We may have written a detailed preview on ZombieSmash at the start of this month, but that won’t stop us expressing our views about the game, which are extremely positive. Even initially it was clear to us that the game excelled in more than a few ways as we described it as “one of the best castle defence games we’ve played” in our preview. The game takes a generic zombie apocalypse as its setting and the castle defence gameplay that we’ve all seen and played as its core, but it adds more onto this to make it something new. Things like the precise ragdoll physics and the SplatterEngine™ to create cartoon gore give the game a distinct style and essence to it. It’s certainly brought the castle defence genre back to life in an impressive way.

There is no real story to the game, just the fact that you play an average guy who’s suddenly caught in a zombie attack. Hiding out in your house, your aim is to survive the 31 days of March by killing off the hordes of zombies. This is done with a simple flick of your finger: you can grab onto those monsters, pick them up and smash them into the ground (hence the game’s name). You’ll also be introduced to several different abilities like giant boulders, wrecking balls and liquid nitrogen, and weapons like grenades, shotguns and snipers. Zombies spawn these abilities when they die so picking them up adds them to your inventory. From here some are triggered with a simple tap, and others need aiming or throwing (like guns and grenades).

As you progress through the story all these specials are explained to you along with the various zombies and their abilities. This is ideal compared to a long set of instructions and introduces you to more as you improve. Of course, the whole point of the story mode is to set you up for the survival mode. This puts you against an endless onslaught of enemies to try and achieve the greatest score possible, and since the game has Crystal integrated you can compare your score with friends, as well as hundreds of others around the world. There are also some very inventive achievements to earn, like “Bird hunter” where you flick a zombie in the air and kill it with a shot.

What we love about ZombieSmash is the sheer amount of variety. The zombies don’t always attack your house from the same side and the camera view is always changing. The different types of zombies force you to use certain strategies and conserve your special abilities. Sure the gameplay is based on flicking as much as possible, but using your abilities in the right way can get you much further. You can also upgrade most of your abilities in the shop using stars you collect in the campaign. The zombies drop stars when they die and you get extras for finishing with full health and as a first play bonus.

ZombieSmash’s presentation is outstanding and the developers have definitely worked hard on the visuals and sound. It has a very eery atmosphere that’s mixed with cartoon graphics and a hilarious amount of gore which is fantastic. Even the menus are polished with blood splatters and doodles all over the paper. It’s insanely fun to watch the zombies’ limbs fly everywhere and the accurate ragdoll physics are perfect for the genre. The developers have included a sandbox mode to really show off their technology, and let you enjoy obliterating the little monsters.

For the low £1.19 price you’re getting the best castle defence game on the App Store and a huge amount of enjoyment. There is plenty of content, and even if the campaign is a little short, there is still the hard mode and the endless siege to play. We can pretty much guarantee you’ll have fun with this game so pick it up now!

Media gallery

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Why not try...

---

• 

  Knights Onrush

• 

  Medieval HD

• 

  Kill Kill Monster Campaign

• 

  Monster Mayhem