History YMMV / HouseOfTheDead

** You can effectively have infinite bonus items (weapons, costumes, capacity upgrades, etc.) in the Dreamcast port of ''2'' by simply starting a NewGamePlus in Original mode and then pulling the VMU out of your controller. Whatever goodies you select won't be permanently deducted from your inventory because the game can't save your status without a VMU inserted (on the flipside, this also means you won't get to keep whatever new items you pick up).

** You can effectively have infinite bonus items in the Dreamcast port of ''2'' by simply starting a NewGamePlus and pulling the VMU out of your controller. Whatever goodies you pick won't be permanently deducted from your inventory because the game can't save your status without a VMU inserted (on the flipside, this also means you won't get to keep whatever new items you pick up).

* GoodBadBugs: In ''Scarlet Dawn'', you can get Cyril (the axe-wielding creature) stuck in his idle animation by repeatedly stunning him just before he attacks. Because shooting enemy weapons in the game scores points, this bug allows players to rack up big scores by going ham on Cyril's axes for as long as he remains stuck.

** On the gun controllers on ''4'', there's a button for grenades on the left side of the barrel, but ''not'' on the right, biasing the controller in favor of right-handed players. While it doesn't make the game entirely unplayable for lefties, it does mean that left-handed players will have to twist their right hand into a bit of an awkward position to use grenades. This is a bit of an odd choice given that ''VideoGame/GHOSTSquad'' was released a few years prior and its assault rifle controller has the weapon toggle button on both sides of the controller (to be fair, both games were developed by different divisions of SEGA).

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: This series is very popular in Mexico, ''The House of the Dead III'' which is a ContestedSequel everywhere else, is much better received in the country, the fact that the first console port of ''III'' is on the [[UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} Original Xbox]], a system that's[[note]]and the Xbox brand in general,[[/note]] extremely ''HUGE'' in Mexico, this also helped.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:

* CompleteMonster: The wicked [[EvilCripple Thornheart]] is a former associate of Dr. Curien and Caleb Goldman who intends to go even farther than they. Kicking off a new plague at a party, Thornheart condemns countless people to becoming zombies and unleashes them upon innocent humans, with intentions of sending the plague global. Deciding that [[MisanthropeSupreme humanity is beyond hope]], Thornheart intends on exterminating them without any of the good intentions that drove [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes Curien]] or [[WellIntentionedExtremist Goldman]], intending on killing everything in his way, even as he hides behind his "selective words".

*** After you hold the grenade button for a bit, throwing a grenade into Justice's mouth instantly depletes the cancel bar needed to stop his attacks, making the fight almost a complete joke. Though it's still tricky to successfully send a grenade into him when he's covering his face, so if you're skilled enough, save your grenades for those parts of the fight.

** While ''III'' is still harder and longer than the first game, it somewhat dialed back some of the frustrating things that made ''2'' very difficult, such as the boss cancel bar (which was carried from Vampire Night), and an even easier way to reload (at least with the Shotgun controller, although at the cost of having a delay on reloading), and also, you don't gain any punishment for accidentally shooting your partner in the segments were they are in danger. [[spoiler:Did we forget to mention that you can have up to 9 lives starting with this game?, as opposed to a maximum of five in the first two games? (Not counting Original mode in ''2'' and the first game's remake, where in the latter, you need two hits to lose a life in lower difficulty modes as mentioned above)]]

** Compared to the original game, ''2'' is faster, longer, and much more difficult. The zombies and bosses are more resilient and aggressive, and thus the window of opportunity to rescue hostages is smaller. There is also no auto-reload function, unlike the prior entry. According to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D05HsIpVNoE this video]], it turns out that the primary difficulty tester that wound up setting the bar was the '''first game's top player''', who wound up cheesing the beta and state that it was ''too easy'', resulting in such a spike.
** ''4'' manages to be a bit harder than the first two. Since you have a submachine gun, a ''lot'' more zombies appear on-screen at once. The bosses now require their weak points to be shot enough to empty a "Cancel" meter; being successful interrupts their attacks and avoids damage. Additionally, more of the bosses fit ThatOneBoss category.
** ''Scarlet Dawn'' has even larger zombie hordes that will easily overwhelm the player if they're not careful. Bonus lives are scarce, with the player required to earn a rank of A+ or higher after a stage for an extra life [[note]](previously, ''4'' gave bonus lives for as low as B ranks, and an S rank awarded ''two'' bonus lives)[[/note]]. The special weapon ammunition is also limited, thus the player must save it for the enemies and boss phases that they have trouble taking down with the default machine gun.

