Nintendo Switch Remake Finally Resurfaces Nearly 5 Years Later

The remake of a classic horror arcade game may finally be coming to the Nintendo Switch.

A Nintendo Switch game that's been basically dormant for five years since it was announced may finally be releasing soon if newly discovered ratings are anything to go off of. It was discovered this week that The House of the Dead 2: Remake, a game previously announced back in 2019, has now been rated for the Nintendo Switch after a lengthy period of time where not much was said about the game at all. These kinds of ratings are typically followed by release dates or full releases for the games not long afterwards, and in this case, it may also add to rumors of an upcoming Nintendo Direct.

The House of the Dead 2: Remake was rated over in Europe by PEGI (via Gematsu) this week. The contents of the rating itself aren't really important in this case -- it's getting a PEGI 18 rating which is expected given that it's a game about blasting zombies, and the content warnings talk only about blasting those aforementioned zombies and the civilians that get eaten if you're not quick enough to save them.

Rather, it's the existence of the rating itself that's promising news for those who've been waiting on this game for awhile now. The original House of the Dead game already got its own remake, and after that happened, it was announced in 2019 by publisher Forever Entertainment that the company had indeed signed a deal with Sega to make this remake happen.

"Hi Guys! We confirm the signing of the agreement regarding remakes of the games 'The House of the Dead' and 'The House of the Dead 2,'" the announcement from years ago said. "No platforms or release dates have been confirmed, and unfortunately we can't say anything more for now. Please keep fingers crossed for us and follow our official channels."

While no platforms were announced at the time in 2019, the first House of the Dead: Remake initially came to the Nintendo Switch before coming to other platforms, too, and seeing how Forever Entertainment specializes in Nintendo Switch games, it was a given that it'd come to that platform. It's no surprise then that the PEGI listing has only the Nintendo Switch version listed, though the June 14th date there is obviously wrong since it would've been out by now.

Reports about the release around its announcement said that MegaPixel Studio would handle the development of the game while Microids is supposedly handling the physical release. The previous House of the Dead: Remake launched to middling reception across pretty much all the platforms it would eventually come to, though if this rating is any indication of what's to come, we'll likely see soon whether The House of the Dead 2: Remake will perform any better.