Game Reviews

Z Buster review - A solid and charming zombie gallery shooter

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iOS
| Z Buster
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Z Buster review - A solid and charming zombie gallery shooter
|
iOS
| Z Buster

You know it's been a good day when you've managed to kill all the zombies in your way and you get a lovely gooey green message telling you that you're flawless. Small victories are what get us through the darkness.

And Z Buster sort of understands that. It gives you little wins every few minutes. And it just about pushes you on to see what the game's going to throw at you next.

It's not particularly original – it's a gallery shooter full of the undead – but there's enough going on here that you're not going to begrudge the time you waste with it.

Killing it

The game sees you stood in a single spot while hordes of the undead bumblingly congregate around you. It's your job to shoot them. And that's pretty much all there is to it.

Well, there are different missions that spice things up a bit. Sometimes you're trying to take out big bosses, sometimes you're trying to defend vats of the zombie cure, sometimes you're just killing stuff.

Other challenges see you having to headshot a set number of zombies, or make them fly in certiain directions. You've probably worked out by now that the game isn't one that takes itself all that seriously.

And if you hadn't worked that out, by the time you shoot one of the disco ball power-ups the whole thing should become crystal clear. Rather than trying to munch your brain, the zombies start busting out some moves.

There's a gleeful silliness to everything going on here. From the costumes the zombies wear to the thick cartoony setting where you're doing all your blasting. It might be the apocalypse, but it's a pretty funny apocalypse.

Everything is polished as well. There's a lovely style to the podgy carnage that you're engaged with, and an arcade sensibility to your blasting that is likely to tickle you in just the right spot.

Things do get a bit repetitive after a while, but the short burst nature of the levels means that even if you are getting bored you're never far away from a place where you can stop and save your progress.

Zoombees

At its heart this is just another game about watching numbers go up. But there's something nice about watching these numbers go up, mainly because it's usually combined with a bright burst of neon green goo.

Z Buster is definitely the sort of game that lets you check your brain in at the door. But if you're happy to do that then you're going to have a decent amount of fun shooting anything that looks at you with glowing yellow eyes.

Z Buster review - A solid and charming zombie gallery shooter

It might not be the freshest game out there, but there's fun to be had with Z Buster's zombie slaughter
Score
Harry Slater
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.