“Dead Space: Extraction”
Genre: Survivor-horror rail shooter
Developer: Visceral Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platform: Nintendo Wii
ESRB rating: “M” for mature
Release date: Tuesday, Sept. 29
Price: $49.99
Grade: C

There are games you buy and games you borrow.

Toss “Dead Space: Extraction” on the latter pile.

This latest installment in the ongoing war against virus-infected, semi-dead things brings Wii players into the fold with a tale that predates the plot of the parent title “Dead Space.” In the original story — made for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC — a resourceful interstellar engineer named Isaac Clarke must save himself and his wounded spacecraft from a plague of Necromorphs dancing about and causing general pandemonium.

In “Dead Space: Extraction,” players experience what happened before Clarke’s expedition and the planet Aegis VII’s fall into a Necromorphic stupor. A small band of colonists who escape the plague’s onslaught hope to fly out of harm’s way but discover Necromorphs roaming about there, too. The four fighters — Nathan, Gabriel, Warren and the beautiful Lexine (no plain-looking women are allowed in space, it seems) — are trying to fend off the creepy creatures, and along the way pick up comic-book-styled clues to the “Dead Space” back story.

This is an on-rails blastfest well-suited for Wii, in part because Visceral Games was careful to not place many demands on the console’s underpowered video display capabilities. But the story’s 10 chapters unfold in a few minutes each (quicker still with two people playing), so even gamers unfamiliar with the “Dead Space” saga can shoot through this title in an afternoon.

That makes Game Guy wonder about the $50 price. “Madden NFL 10″ costs about that much. “Super Smash Bros. Brawl” does, too. “The Beatles: Rock Band,” meanwhile, tops out at $60 not including custom peripherals. All these titles are worth playing over and over, and for good reason: They’re versatile.

“Dead Space: Extraction” isn’t; instead, it’s a one-run, then-done kind of gaming experience those outside the “Dead Space” fan base, and a few inside such as Game Guy, won’t bother rehashing.