Age of Zombies

     Age of Zombies is a quick bite sized game (being released as an aptly named PSP mini) in both the breadth of the content available and the mechanics built into the gameplay.  As a top down shooter, games like SmashTV  and Ikari Warriors come to mind, but in today’s gaming landscape perhaps a retro take on Geometry Wars or Everyday Shooter is a more helpful description of this type of game.  Since this is my first PSP mini, I can only comment peripherally on how this game compares to the rest, and my reference point comes from PSP minis that also appear on the iPhone that I have tried out. 

     Here’s the premise of Age of Zombies, and tell me if you’ve heard this one before:  Barry Steakfries (Yes, Steakfries is his last name) walks into a room and confronts the evil scientist, Professor Brains.  Prof Brains is in the process of sending hordes of zombies back in time to wipe out humanity.  As the snarky macho protagonist, you wield a heavy arsenal of guns in one hand and toss out one liners with the other.  The game cribs liberally from a number of other game franchises, action hero clichés, and internet memes, and collects them into this PSP mini for your enjoyment.

     As the game progresses, you will travel to five different time periods including prehistoric times, ancient Egypt, a Japanese village, etc and each period is broken down into three parts: The first two are massive waves of enemies, and the third is a boss fight, that may also include additional waves of the undead.  Once done, you hop into a time portal and then it’s on to the next period.  It’s a very straightforward way to set up the game but since it doesn’t take itself very seriously, the eye roll inducing premise fits in comfortably.

     Ripping a page right out of Matt Hazard’s book, this game is quite funny, though I found myself laughing at the game as much as with it.  While I wouldn’t call the writing witty or necessarily well done, per se, it fits with what I imagine a character named Barry Steakfries would say and at times is quite surprising.  Bordering on offensive at times, it reminds me of South Park style humor with its crudeness and its topicality. I enjoyed it, but I could see how not everyone would appreciate the juvenile tones.

     While blasting zombies in each time period, the gameplay is as simple as the game’s premise.  You move with the analog stick (or the D-pad) and you shoot with the face buttons, which can be combined for diagonal shooting.  The only other button you need to worry about is L1 to fire your secondary weapon, be it grenades or rockets or whatever.  The control scheme works well, but again it’s simple.  While a second analog stick (which is present on the DualShock3 but nonfunctional since this is a PSP mini) would have been great, the setup and tuning of the controls is very well worked out and I had no problem moving and shooting precisely where I wanted to.  Since the face buttons on the PSP (or DS3) are more spaced out than on a D-pad, it’s possible that those with slender thumbs may have trouble shooting at a diagonal, but my medium sized knobs worked well.

     The flow of the game in each level seems to be pretty well balanced making the actual play time rather enjoyable.  As with other dual joystick shooters, you need to be continually moving around so that the enemies do not surround you while you continue to shoot at them.  Taking down over 1000 zombies per time period, the strategy generally involves walking around in a big circle while firing backward into the crowd.  The balance comes in how fast zombies are taken down.  Generally taking only one bullet, your handgun allows them to slowly overtake you, but picking up one of the many guns scattered around the board turns the tide in your favor and opens up some space.  It’s this back and forth against the undead mob that is the best part of the game for me.

     While the play of the game is enjoyable, if a bit on the easy and brainless end of the spectrum, my biggest issue with the game lies in the value.  This also is a tough aspect to judge, because it depends on what you compare this PSP mini with.  My average play time for the story mode of the game was about 57 minutes.  The only additional mode available is a high score chase with one life in each of the five time periods adding maybe another 30-40 minutes total to get the high score on each.  That’s not a lot of time.  When compared to other PSP games, this is much cheaper, and maybe the lack of content is acceptable, but when compared to iPhone games, which the PSP minis are most directly competing with slash modeled after, $5 is a premium price and Age of Zombies seems too expensive for what you get.  When compared to iPhone games, you have buttons here which is a great plus and also you can play it on your couch on your PS3.  As a feature this works very well because the controller is more comfortable than the PSP and the already colorful cartoony graphics hold up remarkably well given the increase in screen real estate.   These additional features may help offset the premium price, but it’s up to you whether they add enough value.  As such, it really depends on what your frame of reference is to determine if this game is too expensive or not.  It seems to me that $2-3 would be the ideal price point for this game, but as far as minis go, this seems to be a pretty good one.

     In the end, the choice is yours.  If you want a PSP mini and are looking for a funny well controlled bite of gaming, this isn’t a bad choice provided that you are aware of the dearth of content.  If you are used to iPhone pricing, you will likely scoff at what is on offer.  The clichéd but enjoyable game lives up to the moniker of mini, just make sure that is what you want before jumping in.

Review Notes: This copy was provided by Halfbrick for review purposes.  Story mode was played through twice in it's entirety: Once on the PSP and once on the PS3.  Additionally, ~40 more minutes was spent on the PSP getting high scores in Survival Mode.