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Zombie Pizza (iPhone)


Review by Ben Briggs, September 22, 2009

iPhone integration (About)
  • Save state: No
  • iPod music: Yes
  • Status bar: No

Fancy owning your own pizza parlour? Chef Zomboni has been bitten by a zombie and has four weeks to train you up. But he won't be teaching you just any pizza recipes, he will be showing you the dark art of Zombie Pizzas, special pies that contain the ingredients necessary to fend off the hordes of the undead that are now rapidly amassing around the place. That's right - it's perhaps the first zombie game we've played that doesn't involve blowing out their brains, instead you'll be feeding them brains alongside other delicacies.

At its heart (we'll try to keep the puns to a minimum in this review), Zombie Pizza is a delightfully simple game that reminds us of Frenzic - in that certain combinations of pizza may take a while to complete but score more points. The basic pie you can create is the 'Road Kill', which is made up of four separate ingredients of your choosing. Next up is the 'Split Dog' which has two lots of two different toppings, and finally the 'Gut Buster' has four lots of one topping. Your scoring is affected by the choice of pie and the topping - with the pie being the multiplier (3x for the 'Gut Buster', 2x for 'Split Dog' and 1x for 'Road Kill') and each topping giving some cash.

In addition, you'll want to keep an eye (sorry) on the 'Special Order' list, which will give a 4x multiplier to the pie created - it can be the only time broccoli is useful on the menu (zombies don't eat broccoli normally). Depending on how well you used the multipliers and ingredients, you'll be awarded a bronze, silver or gold medal (or none if you just scraped through). Make sure to follow Zomboni's recipes too - any pizza that isn't a 'Gut Buster', 'Split Dog' or 'Road Kill' is called a 'Stink Eye' and scores absolutely nothing.

Basically, the game plays out as a time management game of sorts - you have to balance keeping the zombies fed with creating high scoring pizzas. A conveyor belt carries your food around the screen, and a simple drag will place it on the pie of your choice. Once all four ingredients are placed, it's out of the door with a flick and another base is slammed down onto the preparation area. Over time, new things are added - bottled ingredients that must be smashed open with your trusty spiked rolling pin, and cockroaches that zombies go nuts for - again a quick hit with the rolling pin sets these straight, but be quick or they will devour the rest of your ingredients.

The game is simple, fast and fun. Things get pretty hectic, and you'll have to use your brains (sorry, again) if you want to make it through the level unscathed - lest you become one of the customers! Although there's no save state, each round is short enough for mobile play.

But the presentation is the game's true draw. It's completely overblown and looks terrific, and sounds terrific too - like clockwork, the whole atmosphere feels frantic, fun and engaging from the first minute. The toppings quiver with life, the zombies howl and bang the front door - even the end of the level looks like a receipt being printed off in the way the text is displayed. Sure, online high scoring would make the game just that little bit more appetising. But it is what it is - a fun diversion that for 59p is a perfect time waster. Hats off to Appy Entertainment for another great game.

Grade: B, Great

A fresh slice of furious action that's really worth downloading.

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