Zombie games seem to be popping up at an alarming rate; Dead Space, The Last Guy, Dead Rising (Wii), Resident Evil 5, Left 4 Dead, and the Nazi zombie minigame in the most recent Call of Duty have all been released in the last nine months. Zombies have been around gaming since they allegedly Ate My Neighbors in 1993, but their recent prevalence seems like, well, an outbreak. I wouldn’t say their oversaturation is fatiguing gamers on a World War II-FPS level, but, to the untrained eye, it’s getting hard to tell them all apart. Yet, having spent a considerable portion of my life planning my actions in the event of a zombie apocalypse (as any remotely responsible person should), I welcome another game that will, in some way, allow humanity to virtually prepare for the inevitable takeover by the living dead.
Though it shares the zombie namesake of its peers, the gameplay behind Burn Zombie Burn! has more in common with top-down, kill-everything-on-the-screen games like Geometry Wars or Smash TV. Despite the implied simplicity of an arena shooter, I was utterly bewildered after my first game. I was dead in less than a minute, I had accumulated maybe 5% of the necessary score, and I was left with a “well what the hell was that?” bafflement that suggested I better consult the previously skipped in-game tutorial. Twenty minutes and all eight parts of the tutorial later, I began to uncover the reasons for my obvious failure; zombies have to be obliterated, of course, but they must be taken down with an attention to detail. Again, just like real life, a level head must be kept, and there must be a deliberate order to the actions that determine your survival.
Good. Bad. I’m the guy with the gun.
You’re Bruce, the game’s lone living dead eradicator. Default weapons include a pistol and a stick with fire on the end of it, both with limitless ammo. Other weapons, such as a shotgun, an uzi, chainsaw, minigun, lawn mower, and brain sucking + shooting device have finite ammunition, but do well to help you annihilate the hoard. It’s a good thing you have access to all this great weaponry, because zombies come quickly and in waves, often not waiting for you to clear out the previous wave before unleashing the next onslaught.
While you’re more than welcomed to glide by weapon pickups and keep yourself safe, it’s simply not the way to advance in the game. Instead, Burn Zombie Burn! makes use of its namesake and encourages you to light zombies on fire before you blast them away. You see, when a single zombie is ignited by your torch, it increases your multiplier, which, in turn, is symbiotic to increasing your score; light 60 zombies on fire, let them spread it to another 20, and watch your 60-point kill multiply into 4800 points. With level-passing requirements usually beginning at a half million and often topping out in the eight figure range, it quickly becomes necessary to light as many zombies on fire as you possibly can.
But you don’t want to light them all on fire. Unlike their burning brethren, regular zombies are more docile, afraid of fire, drop different pickups, and won’t follow you around, so it becomes necessary to farm a flaming hoard whilst looking for pockets of fresh undead. Furthermore, the weapon you use directly affects the point value of a slain zombie. For example, a bullet from your default handgun is worth ten points, but whack one out with a cricket bat and it’s worth 75. Another wrinkle in the formula comes with the combo bar. Successive kills with the same weapon fill a meter, which, when filled three times, activates a big red button in the center of the level. When pressed, the button does something typically insane (such as drop bombs, shoot lasers, or make it rain) in each level.
Then you need to factor in the higher level crazy stuff. TNT (dropped by normal zombies) and TNT upgrades (dropped by flaming zombies) are essential to racking up a high score, as is crowd management. The actual zombies come in a few classes, be it quick ballerinas, football helmeted rushers, shield wielding neanderthals, or flame-farting giants. Of particular interest at the proximity exploders, who not only take pleasure in blowing you up, but also wiping out any surrounding zombies (with no points scored) if you fail to shoot them off.
All of this is accomplished through somewhat unconventional control. While most would automatically assume mapping movement/shoot to the twin sticks would be ideal, Doublesix chose to go a different route. Your left stick is still locked at movement; with L1 being used for a lock on and L2 handling strafe lock. Locking on to one particular zombie in a hoard of dozens is as asinine as it is impossible (and it makes singling out exploders nearly impossible), but it functions well as a means for close combat precision; the flame thrower and chainsaw are remarkably adept at making the best use of close-but-not-too-close lock on attacks.
The people it kills get up and kill!
The gameplay is constant, and the end goal is always a high score, but the objectives shift depending on what mode you select. Standard arcade is a progression through the levels; earn at least a bronze and proceed, whereas timed mode introduces a clock that must be minded. Protect Daisy is a fancy stationary escort/defense take, but the game really stretches its legs in the handful of challenge missions, which enforce contextually specific rules (such as avoiding electrocution, restricting your weaponry, or making best use of the brain sucker gun) and vary the formula just enough to sidetrack you for a while.
Level progression brings change to the environments, but not necessarily to the difficulty. The score requirements to pass each level get successively higher, but, save a change in theme, the “layout” is largely irrelevant. Sure, there might be a few more (or less) unfortunate dead ends and some levels may be better at containing herded pockets of zombies, but save Secret Lab (the only pure arena), the actual level didn’t seem to make much of a difference. Still, while cliché, the familiar themes that flavor the aesthetics carry an air of familiarity, and a perfectly functional in their mayhem-assisting obligation. I was initially disappointed when I saw there were only six of them, but, unless Doublesix were to make drastic changes to the core gameplay, it’s largely an empty complaint.
Doublesix really nailed the atmosphere for intense zombie annihilation. While your character is sort of lame and his amusing quips are limited, the art direction and visuals are top notch, especially for a downloadable title. A hundred zombies can easily populate the screen at once, and being able to distinguish,the ballerinas from the football guys, the burning from the non-burning, and the burnt from the normal is a remarkable achievement. Subtle doses of personality, such as the slightly delayed Frankenstein walk, the zombie hoard dancing (via the dance gun) to a Thriller inspired tune, and all of the campy environments inject a welcomed dose of humor into shamelessly absurd setting. The music was also a welcomed surprise. While it was a tad repetitive, the riffs were straight and their energy was relentless. After a couple hours I was switching over to some of my own stuff (not in-game, sadly), but the default music is better than expected.
Groovy
You could coast by and ‘beat’ the game by collecting nothing but bronze metals, but working your way up to silver (or gold or developer scores if you’re masochistic) unlocks a host of extras. While I expected more lives or maybe a few stat bonuses, what I found was a much more enjoyable cornucopia of rewards. The artwork and character bios are standard, but the “visions modes,” basically a series of different graphical filters, are top notch. Trophies are also rather interesting, with some more abstract (such as filling the screen with blood) or joining the high score or body count staples. A split screen co-op run through the levels is also available. I thought it made for an interesting session of burn coordination, weapon rationing, and, toward later waves, angry accusations and hurt feelings. Playing it versus, where you compete for the highest score, was a little better at preserving the energy of the single player experience.
At a certain point, Burn Zombie Burn! becomes a mechanical routine of tried and tested maneuvers. Plenty of variation is thrown in via the different zombie types and unpredictable wave progression, but, once you have your plan down, the game’s allure transforms from “can I do this” into “how well can I do this.” The repetition isn’t boring and this certainly isn’t a complaint, I’m hopelessly addicted to trying to get at least silver medals across the board, but this type of gameplay might not be for everyone. Then again, it’s a $10 title, so, even if you don’t get hours upon hours out of Burn Zombie Burn!, it was probably worth your time.
