so, besides the regular handgun which he already could use, Busujima now also has access to such things as
dual handguns, machine guns, guitar cases that somehow shoot out bullets (I'm assuming there's machine guns inside of them but I don't think that's ever been officially confirmed), shotguns, flamethrowers, hatchets, drills, grenades, landmines, tasers, chain guns, laser guns, etc. So yeah - a lotta moveset potential there. And the general concept of an over-the-top martial artist who also has an entire arsenal of (mostly) firearms at his disposal sounds like it could make for an
incredible moveset.
Though there is another problem - Busujima comes from a spinoff, so he might not be the best representation of what HotD really has to offer, right? Ehhhhh, I think he still does a pretty good job, all things considered, because Zombie Revenge isn't
drastically different from the mainline HotD stuff in terms of tone and premise. It definitely has its own style, but it
can still be accurately described as just HotD but you can also punch the zombies. It has just as much spooky, just as much shooty, and yes, it even features the same brand of absolutely beautiful voice acting. It does also have some overt connections - it's been mentioned before that the main trio are all agents of the AMS, but even besides that, the game's penultimate area is actually just Dr. Curien's mansion. So he still works well in that regard, because he comes from a part of the franchise that has enough in common with the mainline games to feel like it still represents the franchise pretty well, while also doing something cooler than your average HotD protagonist.
Which kinda leads us to another thing. Usually, the big divide between HotD reps in these rosters is between Agent G - who's the most iconic protagonist in the franchise - and Zobio and Zobiko - who have gained attention for their surprise appearance in All-Stars Racing. Usually the big problem here is that Agent G represents the series better but isn't as interesting, meanwhile the zombie couple would make for a more unique fighter, but wouldn't do the best job at representing the franchise aside from the fact that they're zombies. Rikiya solves this issue by basically acting as a middle ground. He's the compromise - he's more interesting design and moveset-wise than G while still doing a better job at representing what the franchise is all about than the zombie couple does.
And now here's one last thing - and I believe this point in particular is very important and is the main thing that launches him into being a legitimate contender for the House of the Dead spot:
SEGA haven't forgotten about him. Yes - despite coming from an obscure-ass spinoff that never got any sequels, SEGA somehow still acknowledge this man's existence. The most notable example of this is probably his surprise appearance as a solo unit in the first Project X Zone, which I imagine is where most of the familiarity with him comes from. And in addition to that, there's also his appearances in SEGA's 60th anniversary celebrations. First off, remember that absolutely huge collection of pfps SEGA pushed out in celebration of this event?
Of the three House of the Dead icons, Busujima is one of them, with the other two being boss zombies from the franchise. So of all the human characters, he's the one they picked. In addition, I managed to find this tweet that has a big-ass collection of characters in celebration of their 60th, and guess who's there representing HotD--
Now, is this to say that Rikiya is actually the face of the franchise, or that he's somehow more important than G or Curien or whoever? No, because, well, he really isn't. However, the fact that he was consistently chosen as a representative for the series in a milestone celebration that SEGA made a huge deal out of does show that he's at least a viable choice if we want to have some more unconventional picks here and there. What this shows is simply that were Battle of AGES to be a real game made by SEGA, he could legit end up on their radar for inclusion.
So TL;DR:
-Comes from a part of the franchise that gives him an easier time transitioning to a fighting game, while also making for a fun deep cut and being pretty much the only character that's still talked about from said part of the franchise
-Insane moveset potential
-Despite coming from a spinoff, it's a spinoff that has enough in common with the mainline stuff that he still does a good job at showing what the series is ultimately all about
-Acts as a perfect middle ground in the usual divide between HotD reps
-SEGA themselves still remember him
-He's based
So there we go! That's my galaxy-sized essay on why this obscure House of the Dead character should get in a fighting game that doesn't even exist. At least if he doesn't win now, I'll have this writeup ready for future occasions!
Oh yeah, it's also worth mentioning that Zombie Revenge had a couple alts for each character, so on top of all this, he's also got some snazzy alt potential:
