Character Spotlight: Frank West

Whoever said that a day at the mall is relaxing has obviously never been to the town of Willamette. Don't believe me? Just ask photojournalist and the hero of Capcom's hit Dead Rising game, Frank West. When Frank first heard about something big going on in Willamette, Colorodo and that the town was under a military enforced quarantine, he knew there was a bigger story behind it. While he was expecting something akin to riots in the streets or maybe some kind of chemical spill, the truth proved to be a whole lot more frightening: zombies. Sure, Frank might have stumbled into the story of a lifetime ... but only if he lives long enough to tell it.

When gamers first met Frank West in the original Dead Rising, they were introduced to a hard-nosed reporter going above and beyond to uncover the truth. Hiring a helicopter to take him past the military blockade, Frank hops out on the roof of the Willamette Mall giving explicit instructions to the pilot to return for him in 72 hours. Inside the mall, Frank discovered that a group of people had locked themselves in to protect themselves from shambling hordes of the undead waiting just outside the doors. While Frank was still absorbing everything that was happening around him, the barricade was broken and zombies rushed the doors like a mob of Christmas shoppers on Black Friday. After falling back to a safe room, Frank came face to face with two government agents who knew more about the situation than either was willing to share.

If nothing else, Frank West is a man of action. He wasn't about to just sit back and let the story unfold around him. If something was going to go down, he was going to be on the frontlines. After all, as Frank himself pointed out with a catchphrase that's been immortalized in video history, "I've covered wars, you know." Heading out from the safe room, Frank quickly becomes an integral part of the story he's covering. With 72 hours to kill, Frank decided to earn a little extra karma by rescuing some of the other survivors of the zombie outbreak trapped around the mall. Unfortunately, there were other threats lurking in the shadows ... threats even more dangerous than the zombies in the halls. Frank found himself facing off against everything from deranged grocery clerks to psychotic chainsaw wielding clowns. Still, 72 hours after the start of what's become known as the Willamette Incident (or Dead Rising to video game fans), Frank had survived the outbreak, saved the survivors, and got his story to the outside world, exposing not only the zombie outbreak, but the government's role in it and the subsequent cover-up.

So, after you've covered wars and followed that up by getting up close and personal with the undead, what's left for an overachieving journalist to do? Well, you've gotta find something even more outlandish to cover. And what could be more outlandish than a fighting tournament with giant robots, martial arts masters, sci-fi ninja, and even a succubus tossed in for good measure? Frank found all of that and more when he joined the cast of fighters in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars. Just like in Willamette, Frank wasn't satisfied just to report the news, he jumped right into the thick of. Armed with a camera, a baseball bat, and a gaggle of zombified friends, Frank fought tooth and nail and managed to hold his own against well-known fighters like Ryu, Mega Man, and Ken the Eagle.

Recently, when the word came out that there was yet another zombie outbreak, this time in Fortune City, Nevada, fans were expecting to see Frank West on the scene and taking the undead to task once again. Instead, they were introduced to motocross star, Chuck Greene. Wait a minute! Had our beacon of journalistic integrity abandoned us in our time of need? Or worse, had he somehow become zombie chow sometime before the events of Dead Rising 2? It was a scary thought, as Frank West had become the John Wayne of the video game world ... if John Wayne had a camera and fought reanimated corpses. Well worry no more. Capcom recently confirmed that Frank was simply on assignment elsewhere and will be returning to the Dead Rising story, joining forces with Chuck Greene in the Dead Rising 2: Case West downloadable content, available later this year.