Zombie Command

There is a plethora of zombie related iPhone apps for sale on the iTunes store from entertainment apps to apps that let you zombiefy your own photos but most of the zombie related apps are games. While many of these are easily forgettable and not as much fun as a game with zombies in racing karts or a game where zombies become bowling pins for you to launch you ball at, there are a few gems in there, and one of them is Zombieville USA.

Zombieville USA is a very simple game in both design and premise, but these are what make it such fun and one of the best and most addictive games I have on my iPhone. You play as a single character who side scrolls across a zombie infected street jumping into houses as you pass them to collect money or ammo. The characters range from a S.W.A.T. team member to a clown and have many varying characters in-between, including both a ninja and a doctor. As well as the aesthetic difference between the characters they each cleverly have their own advantages and disadvantages, e.g. the clown collects a lot of money but uses up a lot of ammo quickly.

The game itself is very simple kill the zombies you come across, collect money to buy new weapons and ammo at the end of each level and try and survive for as long as you can killing as many zombies as you can. As you progress, as well as new weapons being introduced, new zombie enemies are also introduced, these include a light blue zombie (the average zombie is a sickly green colour) that is faster than the usual slow paced green zombies but their bite is not as strong and they are weaker so are killed easier. The other kind is a dark green zombie that is the opposite of the light blue zombie, slow and strong.

While the game is very simple, this is what makes it so enjoyable. When you complete a level and have enough money to buy new weaponry you feel excited and when you die at the teeth of the zombie hoard you feel disappointment that you weren’t able to survive. And while many games today are trying to take the zombie genre in new directions by adding bowling balls or racing karts, Zombieville USA keeps true to the one thing all zombie fans have in common, the many, many ways a zombie can be killed and how each time a zombie falls under your Tommy gun or chainsaw it never feels repetitive.

And all for £1.19/$2, who can argue with that.

Dawn of the Dead is a new iPhone game from Bytemark Games, taking place in the 2004 remake’s Crossroads Mall. You play as either a policeman, a lady nurse or a salesman. I chose to play as the salesman as he looks like Shaun, especially from the top down view (no cricket bats though). Each character has their own attributes but these don’t really make a huge amount of difference to the game.

It’s fundamentally a twin stick shooter but adds in close combat weapons for a bit of variety. Move with your left thumb and attack with your right by tapping the screen.

Controls take a little bit of getting used to as you don’t aim where you’re facing. Unlike other shooters that I’ve played on the iPhone, Dawn of the Dead uses a 360 degree second stick as well, meaning that you can move in any direction while swinging or shooting in another. This is actually a necessity as you’ll usually be backing up hitting the zombies that are chasing after you.

Amongst the many zombie apps on the iPhone, Alive 4 Ever is a zombie shooter, with a slight difference.
Although the birds eye view shooter has a pretty simple premise, at the start of each level you are given an objective to complete in the time given and success always involves shooting up some of those pesky undead, it’s so easy to get lost in that you can spend hours playing it or just have a 15 minute burst in-between real zombie killing (if the world had been taken over that is).

After each stage you are rewarded with the usual money and XP points that allow you to buy weapons or upgrade your character to deal with the new range of zombies that arrive as you progress through the game.

The top down angle conjures up feelings of playing GTA: London on the Playstation 1. The controls are pretty easy and although the difficulty does spike from time to time I never found it too challenging, or too easy either. It may be a simple game in design but it is complex enough for any iPhone gamer to be easily amused on a long or shot zombie killing spree.

And at only £1.79 this is definitely a must buy for any iPhone owning zombie fan.

Watch the updated gameplay video after the jump.

Despite all the boys wanting to play this one, Kelly was the the only one with an iPhone to hand to review the new app – Zombie Bikini Babes From Outer Space.

Crash Course is the latest DLC from Valve for the original Left 4 Dead. Filling in the gap between your helicopter rescue from the rooftop in No Mercy’s hospital campaign and the start of Death Toll this release was primarily designed to allow shorter multi-player games rather than being a full new campaign.

Make the jump to read our full review.

Zombie Apocalypse is a slightly more up-market version of I MAED A GAM3 W1TH ZOMBIES or a much more down-market version of Left 4 Dead; a fact that it in no way attempts to hide with the characters being virtual clones of Zoey, Bill, Francis and Louis.

It’s not however, anywhere near as much fun…