Micro Review - Age of Zombies

What happens when you genetically combine the DNA of Bruce Campbell and Duke Nukem in a lab? You get Barry Steakfries of course! Barry is the main character in Halfbrick Studio's recent foray into the Mini's market, and this flamethrower wielding, zombie destroying machine is here to kick ass and chew bubblegum... you probably know the rest.

Age of Zombies is a top down shooter where you, Barry Steakfries, must fight against the evil zombie menace brought around by Dr Brain. It's not all sunshine and lollipops however, as the good Dr has decided to send his creations throughout Time and Space. Yes, that's right, in Age of Zombies you are not restricted to a crumbling post-apocalyptic cityscape, but rather completely different times in an attempt to undo Dr Brain's handiwork.

Facing zombie ninjas and dinosaurs is no trifling matter of course and thanks to what we can only assume to be a mishap by Dr Brain's 'Hypertimealogical Transfer Machine', Barry Steakfries has a great assortment of pickups to choose from. While they are all fairly standardised (SMG, Rifle, that sort of thing), every time you pick up a weapon a combo meter starts and your performance with that weapon is graded. Do well, and you'll find yourself getting additional multipliers to your score.



Death isn't a huge problem in Age of Zombies, as it is an arcade experience where you are expected to die at least a handful of times. Punishment for death includes the reset of yourmultiplier as well as the loss of any pickups you currently have. Each stage comes with 3 lives however, so you don't really need to worry about running out.

Pop culture references abound throughout the game, from quotes by Barry, to messages displayed at the beginning of select levels. In fact the whole game seems like it is a great homage to popular culture, and it does so extremely well. While the control scheme for the game is fairly easy to handle on the PSP, it would have been nice to have dual analogue stick support for the PS3, however the inclusion of it might have made the game a tad on the easy side.

Age of Zombies has my vote. As far as zombie shooters go it's fairly fun, and lets face it, where else can you find zombie mummies and cyborgs? My only question is, where are the zombie pirates?!?!

Age of Zombies can currently be found in both the PS3 and PSP mini's stores, with a price of $4.99 USD.