Game Reviews

Age of Zombies

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Age of Zombies

It’s rare that a smartphone game makes you laugh out loud.

For all the puzzlers and platformers that boast cartoon visuals and 'funny' worlds, it’s not often that they actually engender a hearty chortle. In the world of video games, there’s a clear distinction between amusement and comedy.

So, credit must go to Halfbrick for producing a twin-stick shooter in Age of Zombies that actually succeeds in its twin aims, i.e. providing chuckles as well as good clean zombie-killing entertainment.

Raising the Steaks

Main character Barry Steakfries is a refreshing parody of your stereotypical gruff hero.

For all his over-the-top machismo, Barry is stupidly and hilariously sensitive to what is going on around him. “I am a better man for having met you,” he says to the noble zombie T-Rex, immediately after slaughtering it.

So self-aware is this arcade-action game, in fact, that it frequently cracks jokes that break the fourth wall. And when it runs out of these gags, it carries on jesting using the newfound shortage of fourth-wall wisecracks as source material. There are a lot of layers of silly going on here, and it’s mostly the good kind of silly.

The gameplay in Age of Zombies itself is nothing special. To all intents and purposes, this game is mechanically identical to Gun Bros, Pew Pew, or any other dual-stick shmup.

This means: you run around an enclosed space, blasting zombies with your pistol until you pick up a better weapon, some grenades, or any number of assorted power-ups.

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Where Age of Zombies excels is in the steady speed and movement of your player and the marauding zombies.

The touchpads on the Xperia Play - usually the most erratic and frustrating of the device's controls - act as the sticks, and are surprisingly well suited to the task.

The R trigger is deployed to throw grenades, sentry guns, and other equipment you pick up, which is definitely an improvement over the virtual buttons on touchscreen phones.

If there’s a fault in Age of Zombies, it’s that the Story mode doesn’t last very long at all. Luckily, there’s a Survival mode complete with leaderboards to keep you returning for more shoot-'em-up fare.

A lot of praise needs to go to Halfbrick for making a genuinely funny game that fits in your pocket. Some of the jokes fall flat toward the end, but by then you’ll have already found Barry Steakfries and all his silly patter quite endearing.

Age of Zombies

You’ll have played the exact same game before in a different skin, but they won’t make you laugh in the same way as Age of Zombies will
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Brendan Caldwell
Brendan Caldwell
Brendan is a boy. Specifically, a boy who plays games. More specifically, a nice boy who plays many games. He often feels he should be doing something else. That's when the siren call of an indie gem haunts him. Who shall win this battle of wills? Answer: not Brendan.