If current gaming trends are to be believed, any zombie apocalypse would likely be far more damaging than we at first feared. Not only are there more zombies than we magined, they can also operate machinery.
Take Zombie Ace, from Hothead games, which features as its main protagonist a zombie who is able to fly a plane. And not just fly it, but fly it well. When there's no more room in hell, the dead will take jobs as short haul pilots.
Dead airThe game is a riff on Whale Trail. You pilot your zombified jumbo, pressing on the screen to increase altitude and releasing your finger to decrease it. Coins and other collectibles bob around in the air for you to snaffle.
Human fighter planes will try and stop your flesh-hungry advance, but tapping on them unleashes a kamikaze zombie who'll clamber into the cockpit, munch the pilot, then blow up the plane. Afterwards he'll parachute away, along with the newly undead jet-jockey, who you can add to your own crew.
As well as man-made obstacles, you'll have to avoid natural phenomena like thunder clouds and hail storms, and face the very real possibility of running out of fuel. Petrol tankers scoot across the bottom of the screen, and you'll need to get in their slipstream and then give them a cheeky nudge to fill up your waning fuel reserves.
Fright crewAs well as staying in the air, you need to infect cities, spreading the zombie plague by landing in them and letting your flesh-munching air crew out. You can buy add-ons and fixes for your plane with the coins you collect, or with some real life cash if you're feeling flush.
The game is fast and flighty, and the cartoon graphics are pleasant enough on the eye. Keeping your plane in the air isn't the most challenging of activities, but when you throw item collection and score chasing into the mix things get a little more fraught.
Zombie Ace is an entertaining little game that will keep you playing for a good while, and serves as a stark reminder to the unprepared that flying zombies are a very real danger.
iOS version reviewed.
Zombie Ace
Fun and occasionally frantic, Zombie Ace has enough intriguing tricks up its undead sleeve to keep you entertained for a few hours
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.