Burn, Zombie, Burn! Review
You play Bruce, an Ash from Evil Dead lookalike and you have one goal: To protect your girlfriend Daisy and kick some zombie ass. In BZB! you play with a set amount of lives with an endless wave of zombies that come shuffling to feast on your delicious brain. As you can conclude from the name of the game the idea is to burn them all. This has an interesting mechanic since the zombies will drop different things when killed if they are burned or not. You also have to be extremely careful since burning zombies are stronger, faster, but they also add to the score multiplier so it’s necessary to set them on fire if you want that high score. Burning zombies will also spread the fire to any of zombies they come in contact with. The game also includes 2-player local co-op, but for some reason no online which would have been perfect for this game.
The risk/reward mechanic in BZB! is it’s big feature. Regular zombies, when killed, drop health for Bruce, in the form of amusing hot dogs, TNT, or ammo. Burning zombies however drop health packs for Daisy during the Defense game mode or TNT upgrades that increase in range and damage. There are tons of weapons to use that are each satisfying and rewarding. They range from the classic shotgun, uzi, and pistol to more advanced weapons like the lawnmower, chaingun, and a dance ray that causes the zombies to dance to Thriller.
Each weapon in BZB! is constantly tracking your kills and adding each one to a combo meter. At the end of every game the kills you acquired with a certain weapon will be added to an overall meter that tracks all your kills throughout the whole game and has a bronze, silver, and gold medal. During the game though if you get enough kills with the same weapon you’ll get a combo and light up one of the three red lights at the top of the screen. Get 3 combos with the same weapon and you’ll be able to use the Big Red Button which has a unique effect for each level like raining to slow down the zombies or a god ray that protects you. Getting combos is useful in getting the Big Red Button to get out of a tight jam.
Utilizing the burning and combo mechanics are needed to drive the score higher to get the insane amount of points for the high score which is separated into bronze, silver, and gold medals. These medals unlock various things like filters, new game modes, new levels, etc.
BZB! has four different game modes. Freeplay is what you expect in which you have a set amount of lives and have to survive each wave of zombies. Defense has you protecting Bruce’s girlfriend Daisy from the zombie horde and she relaxes in her car. This mode has an interesting part to it since burning zombies produce health for Daisy while regular zombies give you health. This balances the mode and keeps you thinking on what you’ll need. Timed has you start with 5 minutes and as you kill burning zombies they will drop time pickups which replenish the timer. The last mode is the Challenge mode which has a total of 10 challenges that have their own objectives.
The graphics in BZB! aren’t amazing but it looks great. Each enemy and Bruce himself has an adorable look and their animations are quite hilarious. It’s not everyday that you get to see a pack of zombies in tutus dance. The music in the game is quite fitting and Bruce spits out various quotes. I’m positive that I even heard him quote Duke Nukem once.
Be prepared to schedule your funeral because you will be dying a lot in this game. The enemies are absolutely relentless in their attacks, but most of your deaths will usually be from you not being aware of the surrounding area or getting a little cocky. BZB! has more than your average shuffling zombie. They have exploders which wear sirens on their heads and rush to blow you up, dancers which are tutu sporting zombies that dance around the arena, rushers that wear football helmets and charge at you, a wacky zombie with a beanie on it’s head that gets crazier when on fire, masked zombies that have riot shields that you have to get behind to kill, and super zombies that are hulking behemoths that breathes fire catching everything in it’s path on fire.
The Final Word
BZB! is probably one of the most polished games I’ve seen on the PSN and with it’s interesting burning mechanic it’ll keep you on your toes the whole time especially with the increasingly harder waves. With a total of 6 different levels each with 3 different game modes, 10 challenges to go for, 2 player co-op, and 10 challenges BZB! will have you coming back for more.
Monstervine Rating- Excellent
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