Flick Me Sideways! Zombies!!
From the off, Full Fat’s latest title addresses a niggling little improbability that has long irked me about most every game set amid a zombie apocalypse – namely, the heroic survivor’s easy access to a stockpile of knives, guns, and grenades.
Far more realistically, when a horde of flesh-eaters accost Zombie Flick’s main protagonist – think a Saturday Night Fever era John Travolta – he must fend them off with anything he can lay his mitts on. Thus gameplay consists of decimating the advancing undead by lobbing an array of everyday objects in their direction. This is achieved with well aimed flicks of your finger on the screen.
Set in the swinging Seventies, Zombie Flick fully exploits a decade best remembered for its big hair, hideous fashion statements and trashy horror flicks, meaning we are treated to monsters sporting Afros and decked out in full disco garb, iconic projectiles (vinyl! Rubik’s Cubes! Lava Lamps!), and a Grindhouse riffing aesthetic that ensures OTT levels of gore and even extends to a title sequence that mimics an old scratchy film print and an intermission style pause screen.
You’ve probably guessed as much, but Zombie Flick is an incredibly polished little game. The graphics are gorgeous, tonally it straddles a fine balance between being terrifying and laugh-out-loud funny, while, as mentioned, Full Fat also add lashings of cinematic verve to the proceedings.
Thankfully, for the best part, the core gameplay manages to live up these high standards. After a brief cutscene which depicts our hero poised atop a heap of junk and walled in by a flimsy barricade, the camera zooms in to offer you an in-your-face perspective of the gruesome action that ensues.
What’s instantly apparent is that the decision to ditch weapons in favor of less conventional ammo was a good ‘un; the slick, flicking mechanic allowing for a more adrenalized and exciting experience than simply spraying zombies with bullets. In addition to chucking debris, you can spin around and contend with enemies approaching from different angles by tapping on either side of the screen, and repair barricades with a touch of the toolbox icon. A neat slo-mo effect/power-up rounds off your range of abilities nicely.
The aim of the game is basically to survive as long as you possibly can whilst racking up a huge score. The average session consisting of slaughtering as many zombies as possible, keeping a constant eye on your barricades, and frantically carrying out repairs. The gory thrills are guaranteed to get your pulse racing, panicky moments are plentiful as zombie attacks come thick and fast, and the action has a delightfully old school, arcade-y feel to it.
All told, I had an absolute blast with this game. However, given the similarity of both its game modes – Last Stand and Survival – Zombie Flick does get a tad repetitive, and could benifit from a greater variety of play styles, environments, and perhaps even the inclusion of a meaty level based campaign.
iFanzine Verdict: Without a doubt one of the best made, freshest, and funniest zombie to shuffle onto iPhone in ages. That said, hopefully Full Fat will flesh out Zombie Flick with more content, because, good as it is, this version feels a bit “bare bones.”
[xrr rating=4/5]