Not too long ago, sometime in late April, Zynga released their hit iOS game ZombieSmash onto Google Play. Amid the countless undead-themed games that seem to be making their way onto mobile devices, does ZombieSmash have what it takes to stand out of the pack? Read the admittedly belated review to find out.
Name: ZombieSmash | Developer: Zynga | Category: Arcade & Action | Players: 1 | Version: 1.0.5 | Size: 108 MB | Price: $0.99 |
Basically, ZombieSmash is of the castle-defense game genre, where you play as Joey, a lone-survivor who has to defend his house from hordes of zombies that are intent on taking it down. The game has a novel physics-based gameplay that requires you to flick the zombies using your fingers and toss them around like worthless pancakes. Take my word for it, tossing zombies around will never feel better.
Gameplay
ZombieSmash has a multitude of game modes. There are two classic campaigns – each set in a different location, a bonus night campaign, an endless siege and a sandbox mode. In endless siege, you have to hold on for as long as you can against never-ending zombie hordes, while sandbox is more like a test-bed because it gives you a free reign to use all your unlocked weapons against custom-assembled zombies.
In the campaign mode, things get incrementally more difficult as you progress and the pace of the game slowly increases too. Thankfully, in addition to sharpening your own zombie-smashing prowess along the way, there are a slew of weapons to aid you in your fight against the zombies.
While the mission may be the same time and time again – safeguard the house – the gameplay is varied with continuous new weapon unlocks and new types of foes to face. This will keep you from getting bored, and instead hooked to come back for more. On more than one occasion I found myself telling “one last round” but I just couldn’t put the game down.
Graphics
The game uses Zynga’s in-house proprietary SplatterEngine, and I must say it creates lovable blood-laden graphics. Dismembering the zombies – tearing their heads, legs and arms apart – feels and looks fun. Everything has a cartoon-ish touch to it from the onset, and on the overall, the artsy animations from the blood splattering around and the effects from the use of weapons gives the game a light-hearted atmosphere.
Controls & Sound
The game doesn’t have an elaborate control scheme. It’s dead simple – use your fingers to toss the living daylights out of the zombies that are attacking you. The key here is you need to use many fingers – the more the better. In later levels, the number of zombies becomes so overwhelming that you’d just wish you could use your toes as well.
You also have to be good at multitasking because as you smash the zombies, you need to collect the stars and weapons that they leave behind by tapping on them. The game is also accompanied by good sound effects and background music that will surely keep you absorbed in your task of getting rid of the zombies.
Weapons & Upgrades
The availability of a different weapons – ranging from a swinging pendulum to a giant football and grenades – adds an extra dimension to the game. It is essential to prudently use these weapons as you’d need them to dig you out of the grave once the zombies have completely overwhelmed you.
Upgrades can be bought using the stars collected. Weapons can be upgraded to make them more lethal and devastating, while the barricade surrounding the house can be strengthened and the number of special slots can be increased via upgrades as well.
The game does feature a few in-app purchases, but quite frankly they’re not needed and a surprising thing is that these in-app purchases are somewhat secluded – not the normal in-your-face kind a type of thing we’re used to. In the event you decide the game is too difficult to play without ‘additional’ help, you’d be glad to know that the in-app purchases are actually reasonably priced.
Conclusion
As things progressed further and the level of intensity turned a notch higher, the game started to lag quite badly on my dual-core Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, but on my quad-core Acer Iconia Tab A510, I have not faced the same issue. Another thing is that I find the game to be quite a battery hog, with a drain rate on par with full 3D games such as N.O.V.A. 3.
Otherwise, ZombieSmash is a great casual game that will pose a unique challenge even to the most hardcore of Android gamers. It has appealing visuals, lots of content that will keep you coming back for more and an exciting gameplay. And at $0.99, you don’t get many games with a similar value-to-money ratio.
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars
