The Unextinguished Undead- Burn, Zombie, Burn Reviewed

Within the current generation of games, zombies, have become to uninspired developers what princesses and castles were to developers of the NES era.  Burn, Zombie, Burn joins the onslaught of new unimaginative games with campy, rehashed zombie themes as an arcade-style shooter that harkens back to the days of Commando and Smash TV.

 You play as Bruce: a rockabilly redneck that appears to be a cross between Johnny Cash, Bruce Campbell and Jimmy Neutron.  You start in the middle of a 1950’s-suburban-themed kill-box and are assaulted by wave after wave of zombies, without end.  The only goal is to rack up as many points as possible to unlock the next 1950’s-suburban-themed kill-box.  The game masquerades as a twin-stick shooter, but sheds the title by replacing the right-stick with an auto-aim button, so as long as you mash the X button, you’ll hit a zombie.  The auto-aim works alright, but subtracts depth from the formula that Geometry Wars and Everyday Shooter established before it.

The game’s unique mechanic is the burning system.  Bruce carries a torch with him, and at any time he can hold it out to become invincible set zombies on fire.  When a zombie is on fire, he is faster and stronger, but he also drops better items.  Also, your multiplier is determined by how many zombies are on fire at a time. So if there are 75 zombies on fire, you have a 75x multiplier, but at the same time you’ve unleashed a pack of super-zombies that will probably eat you before you can make much use of it.

BZB does a couple of things very well.  There is a wide variety of weapons, such as the Brain Gun, the Cricket Bat and the Dance Gun, and each one feels unique.  There are tons of different zombie types, each with their own personality and often their own strategies.   The burning system itself is a lot of fun too.  Deciding whether or not to slaughter a pack of flaming zombies or to let them wreak havoc to increase your score adds tension to the otherwise repetitive game play.

For all the things that BZB does right, there’s still a lot of room for improvement.  There are 6 levels in all, but each one is essentially a big square with a button in the middle and different coat of paint on each one.  Even though I’ve praised the variety of weapons and zombies, that fact is quickly glossed over when you realize that the starting pistol fees like the most powerful and effective weapon in your arsenal and that the individual groups of zombies all clump together into one big indistinguishable mass.  Each level feels long and drawn out, and although there are 3 different play modes, each one feels more or less the same.  The game supports local, split-screen multiplayer, but no online multiplayer, so expect to share your screen real estate with your friend.

Burn, Zombie, Burn is not a bad game, but it’s not really a great game either.  The generic flavor and repetitive nature of the game clash with the innovative burn system to create an experience just north of HoHum.  I could see this game doing quite well standing next to Gauntlet Legends and Dynamite Cop at a bowling alley, but as a solid home experience from PSN, Burn, Zombie, Burn does little to pull my attention away from Crash Commandos or Noby Noby Boy.