It's always a pleasant surprise when a game surpasses your expectations. Suffice it to say, this reviewer's expectations were modest going into Rock Zombie — the goofy synthesized guitars, expressionless character models and mangled English dialogue all seemed to lead in one direction: pain. But you can't go into every game expecting it to be the next big masterpiece, and so it's only in the mindset of its intended audience that Quaternion Studios' hilariously off-kilter beat 'em up manages to show its best side. It may be rough around the edges and hold limited appeal for anyone un-enthused by "so-bad-it's-good" projects, but Rock Zombie has a cheesy charm that's sure to appeal to both fans of old school brawlers and lame B horror movies.
The premise sounds like it was ripped from an exploitation film: three witches who play in a "female rock band" (for some reason, the game finds it worth mentioning that all three of the band's members are women) are giving a totally tubular concert when suddenly it's interrupted by — you guessed it — zombies! Grabbing their magical guitars, the bodacious babes run off to kick some serious undead butt and deliver some hysterically weak "one-liners." If you're rolling your eyes already, steer far clear of this one — the story only gets sillier as you play on.
That being said, there's something delightfully awful about the way the game chooses to tell its story, from its muddy "comic book" panel cutscenes to the aforementioned dialogue. It's nearly impossible not to laugh at botched lines like "Too slippy! I'm loosing control!" and exchanges such as "What's going on here?" "It seems like a zombie apocalypse to me." Your mileage with such goofiness will depend entirely on how much you enjoy trashy fun outside of the video game medium, but whether intentionally or not the story scenes in the game can be quite funny.
Gameplay-wise, the three witches find themselves in a serviceable beat 'em up that takes them across 21 levels. You can perform a horizontal or vertical swing with your guitar, execute one of a few special attacks, or chain combos together using your rather limited move set. Enemy forces come in a number of varieties, including ones that crawl on the ground (requiring a vertical chop to defeat) and fat zombies that vomit in your direction to hurt you (and thus are better to take on from behind). The controls work well enough for the most part, but occasionally collision detection is your witch's worst enemy; in particular, characters can get stuck on background objects and the vomiting zombies seem able to hit your character from an unfairly long distance.
There are boxes to break and coins to collect — the latter of which unlock collectibles in the Zombie Museum — but you'll spend the majority of your play time hacking away at the undead. This can get monotonous, especially since the levels only get longer as you make progress. In an apparent attempt to break up this tedium, there are a couple of levels your witch will spend inside a car and on the back of a motorcycle. Unfortunately, these overstay their welcome even more so than the normal stages — your only goal in either is to take down as many zombies as possible while fighting the "slippy" controls. There's just not much to engage with, which makes for a rather bland experience.
Graphically, Rock Zombie has some nicely decorated spooky environments for the witches to fight their way through — the graveyard area's statues make for a particularly nice zombie-killing backdrop. The character models don't fare as well, with their faces set as expressionless no matter what happens on screen. Of course, as a game featuring a rock band full of witches, the soundtrack encompasses a number of endearingly schlocky synthesized heavy metal tracks that will leave no impression whatsoever on you.
Conclusion
It's hard to fault a game like Rock Zombie. It's a perfectly serviceable beat 'em up with a number of ridiculous choices that, whether intentional or not, will probably make you laugh. It's not the most technically refined gameplay experience you'll ever have, and a lot of the elements just don't add up, but it's campy enough to make you believe it was trying to be epic — and that might just rope you into trying its cheesy brand of arcade action.
Comments 27
The review convinced me it would get a 7/10, but 6/10 is not that different, tough. Good review, will keep an eye for when it gets a juicy discount.
Is this available in UK yet!? This sounds ace!
Better as i expected. I thought it will get 4 or 5 stars^^
When its out here i will buy it anyway
Sad to see that the character design and animations are still terrible - I was hoping they'd improve at least that.
The soundtrack is still good, though. Maybe I'll get it, for 7$ (probably 6€), it's affordable enough to not worry me too much.
No co-op, no aerial attacks. These are cardinal sins for an arcade beat 'em up. 6/10 seems generous. In my mind, "so bad it's good" is limited to the Rushing Beat trilogy. Even indie games can be "so good they're good."
This is sad...
They missed a heckuva opportunity with character classes here. Guitarist is your all around, drummer is the fast one, bass player is the heavy. These poor girls don't even have a bass player and Sleater Kinney, they ain't. Definitely passing on this.
I haven't beaten it yet but the review didn't mention the bosses. They are the best part of the game so far.
This looks bad enough to be mildly entertaining. Like Olmectron I might pick it up when it's on sale.
Sounds like a game I could have fun with, even if it's not the finest example of its genre.
I'll gladly purchase it when it'll get in Europe, hoping the price will be close to the US one.
When is this out in Europe?
I love b movies.
I love rock zombies
Should be fun, i love me a beat em up though it didnt look to be multiplayer at all..
Its a decent game and has some good cheesy moments to it. The part that disappointed me was no co-op. Having 3 main characters in a beat-em up cries out for it (especially since they aren't unique enough to matter in single player), but oh well. I liked it better then some other indie/budget beat-em ups out there
Got day was released. No regrets. Pretty sweet beat em up . Kinda short beat in under 2 hours. Would of loved for it to have co op. Only other real complaint was the ease of final boss beat in under 5 minutes and the second to last level was really shaky but other then that id give it 7/10. the campy cheesiness just added to the fun for me
If this had multiplayer it sounds like something I would enjoy. It kind of bring backs fond memories of Goldman from The House of the Dead 2 or that super weird (and awesome) Dreamcast horror survival game Illbleed.
No co-op. rubs back of neck
Looks funky enough.
@lostprophet87x
Did you like the earlier bosses though? Much better than I thought they would be.
@Pahvi That's reproduced as it appears in the game.
Sorry, but even before reading the review itself, you lost me at
Players:1
So this is not even worth it to have a laugh with my bro, as when he told me to buy Brawl Brothers. I still read the review, though.
And as a single player I am in love with Bayonetta 2 now.
@Mr-DNA Oh, no co-op. That should've been mentioned in the review. I was going to mentally add this to my future Wii U Wishlist until I saw that. No co-op, no sale, where beat-'em-ups are considered in my book.
im probably gonna have to get this...
@Pahvi Typo? NO BUY.
This looks so goofy. I like the aesthetic somewhat. The cheesy charm definitely has my attention. I'll probably end up buying this on sale.
Funny how the game is demerited by some commenters, based on a decidedly skewed review. I like how IGN and Gamespot get bashed constantly by disgruntled gamers, but it seems that biased reviewers are everywhere.
To be honest, I haven't enjoyed a singly one of Jowi's reviews enough to sit through the entirety of his forced diatribe and subsequently resign from this site.
Combining these sorts of reviews with European gamers' attitudes, views and opinions (in general, there have been exceptions), I can no longer frequent these pages.
Providing a realistic, if negative and harrowing, view of professional gaming and sharing the opinions and comments I receive from my subscribers has provided me with little enjoyment on this site.
I just feel that alot of gamers are treading water and can't help our group with any relevant information.
This has been Nathan M C, Canadian gaming correspondent.
Thank you for your time and conversation.
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