Review of Zombie Tycoon for the PSP: Look Ma! - Zombies

Mad scientists - unite. You have nothing to lose but some doddering assistants and some rotten corpses that you've turned into Zombies. But to win at Zombie Tycoon means using those bloated sacks of flesh to enforce your will and take over the World - one street or city block at a time.

Mini-games like ZT have started a new tradition where the "manual" of the game comes in the form of a few minutes of instructions "disguised" as game play. In Zombie Tycoon, this translates into encouragement as you try and move your Zombie around the town looking for things to eat and things to do. Mostly you're looking for ways to increase the strength and power of your Zombie and, if lucky, find some weak folks who can be turned into Zombies as well.

Of course the more the merrier when it comes to Zombies so attaching the humans will give you more "Zombie fodder" to work with. Organizing your Zombies into groups and building up the ranks is just part of the steps needed in order to gain world conquest. That is your goal after all (otherwise the game might as well have been called Zombies R US or something like that...).

Moving your Zombie around requires a combination of buttons and some memory - since you still have your brain it shouldn't be a problem to memorize what needs to be done. At its most basic, you move an arrow around to beckon the Zombie to follow it. Then you can have him or her (hard to tell as the Undead starts to all look alike to me) attach the location in order to acquire some special token or added weapon or device. Of course the Zombie only has so much strength so knocking down (not “over”) a gas station will take a lot out of him. But the rewards of destruction are always worth it.

You can augment the view of your Zombie through a flying camera that not only lets you change the perspective of the view from way up there to ground level - but also move through out the town as solid objets become translucent and even immaterial to your gaze. Buttons will let you activate which of the many Zombies you have ala carte (as it were) and of course there's buttons to do different violent things or to let you check what's going on in the town and how you're doing overall.

Graphics are very cartoony and the cutaways are large and animated in a style I call "American anime" which means that it takes its cue form the Japanese anime where limited motion has become an art form. The colors are garish and cartoony - although the building of the town and other details are rendered with a stark realty that conflicts with the drooling little zombie guys who can barely make their way through the streets at your command. I do have to give props to the developers who decided that a Zombie not only lurches as its natural gait, but occasionally will lie on the floor and do a walk around in the style of Curley from the Three Stooges.

The cartoonish graphics and rapid movements are what make Zombie Tycoon fun to play. That and the ability to smack stuff and listen to some really loud sound effects amidst the grunts and groans (OK, there are some nicely digitized voices as well but who cares?). Mini-games like ZT aren't about long expositions and hours of discussions on what to do - they're about getting your Zombie out on the street and going for it. So do, I'm getting hungry....maybe some salad, what's for lunch? Of course - BRAINS!!

Frima Studio

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