Game Review: I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1

At 80 Microsoft Points, seriously, get this game or get a free trial, it’s just something you have to experience if you have Xbox Live Gold.

I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1 (I’ll now refer to it as Zombies!) was released just over two years ago and is an Indie title available on the Xbox Live Arcade. It costs 80 Microsoft Points (which is around 68p) and can be downloaded if you have Xbox Live Gold. Why am I reviewing this game? My wife thinks I’m silly for reviewing it. I’m simply reviewing it because it’s just such an amazing game, no matter how short or silly it is.

This game doesn't look like much, but trust me, it's not supposed to.

Zombies! is an action shooter of the simplest controls. Your two analog sticks are the only things you use, one is used to manoeuvre your player, the other is to shoot in your preferred direction. The game can be played by up to four people at once, and is viewed from an aerial perspective. You simply shoot your enemies that are coming by the hordes, towards you. You get points for each enemy you take down and your enemies kill you simply by touching you, causing you to explode. As I said, the game is very simple, but it’s what else Zombies! brings to the table that makes it stand out.

You see, there is just one level. That level is probably around 20 minutes long. As you progress through the level, more and more enemies come at you, which results naturally in the game becoming more difficult. As I said the game is for up to four players, and the more players you have simply means more enemies are on screen. I say enemies rather than zombies because as the level progresses you encounter more than just zombies. There are about six different enemies to encounter, first is the zombie, then you have these worm-like things that glow, and later blobs of green goo that explode into smaller blobs, little diamond shards and some random angry faces. There are also zombies that are a slightly different shade of green that explode on contact, so these are slightly harder. The game is just bizarre.

It's not just zombies that you have to take on. Look at those weird mouth things.

In terms of how to deal with the undead and peculiar, you shoot them with your gun. Now you can get weapon upgrades as the level goes on, there are many different varieties of weapon that do different things, one is simply a machine gun that fires more bullets and quicker, there’s a laser that slices through multiple enemies, there’s a flamethrower, there’s a weapon that shoots in three different angles, there’s more. As well as weapon upgrades there’s also a shield, this is used to protect you from getting hit by putting it as a radius around you, there’s something that makes you move faster, and there’s extra lives. You start the level with five lives and that’s five hits, if you lose if you score high enough you’ll get put through to the (offline) leaderboard. Extra lives are very important if you ever want to finish this game. And that’s the thing, finishing this game is actually quite hard. The game starts off nicely, but the difficult cranks up quite quickly, you have to dodge enemies and kill hem as quickly as possible.

What stands out most about this game is the song. As I said, the game is one level that is around 20 minutes long, but there’s transitions in the level that also change the song’s pace and sound, as well as the backgrounds that the level is played on. The song is just absolutely brilliant. Lyrically, there’s only singing in the beginning and the end of the level but what consists in the game for words is hilarious. The lyrics basically describe the song, the game, and the fact that it costs you $1 (in America) to pay. Without ruining it I don’t really want to put any lyrics down on here, but it’s just excellent and funny. The rest of the song is mostly metal and techno music, but it sounds very good, it’s not bad quality music at all.

And the hordes get even bigger than this. You get immense satisfaction for finishing this game.

Zombies! is just something you just have to experience if you have Xbox Live Gold. Seriously, get a free trial of the game, or just buy it, as I said, it’s 80 Microsoft Points and that’s only 68 pence. You’ll get so much out of this game for its price, a better experience than games that are coming out now for £20, £30, £40 or £50. The game is so good the person that made it (yes, just one person made it) has made probably close to $250,000 off the game. It costs $1 to buy it, and he gets 70 cents for each purchase. The game has sold over 320,000 copies so far, because it’s so good. It’s a bargain. The game is silly, stupid, pointless but ultimately simple, hilarious, and a snip at 80 Microsoft Points. Get. This. Game!

Rating: **** stars

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