All of you who loved House of the Dead (both of them) and Time Crisis and Area 51, step forward. The rest of you are dismissed. This is a private meeting. I’ve got good news: Confidential Mission rules. And that information is not classified. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen any shooters like this on the DC. If you’re aching for a new on-rails shooter, look no further. This is it. ‘Nuff said. I’ll stop.

Okay, I won’t stop. That would be unfair. Confidential Mission is basically a secret agent themed version of House of the Dead. You cruise around, "on rails," so to speak, and you shoot stuff. The basic story revolves around bringing down a really bad guy who is trying to destroy the world, or maybe just increase our gas prices. It doesn’t really matter. The only imperative is to not shoot the innocents and shoot all the bad guys really fast.

The game takes you through three levels: a museum, a train, and the villain’s lair. You’ll encounter everything from tricked out Egyptian relics, to snow tanks and helicopters, to the requisite horde after horde of baddies. It makes you wonder: Just how many bad guys can hide behind one wet bar? The variety in enemies is a little bit original, but mainly the game relies on overwhelming you with numbers, which is fine when you’re blazing at the top of your game.

Graphically, and regarding gameplay, Confidential Mission is very comparable to House of the Dead. The graphics have that crisp, bright, Sega arcade quality that is very easy on the eyes. Gameplay is the basic move your target, shoot, reload style. Although not advertised on the packaging, a light gun can be used with Confidential Mission, and greatly enhances the gameplay. One aspect of Confidential Mission is different than House of the Dead, and that is the inclusion of mini-tasks that require more than just shooting. For example, you may have to shoot out a group of vents spewing poisonous gas, or you might have to help out a hostage dangling from the roof of a train. These breaks in the game provide some much-needed variety, and they are pretty dang fun.

The basic arcade mode is included, and if you beat that you’ll open up the "Another World" mode, which changes things around a bit. The Partner mode is pretty fun. It highlights different enemies to correspond to each of the two players, and only the designated player can kill that enemy. This mode really accentuates teamwork, and provides a good spin on the game for a few replays.