'Yakuza: Dead Souls' trailer introduces our zombie-killing gangsters

Imagine Grand Theft Auto in Japan. Now imagine it invaded by zombies. Imagine that four gangsters are up against the hordes. Now imagine that one of them has a gatling gun for an arm.

That's Yakuza: Dead Souls -- an unlikely mix that's at once both straight-faced portrayal of modern metropolitan Japan and farcical humor.

The Yakuza series has a proud history, sharing DNA with the 1999 cult classic Shenmue, itself a go anywhere, do anything adventure that predated Grand Theft Auto's own transition to 3D in 2001.

With four core games, Yakuza has also spawned a number of spin-offs, and Dead Souls is one of those.

Yakuza: Dead Souls was released on PlayStation 3 in Japan in June 2011, after a slight delay owing to the Tohoku earthquake. The North American and European localizations are due to appear in March 2012.