The sandwich store "Jill's Sandwiches" is a reference to a scene in Resident Evil 1, when Jill is trapped in a room, only to be saved by Barry who exclaims, "You were almost a Jill sandwich!"

Adam The Clown's death is censored in the Japanese version. In the North American/European version, he is gushing blood after you kill him. This was changed so that barely any blood is shown.

The store "Child's Play" has a statue of a servbot from Mega Man Legends.

It's possible to find masks of Servbots from the Mega Man Legends series.

In Colby's Movieland is a Mega Man 2 cardboard cutout.

Mega Man X's armor is obtainable in game via certain achievements and hidden locations. To complete the look, two versions of his Mega Buster are also available. One is a toy but killing 53,594 zombies and unlocking the "Zombie Genocider" achievement grants the "Real Mega Buster".

The rights-holder for George Romero's film "Dawn of the Dead" sued Capcom for plagiarism. The lawsuit claimed that Dead Rising ripped off Dawn of the Dead, and listed the following similarities between the two titles:

•Both works are set in a bi-level shopping mall.
•The mall has a gun shop, in which action takes place.
•The mall is located in a rural area with the National Guard patrolling its environs.
•Both works are set in motion by a helicopter that takes the lead characters to a mall besieged by zombies.
•Many of the zombies wear plaid shirts.
•Both works feature a subtext critique of sensationalistic journalism through their use of tough, cynical journalists with short brown hair and leather jackets as a lead male character.
•Both works feature the creative use of items such as propane tanks, chainsaws, and vehicles to kill zombies.
•Both works are a parody of rampant consumerism.
•Both works use music in the mall for comedic effect.
•Dead Rising's use of the word "hell" references the tagline for Dawn of the Dead's release ("When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.").

The suit was dismissed in court.

During development, Frank's appearance was originally much rougher, and he had a different voice actor.

In early screenshots and trailers, Frank is seen reuniting an old couple at the mall entrance. In the final game, he reunites them on the rooftop.

In pre-release screenshots, Isabella is seen holding a Sniper Rifle. In the final game, only her brother Carlito wields a sniper rifle.

In the shop called "In the Closet" is a a t-shirt with a woman on it. In the US version of the game, the woman is topless, whereas in the European version she is wearing a bra/bikini top.

In early beta footage for Dead Rising, finding survivors during side missions would momentarily freeze all activity while the camera focused on the found character(s), and the message "Missing Person Located!!" would appear on the screen. The time allocated per side mission was also represented with a countdown timer, rather than the descending bar used in the final game.

The achievement "Zombie Genocider" is achieved after killing 53,594 zombies, the population of Willamette Colorado, where the game takes place.

The Somersault Kick is a reference to Guile's Flash Kick move from the Street Fighter series.

The Double Lariat is a reference to Zangief's Double Lariat move from the Street Fighter series.

Taking a Perfect!!! Erotica photo will cause Frank's nose to bleed down to his chin, a reference to a euphemism for sexual arousal found in and commonly associated with Japanese media.

On the Xbox 360 version of the game, going to the Food Court while playing on Infinity Mode from 4:05:00 to 4:23:59 will freeze the game on the loading screen, rendering both the 5 Day and 7 Day Survivor achievements unobtainable. This glitch was patched in an update for the Xbox One, PS4, and PC remastered ports.

A 2009 port of the game for the Wii titled Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop has features that were either changed or added in which are not present in the original Xbox 360 version:

•Upon completing the game, Ending A is the only ending that can be obtained apart from the other endings present in the Xbox 360 version.
•The save feature has been changed to add multiple save slots compared to only one in the Xbox 360 version.
•72 Hour mode and Overtime became one mode altogether, with side missions no longer taking up the main timeframe in the game. 
•A ranking system has been added based on how fast the player completes a mission to unlock new missions and rewards. 
•Two game modes, Odd Jobs and 2nd Amendment, have been added. And unlocking the Real Mega Buster and Laser sword require the player to beat all missions on both game modes with an S rank. 
•More costumes can be unlocked, with the inclusion of both Roll Caskett from Mega Man Legends and Nathan Spencer from Bionic Commando.
•Psychopaths Kent Swanson, Jo Slade, and Cliff Hudson have become zombies while Paul Carson has been omitted from the game entirely. 
•Cletus Samson can be saved in the Wii version unlike the Xbox 360 version, where he gets eaten alive by zombies.  
•The inclusion of zombie parrots and poodles.
•Books and Firearms can no longer be found within the mall and instead are sold to Frank by Cletus. 
•Firearms no longer break upon being used.   
•Zombies drop ammo or money once killed. 
•The Camera feature is absent in the Wii version.
•Phone calls from Otis are answered automatically. 
•Infinity Mode is absent in the Wii version.
•Killing 53,594 zombies unlocks the Apocalypse Frank costume unlike in the Xbox 360 version, which unlocks both the Real Mega Buster and the Zombie Genocider achievement.
•Leisure Park has its area shortened and vehicles can no longer be driven within the park. However, The player can still drive in the maintenance tunnels and must pay a fee to drive a different type of vehicle. 
•Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulties have been added. 
•The option to change blood color to Red, Green, and White has been added. 
•Only 100 zombies appear at a time on screen instead of 800 in the Xbox 360 version. 
•The firearms Frank obtains are the same ones from Resident Evil 4.  
•Juices have their abilities changed to how herbs work in the Resident Evil series. The Blue juice, however, acts as a randomizer that either damages Frank, gives him invincibility, increased speed, health, or turns him into Mega Man from the Mega Man series.
•Frank's fighting skills have been converted to combat events used only when battling psychopaths. 
•The jumping ability has been removed, so Frank can no longer jump to reach higher areas.
•Barricades have been included, making some areas less accessible. 
•Cutscenes have been pre-rendered so Frank's appearance no longer affects the in-game cutscenes. 
•Subtitles have been enlarged to make up for the small lettering found in the Xbox 360 version.  
•Survivors' health bars no longer display their names nor can Frank injure any survivors. 
•PP Stickers are absent in the Wii version.
•Item slots have been moved to the pause menu of the game. However, the player can still cycle between firearms during gameplay.
•Frank can only be assigned one melee weapon in the Wii version unlike in the Xbox 360, where he can carry as many melee weapons as needed.

Furthermore, the Wii was not graphically capable of handling the MT Framework used to develop the game for the Xbox 360, so the game itself was entirely remade from scratch using the engine for the Wii port of Resident Evil 4 after the critical and commercial success of that version.

There are several books that makes references to Capcom series.

• The 'Fighting Street' book referencing the Street Fighter game on the PC Engine (Resident Evil VII: Biohazard used the same book Easter Egg as well.).
• The 'Rock's Man' book referencing Mega Man's Japanese's localization name 'Rock Man'.
• The 'Biography of Kenzo Tsujimoto' book is referencing Capcom's chairman and CEO.

If the player waits on the title screen for 2 minutes, a secret cutscene will play out featuring a mother and daughter, named Connie and Dakota, encountering the outbreak in Wilamette and fruitlessly fending off zombies from their car. These characters bear striking resemblances to Spoiler:psychopath Cliff Hudson's daughter and granddaughter in the photo found in his wallet after he is defeated.