Reviewed: July 2, 2008
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Ignition Entertainment

Developer
InLight Entertainment

Released: April 15, 2008
Genre: Action-Puzzle
Players: 1

7
7
7
6
7.7

Supported Features:

The title pretty much sums it up and if it’s still not clear then you can enjoy the concept unfold in the opening comic book-style cutscene, complete with 90-degree DS tilt so you can enjoy the art panels in vertical format, as well as fully spoken voiceovers. Thankfully, the game never takes itself too serious, and it ultimately plays out like one of those B-movies you’d see on MST3000, and with just as much humor.

Alien brain “thingys” have invaded Earth. These pink invaders come in assorted styles and sizes, usually encased in a flying glass jar. They have lasers that can ruin your backyard BBQ or vaporize your neighbor’s dog, and they also have mind control that can turn innocent civilians into mindless zombies, but not the kind of undead zombies who crawl forth from their graves to save the planet. Oh, who are we kidding; these teens are just hungry for fresh brain meats.

Let’s meet our unlikely heroes. Lori “Lefty” Lopez was a former female basketball star. She now uses her lanky build and amazing reach to jump and grab as well as swipe down alien brain thingys. Zack “Half-Pipe” Boyd was an 80’s skateboarding legend until he lost the lower half of his body in an accident. Now his upper half scoots around on his skateboard and he is master of the limbo. Finnigan “Fins” Magee was a member of a 50’s swim team, so it was only fitting that after several years of erosion, the seawater invaded his grave along with various aquatic sea life that fused with his corpse. Now Fins can use his octopus-like tentacles to climb walls, stab alien brain thingys and projectile-vomic corrosive acid.

Those are your Teenage Zombies, and each have abilities crucial to solving a seemingly endless stream of challenging environmental puzzles and combat situations, both as individuals and as part of a team. It will take a keen analytical mind and a good sense of humor to work through this game and save the planet from The Big Brain and his evil minions.

One thing that has changed is that, unlike Vikings where your three characters existed all at once and you had to work to get all three of them to the end of each level, in Teenage Zombies you only control one character at a time but can switch to any other character at will. It gives off the vibe that all three characters are traveling together, thus logically negating the fact that special abilities are required to get anywhere. If Zack can limbo through a low tunnel then turn into Finnigan on the other side, how did Finnigan get there?

Logical minds are best left checked at the door if you decide to play this game. After all, we’re dealing with flying alien brains and teenage zombies. But back to the gameplay, which mostly consists of numerous maze-like levels full of rats, giant crocs, alien brains, and the occasion human under the alien influence. The level design intentionally forces you to constantly switch between all three of your teen zombies to make use of their unique abilities to get past tricky situations.

Lori is the only character who can jump, grab ledges and pull herself up. Fins is the only zombie who can stick to walls and climb and Zack can roll around on his skateboard and limbo through narrow passages. Each character has special abilities as well that are triggered by picking up special items or eating disgusting piles of garbage. Zack can install monster truck tires on his skateboard and crush aliens, and Fins can eat trash then vomit a corrosive substance that eats through metal grates.

There is a nice tutorial that gets you started, and hints will continually pop-up, even several hours into the game as new abilities are revealed. And if you do forget whom to use in certain situations, the correct character will make himself known in his coffin in the lower screen, which acts as your character select interface. The gameplay unfolds in the top screen while the lower screen allows you to tap on the zombie you wish to use. When a special ability is available you can also tap the icon in their coffin to activate. While I commend the inclusion of the touch-based interface, I found that the game played just as well (if not better) by simply using the triggers to cycle right and left through the coffins.

Gameplay is slow, as you might expect when lurching zombies are your lead characters, even zombies on skateboards, so while Teenage Zombies does fall into the action category most would agree the slower pace and the more logical elements make this more of a puzzle game.

There are 33 chapters, but don’t get excited. You can hit a new chapter marker, often in less than five minutes. Most of the challenge lies in simply figuring out the path to the exit and which sequence of zombies you’ll need to get there. Along the way you will find the occasional pick-up item, whether it is a special item to activate an ability or simply defeated brain meats that you can eat in various disgusting fashions to restore your health.

You’ll also find various body parts lying around, arms, legs, torso, and head. Once you have collected all these parts you can invoke a mini-game where you attach all of these parts using the touchscreen to restore full health. This part is pretty funny since you have some old guy (who sounds like Grandpa Simpson) yelling at you while you try to connect the limbs.

Throughout the game are various mini-game challenges that help break up the monotony. These can be unlocked and accessed through the main menu for future replays. Some are lame but others are fun and original, usually with a zombie twist. There is even a Brain Game-style knowledge and logic test that will pit you against the Big Brain himself.

I loved the decision to present the game in a comic book fashion, even to the extent of tilting your DS on end to read/watch the cutscenes. Even the title page and main menu is a comic book cover complete with UPC barcode. But the designers really got clever within the game and actually allow the characters to interact with the comic book text boxes. This clever concept makes the game really seem like a comic book come to life.

The art style is fun and simple with standard sprite animations that aren’t terribly complicated; not that they have to be. These are simple comic book characters animated in 2D. It might not be state of the art but it works amazingly well for the genre and chosen visual style. What the game lacks in technical proficiency it more than makes up for in pure presentation.