ZOMBIE ZONE
Original Release: D3, 2004, PlayStation 2
The Simple Series yielded relatively little to remember for how many titles it pumped out, but one minor mark it left was the founding of the Onechanbara series with this game
Zombie Zone (PS2, D3, 2004)
Where to Buy: Amazon
How to Emulate: PlayStation 2 Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
So when I started cracking into these Simple 2000 games, I didn't realize there were literally 2000 of them. Welp. This is my life now.
Bikini-Chan vs Zomberu should be a fine concept for a game. Yet, somehow, developer Tamsoft (the Toshinden alums responsible for many of D3's games) managed to take this in the most boring and tedious possible direction. "Let's make the zombies no real threat, but force you to kill like 300 of them while pecking around for keys and stuff that they randomly drop, also let's give you a really boring and limited core move set to do it with."
Actually, the move set criticism isn't entirely fair. Zombie Zone actually has a fairly complex combo system ... however, ALL of it is done in a really unintuitive way, the game never explains even the basics of it to you, and players are very likely to get bored and quit before they discover it.
The game is actually strangely complicated for a "chop da zombies while wearing bikini" title, but it refuses to explain anything that's going on to you. The first level drops you into a sprawling multi-screen city with no explanation of what's happening. Wander about, repetitively kill 500 slow zombies, and eventually one will drop a key that you need to open a gate that is really not visible. As you hack up the zombies, you gradually get coated in zombie blood that makes your character slouch over and slow down. Is this bad? Good? Who knows, the game doesn't care to explain. What are all these gold coins and statues for? Fuck off, player, stop asking questions. Just keep using the same moves to chop up the tedious zombies, running after them because you ragdoll them to every corner of the map with each combo. Whee.
Only a couple of things add challenge to the repetitive zombie-hacking grind. One is the typical D3 thing of having to be PRECISELY lined up with your target or you'll miss; no Dynasty Warriors-esque sweeps that bowl over a dozen mooks at a time here. The other is that when you're fully coated in zombie blood, you eventually go into a "frenzy mode" that makes you move faster and hit harder ... trouble is, it also quickly depletes your limited life. The only way to fully restore yourself is to find a statue save point, very few of which are available and may often require running way back across a map full of respawning enemies. Also, it doesn't appear that you can ever regenerate health.
My guess is this game started with someone's fetish for bikini women dripping in blood, and the lowest-effort possible game was built around it. Somehow it founded a successful cult series, though. Maybe the later games are better, but I don't know how it ever got off the ground when it started with this tedious mess.
Comments
Post a Comment