AMC's zombie drama The Walking Dead is one of the most popular television shows of all time, with the show's recent season seven premiere bringing in more than 20 million viewers.
It's not surprising given the franchise's popularity that more than a few video games based on creator Robert Kirkman's comic and the show have been released in recent years, but fans have never seen a Walking Dead video game quite like this before.
Simply called The Walking Dead, the next video game inspired by the franchise will be an arcade shooter that comes complete with a crossbow controller inspired by Daryl Dixon's now iconic crossbow from the show. It comes from creators Raw Thrills and Play Mechanix, whose arcade games include similar shooter style adaptations of Terminator Salvation, Jurassic Park and Aliens Armageddon.
Players must snipe zombies with their crossbow and fend off the undead hordes using improvised weapons such as pipes, hammers and other items.
The arcade cabinet is enclosed, letting players sit inside a cockpit-like area where various flashing lights react to what's happening on screen. Up to two players can play at once.
Aside from the crossbow controller, it looks like a fairly standard arcade shooter, albeit one that should be fairly popular given The Walking Dead's huge success over the past few years. The game is set to arrive at various arcade and other establishments around the country in January of next year. You can check out the official trailer for the game below.
In other Walking Dead news, Kirkman has gone on record to say that he knows how both the comic series and TV show will ultimately end.
"I know exactly how it ends, and I'm always taking baby steps toward that point as I'm telling the story," Kirkman tells Entertainment Weekly. "I know what the end point is, and at the end of the day, I want this entire long narrative to be a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end. We're just spending a lot of time in the middle, so, I kind of have to know what that direction is, and I have to know what that end point is to be able to keep building towards it. I think that's the only way to keep it alive."
No doubt AMC hopes that end point doesn't come for a long, long time. Despite having gone on for seven season, the show is showing little sign of slowing down anytime soon, which means there are likely plenty more seasons to come. Apart from the upcoming arcade game, another Walking Dead video game from the creators of the Payday franchise is currently in the works, though little is known about the title at this point.