*** Any tough/fat creatures like Mackey or Charles are a pain once more, because in addition to their traits from ''2'', there are versions of both can throw heavy projectiles at you if you don't kill them quick enough. Thankfully, destroying them does stun them back as they recoil (though it makes their heads harder to hit despite being vulnerable). In any case though, either creature is especially a problem if they're about to attack the moment they come on screen, which isn't helped that both Mackey and Charles have deceptively quick attack animations. A Kevin is also notorious for doing in chapter 3 with a shovel as well.

*** Berns. Like Damians, they don't have to be right up against you to deal damage if [[PlayingWithFire their weapon]] doesn't already indicate that. What's not helped is that they don't immediately die to headshots due to their welding masks. However, they become a complete joke once you find out that shooting the propane tanks they hold instantly kills them and any zombies they are near. [[GuideDangIt Though, the game never points this out,]] so a lot of first-time players have a hard time with them anyway.

*** In the second to last level (and ''4 Special'') you run into Bains, which look like zombified cops. They will behave one of two ways: Either grab you and shake you which isn't too hard to escape from, or they start a charging shoulder tackle from where they're standing, usually in a sea of zombies, causing you to shoot the more harmless zombies before shooting the Bain down.

*** Any tough/fat creatures like Mackey or Charles are a pain once more, because in addition to their traits from ''2'', there are versions of both can throw heavy projectiles at you if you don't kill them quick enough. Thankfully, destroying them does stun them back as they recoil (though it makes their heads harder to hit despite being vulnerable). In any case though, either creature is especially a problem if they're about to attack the moment they come on screen, which a Kevin is especially notorious for doing in chapter 3.

*** The Lovers' second phase where they spawn some Tarans can be drastically cut down with a well-timed grenade, which is handy. What's even better is that another well-timed grenade[[note]](throw towards the top of the screen)[[/note]] can deplete the cancel bar on their final phase, which reduces the stress from how the male tarantula's talons can block gunfire.

** In the first boss fight against Justice in ''4'', [[GuideDangIt the game doesn't tell you that]] throwing a grenade into Justice's mouth instantly depletes the cancel bar needed to stop his attacks, making the fight almost a complete joke. Though it's still tricky to successfully send a grenade into him when he's covering his face, so if you're skilled enough, save your grenades for those parts of the fight.
** This tactic also works against other bosses, notably being able to deplete Temperance's cancel bar when he's rolling backwards (by throwing a grenade at his ass) and the ''FinalBoss'' if you throw [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYUETzdhayY&t=830s one at the chest that takes away a good chunk of his health]], secrets that eluded countless arcade players for many years.

** The Lovers' final phase has a similar attack where the top spider shuffles his legs in front of himself before rising them to slash at the player(s) with both legs. A first time player is very unlikely to figure out that the best strategy is to continuously shoot at the weak point and reload when you're out of bullets, which can make this phase frustrating. Unsurprisingly, this phase has been an run ender for newer players as well.
** The Empress has ''two'' rather maddening attacks, one of which only happens once per battle. The attack in question is when she tries driving her chainsaw into the players from atop the subway car they're in. The kicker is you ''must'' be prepared to shoot her weak point just about when the camera pans up to show her, or else you will most likely be unable to stop her attack. Needless to say, this is also something newer players wouldn't be able to figure out, and likely have their runs ended then and there. The other attack is when she's driving her chainsaw from the side of the train car, which only has slightly more room for error.

** At the start of the shootout sequence, you can clearly see the camera's dolly track on the bottom of the screen.

** Remake difficulty drop, as ''The House of the Dead Remake'' makes the easy difficulty truly easy, and for new players, it's all but guaranteed to get the true good ending in the easy difficulty due to the lax scoring requirements, including the "Modern" scoring mode that add multi-kill combos. It gets better once all the scientists in one playthrough is rescued (and in case of failure, one can restart the stage instead of the whole game) as you will unlock secret alternate weapons for you to use in the next playthrough and once unlocked, it can be permanently used, also, you need two hits instead of one hit to lose one life.
** While ''III'' is still harder and longer than the first game, it somewhat dialed back some of the frustrating things that made ''2'' very difficult, such as the boss cancel bar (which was carried from Vampire Night), and an even easier way to reload (at least with the Shotgun controller), and also, you don't gain any punishment for accidentally shooting your partner in the segments were they are in danger. [[spoiler:Did we forget to mention that you can have up to 9 lives starting with this game?, as opposed to a maximum of five in the first two games? (Not counting Original mode in ''2'' and the first game's remake, where in the latter, you need two hits to lose a life as mentioned above)]]