Developed
by EnjoyUp games, the slightly obscure Zombie BBQ
is a far cry from fairy tale of your youth. Is this trip to
Grandma's house worthwhile, or will you pray for the jaws of the
Big Bad Wolf?
The game opens with
a slide-show animation set to rock music giving you a general outline
of the story which, by the way, doesn't matter. The important thing
is you get to roast zombies with a flamethrower, which is one of the
five weapons in your zombie-slaying arsenal. The basic weapon is the
machine gun, or throwing stars if you play as Mamo Toro, a ninja from
Tokyo aiding our hooded heroine on her quest to find the source of
the evil plaguing the world. A shotgun, flamethrower, lazer, and
bombs are also available to the player. Ammunition is limited to nine
per weapon, except for the machine gun/stars, which are infinite.
This is a
straightforward arcade-style action game, with a pretty intuitive
control scheme. All attacks are performed using touch controls. The
machine gun, flamethrower, and lazer will fire continuously as long
as the stylus is in contact with the screen. While the lazer is
firing movement is disabled, and it cannot be aimed. The others are
aimed by dragging the stylus along the screen. Bombs are thrown by
double tapping an area on screen, and the shotgun is used by tapping
where you want to shoot. I accidentally double tapped the screen many
times while trying to fire off another round or while trying to
reload the machine gun, which is accomplished by lifting and
replacing the stylus. An additional method I think would work well is
to use up or down on the d-pad, which could aim the bomb to wherever
the stylus is. If a zombie grabs hold of you, tapping your character
will perform a slash attack, cutting them in half. At any other time,
your character will duck.
Movement is limited
to a row toward the bottom of the screen divided into seven squares.
This is navigable one square at a time using the left and right
directionals, which is the preferred method for the majority of the
game as the stylus is free to gun down the oncoming waves of
zombies. Tapping anywhere along the row with the stylus will quickly
move your character to that position. There is a slight delay between
input and action when it comes to movement. First the square is
highlighted, then your character follows suit. It's easy to get used
to and doesn't really hinder the gameplay much, but is frustrating
during slowdown, which can be severe when the field is full of
objects. This is more of a problem on harder difficulty modes which
send larger numbers of zombies stumbling your way.
The game features seven worlds with two levels each, and a final boss. Obstacles include hands sticking up from the ground, fire, fallen
trees, exploding barrels, and more. A few times per level, a cat
chasing a fish skeleton will make its way across the screen. Shooting
the fish then the cat will yield a health pack and bomb, but shoot
the cat then fish or just one of them and you'll only find a health
pack. Crates are also scattered throughout the stages, and randomly
contain weapons. Health and weapons can only be obtained by shooting
them, which I thought was a poor design choice.
The beginning
stage, as you've probably guessed, has you on your way to
grandma's house. The game typically has the player traverse a couple
of levels before each boss fight. At certain times between levels,
Riding Hood and Mamo Toto will exchange dialogue, furthering the
story. After making it through the cemetery and woods, it's time to
fight grandma, who is looking awfully green and evil. Her attacks
include hurling furniture at you with demonic telekinesis, charging
you, and spitting up wolves and sets of chomping dentures. The game's
bosses span multiple fairy tales. You'll encounter a fratricidal
Gretel, the Three Little Pigs, Sleeping Beauty, a very naughty Santa,
and some others. You can probably guess what the final boss is. Each
boss is unique and never feels boring or repetitive to fight. The
same can be said for the many different types of enemies.
I'll save you some
time and annoyance: if you want to see the full game the first time
through, play on hard mode. Easy mode cuts you off right before the
final boss, and you'll have to spend another 90 minutes or so going
through the game again. Normal mode feels a bit easy anyway. After
completing the game on hard mode, the extreme difficulty and a boss
rush mode are unlocked. At the end of the credits the game teases you
with an image of a zombie lumberjack. I haven't played the boss rush
or extreme modes yet, but I'm assuming he's encountered in one of
these.
Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ can be had at an affordable $7.99 on DsiWare/3DS eShop
and around that same price for a physical copy.
Find Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ on ebay
Released: 2008-10-31
Publisher: Destineer
Developer: EnjoyUp
Released: 2008-10-31
Publisher: Destineer
Developer: EnjoyUp
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