Wired has an article looking at the reasoning behind Dead Rising's controversial save system. Controversial in this case means "a lot of people whine about it." A lot of people in this case means "people who have been spoiled on 'save anywhere' systems."

Dead Rising's save system is bound to frustrate you a little bit, sure. My main problem with it was not being able to make a second save in case it turned out I saved too close to a deadline, but that's more a complaint with the inconsistent scheduling (sometimes you just have to get to an event before the deadline, sometimes you have to get there and fight a boss before time's up) than with the method of saving.

It seems like gamers are getting a greater and greater sense of entitlement with regards to every aspect of their games. Not only was Dead Rising criticized for the save system, but also for the timed element that limited how much exploration you could do. Elsewhere, gamers have bitched about certain games not allowing custom soundtracks when the developers feel it would spoil the atmosphere. Apparently they want every game to be a box of tinkertoys thrown at them with which they can do whatever the hell they want. That certainly works for some games, but not all.

As horrible and freedom-infringing as it sounds, developers sometimes need to have control over your experience. It's not just in video games; movie directors control what you see and when you see it, amusement park rides control where you go and what you can do. Sometimes it's for technical or logistical reasons, but other times it's because that's how you go about crafting a particular experience for people. If you want to achieve a particular effect, you have to be able to set at least a few of the variables that lead to that effect. I figured people understood this -- what else would account for the game that introduced the world to "save ribbons" going on to sell millions of copies and spawn a whole franchise. If you want a game that presents you with a basic skill test in which you can start and stop at any time with no penalty and enforces no rules as to what you can or can't do, go play Whack-A-Mole. I'm not going to pull the craggy old gamer card and say "In MY day we didn't save at all!", but seriously. Eight year olds were able to make it through Ninja Gaiden in one go, I think you can manage to get from one save point to the next.

(And returning specifically to the game in question: there was a save point in every section of the mall. If you had to backtrack for 20 minutes of work after you died, you weren't doing it right.)