Zombie Piñata Review

By , on August 10, 2011


Zombie Piñata
Download on the AppStore
3 out of 5

PROS

  • Interesting premise.
  • Exploding head balloons.

CONS

  • Game takes a while to get going.
  • Not much challenge.
  • One constantly looping music track.

VERDICT

Zombie Pinata is a side scrolling beat em up that plays it safe, not bringing much to the table. Might still be worth a play from fans of beat em ups, and zombies.


  • Full Review
  • App Store Info

For some inexplicable reason, all the pinatas in Mexico have turned into zombies. Yes you heard that right. The brightly colored nests of candy that bring joy to children have turned into the walking dead. As one of four playable characters, it's time to grab your gun, some grenades and your toughest whacking stick to save Mexico from this zombie plague.

Zombie Pinata is a side scrolling beat em up essentially. You move constantly to the right slaughtering all the undead in your way. Moving is done via a slide bar in the bottom left corner, and your three attacks options are buttons on the right. Guns require ammo and you only have a finite number of grenades, but upon defeating zombies, some ammo, health, and balloons will drop. Balloons are an interesting feature. Upon collecting one, all the zombies on screen will grow inflatable heads, zipping up into the air until the pressure causes their faces to explode. After a mission is over, you have the ability to upgrade your weapon and buy additional health and ammo in Cheke's specialty shop before diving into a new location.

The game has a very simple cartoony look to it, with all the characters represented well. The backgrounds are very nice and stylized, and are the visual highlight of the game. The music consists of the same electronic loop repeated constantly, and might cause some gamers to switch it off. Each mission is split into four short areas, and there are plenty of levels of varying difficulties to clear of zombies.

With such an interesting premise, Zombie Pinata definitely plays it safe. The gameplay can get boring at times, the movement control is a little sloppy, and the pinata zombies don't even appear till about the third mission. Still, some gamers might find this a worthwhile experience on their iPhones. At the least, you get to learn a little more about Mexican geography.

Screenshots

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