Teenage Zombies

Zombies and BRAAIINNSS, oh my!

Posted 5 years ago By - Janine Scodellaro

Teenage Zombies, Attack of the Alien Brain Thingys pits you as one of three Zombies battling giant Evil Brains to save all of Earth. Help us Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re our only hope! Star Wars references aside, you are the only hope for mankind and must thus utilize the unique skills of three Teenage Zombies as you navigate a two dimensional world searching for... BRAIINNSS. Fortunately for us, the human brain is much too small to interest our Zombie ’friends’ but the alien brains are juuust right (are you thinking about porridge too?). Playing as your chosen Zombie, the ultimate goal is to satisfy your insane appetite for membranes and devour the “Big Brain”, in this case the big brain is the final boss and not Albert Einstein. If this story is starting to sound somewhat juvenile it is rated ’E’ and seems to generally be targeted for a younger audience.


Gameplay

As mentioned earlier, the entire game is presented in a two dimensional format reminiscent to Castlevania. Unlike Castlevania your characters moves are limited to a singular attack and movement system that handicaps you strategically, forcing you to choose one of three Zombies to navigate the terrain. Without giving you the meticulous details of each character, the three characters differing abilities is what affects your character choices. The tall female teenager (Lefty) can reach high ledges to climb while the short, stocky fellow (Fins) uses tentacle to latch on to walls and ropes. My favourite character is the skateboarder with no legs (Half-Pipe), his speciality is the ability to navigate low areas and roll and jump over ramps. The gameplay revolves around choosing the ’right man for the job’ and getting the occasional ’power up’ to add variety to their basic moves. This is intermixed with stylus supported mini games that break up a sometimes slow and repetitive overall gameplay experience.


Graphics

This game is cute, there I said it, run for the hills all you manly men! The graphics work well with this but certainly don’t push it to the limit....the LIMIT (Scarface anyone?....anyone!) Aaanyways, the games visual theme is that of an old horror movie. Think Night of the living dead mixed with a Disney cartoon. It incorporates the story through comic book segments that compliment the mood of terror and humour... mixed with a pinch of... BRAAIINNS. Visually this game looks like allot of other side scrolling games out for the DS. Overall, the graphics will have you sitting on the fence; the textures, lighting and characters are good, but not great. The repetitive environments and enemies dictate that the visuals don’t need to be pushed to pull off this rather basic game.


Sound

When a game suffers from repetition in it’s enemies and environments it better have darn good music to hum along too; I didn’t hum. Don’t get me wrong, there are some catchy tunes, cute character voices and dialogue that will make you chuckle, but nothing that will overcome boredom.


Replay Value

Over thirty chapters means that the single player will provide you with hours of gameplay, how long you handle the repetition of that gameplay will differ. You see, the greatest weakness in this game is the gameplay. The environments very clearly define which character needs to be used at which time. Once that decision is made the game becomes a very traditional side scrolling, one button hit extravaganza. Go up, go down , go forward and kill kill kill......BRAAIIINNS. The saving grace in this game is it’s presentation; the characters and premise are quite charming and well....cute (RUN!). But it’s simple gameplay and limited features means you will likely play through this game once and won’t have any need to go back to it.


Overall

I really do hope that Ignition Entertainment release a “Teenage Zombies Two” because there is a lot of untapped potential here. The premise, presentation and characters are endearing and done very well. But a lack of variety and depth in gameplay will leave most gamers wanting more.

Sidenote

Teenage Zombies, knowingly or unknowingly has done an excellent job of showcasing their characters abilities and not disabilities. All three Teenage Zombies are stricken with a deformity such as missing limbs. Each character overcomes their disadvantages in a ’cool’ way. If you know of any children in your life that may be positively impacted seeing a child with no legs ’kick some butt’ then surprise them with this somewhat educational game!

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