Zombie Highway: Driver's Ed

In the same way that two wrongs don't make a right, two tired gaming tropes combined don't necessarily make for something fresh or appealing.

With Zombie Highway: Driver's Ed, Auxbrain combines the two most overused mobile gaming elements of recent times - zombies and endless-runner gameplay.

Unsurprisingly, this doesn't result in a particularly amazing game.

Zombie Highway: Driver's Ed is, rather oddly, a spin-off of a fairly unremarkable 3-year-old game.

In the original Zombie Highway, you either scraped off zombies from the side of your car or plugged them full of bullets (if you were particularly touchy about the paintwork).

In Zombie Highway: Driver's Ed, however, Auxbrain appears to halve the fun by doing away with all elements of gunplay.

In actual fact, though, the driving was the meat of the first game, so concentrating on this aspect wasn't perhaps a bad idea.

If only the game itself wasn't so deathly dull.

Your car auto-accelerates along an endless road through a post-apocalyptic wasteland. It's a bit like that stretch of the M1 that goes through Luton.

Along the way, you'll notice a number of zombies standing patiently at the side of the road. Rather than waiting to be picked up like any self-respecting hitchhiker, these chaps decide to jump onto the side of your car. Leave them alone too long, and in too great a number, and they'll flip your car over.

In order to shake them, you must scrape them against the side of barriers and walls. Annoyingly, these flesh-eaters often require a couple of hits to dislodge, which usually gives another zombie or two the chance to grab onto the other side of your car.

Controlling your vehicle is a simple case of tilting your iOS device left and right to steer. It's reasonably tight, though you'll have to upgrade your ride in order to really bring it under instant control.

You can upgrade your motor by spending the money you earn through each successive run. We're guessing these are particularly conscientious zombies who shove cash through your window prior to having their limbs sheared off.

The trouble is, Zombie Highway: Driver's Ed just isn't much fun. It's a dour, repetitive experience with a core mechanic that irritates as much as it entertains. As yet another zombie lands on your door, the typical reaction is a tut and a sigh rather than a frantic arm spasm. That can't be right.

After a few goes, booting up this zombie-themed endless-runner proves to be about as appealing a proposition as picking up an undead hitchhiker.