This comically gory top-down shooter has plenty of variety in crazy weapons, but the score margins are far too demanding
Contains: Strong Comic Bloody Violence
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Burn Zombie Burn is a downloadable top-down shooter where you are tasked with defeating never-ending hordes of ravenous zombies by aiming to score high. You play as Bruce - a combination of Bruce Campbell and Elvis Presley who is cocky and confident at surviving the night along with his girlfriend Daisy. There is no storyline for Burn Zombie Burn, but just a common goal of reaching high scores to unlock more game content on various small maps.
The aim of this comical horror game is in the title itself. You have to not only stay alive, but burn zombies to increase the score multiplier when you kill. Burning zombies makes them delightful vessels for scoring high, but fire also happens to make zombies faster and... seemingly more ravenous. The risk-vs-reward system is interesting since you are forced by the game's scoring margins to set zombies on fire if you want a chance of meeting the score threshold, but at the same time putting your survival chances at considerably more risk.
Waves of zombies continually spawn until you meet your demise, and there are numerous different zombie types to be aware of. The most common type are the George A Romero classic zombies, which simply move slowly (until of course you set them alight), but others include exploding zombies, charging zombies and dancers. They all vary in movement and attack, some more unpredictable than others, especially if you can't pick out the deadly ones amongst the ravenous crowd constantly closing in on you. But you aren't completely helpless, as a series of weapons become available as you progress through the waves of the undead and manage to stay alive. A comical tone is evident in both gameplay and visual style, as you can use an assortment of crazy items that range from the average pistol, to lawnmowers and even brain suckers which suck the brain out of a nearby zombie and then launches it into a crowd for a brief distraction to catch your breath. Blood and guts will fill the screen immediately and will filter gradually over time but seemingly unrecognisably as even more brain matter and dismembered limbs litter the floor as you progressively kill zombie after zombie.
The game is enjoyable, and often addicting when you require higher scores to unlock other modes, but unless you are very skilled, Burn Zombie Burn can prove a rather annoying challenge, where even bronze medals prove difficult to achieve, and gold's seem ridiculously impossible. You must be very talented at identifying weaknesses in the map design that you can use to a slight advantage, be aware of all enemies so that you don't go ploughing straight into dangerous ones, and above all, be clever at squandering dropped items and use them with prime, survival instinct. A variety of modes keep you on your toes, ranging from simple free play, to survival, and even defend Daisy scenarios, but because of the challenging difficulty, maybe only trophies will keep you causing bloody mayhem on the strange, eventful evening Bruce finds himself unfortunately confronted by. Controls work well, but are noticeably lacking the dual analog aim and shoot functionality, and all the different options are fortunately revealed in an in-depth tutorial to help you before being thrown off into the deep end of gameplay.
The various maps barely change the gameplay, but more so keep you cautious to remember the environment boundaries and the places that you can easily become cornered and subsequently eaten alive. Burning zombies and killing them releases TNT, health, and upgrades, but the massive amount of zombies means you have to struggle to force a path through to your well earned collectible, and the tension of dying will often divert your attention away from the necessities that are required to succeed with high scores, and you'll no doubt struggle at gaining a respectable score on the leaderboards and unlocking the more maps and modes in them.
Burn Zombie Burn feels more fun when you aren't striving to beat a previous score despite the game's difficulty clearly intending you to do so, and setting alight zombies with comical touches to both environments, zombie animations and visual style makes all the gory fun an addicting accomplishment. But at the end of the day, the painful-to-accept difficulty even on casual level makes the chances of playing the game to its fullest a gruelling task that possibly will never be completed, and the lack of variety in maps despite a well integrated soundtrack that fits the comical violence makes Burn Zombie Burn a passable entry into the genre, providing you with enough gory action to settle your stomach and keep you playing for more.
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OVERALL SUMMARY - 7/10
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Good Points: A fitting soundtrack for a comical zombie romp, Lots of gory fun to be had with an assortment of crazy weapons to use against the never-ending hordes of the undead, Risk-vs.-reward system can make gameplay addictive.
Bad Points: Very demanding score thresholds, Hard earned collectibles require a constant struggle to attain, Lack of variety in only a handful of maps.