Character-switching puzzles
The idea to produce a whimsical style that focuses on, and parodies the Zombie genre, as well as 1950s style Science Fiction has paid off in Teenage Zombies “Invasion of the alien brain thingys”, which is presented in chapters, introduced at the start of each level, by witty and well-illustrated comic-book panels and dialogue boxes.The action takes place on the upper of the two dual-screens, while the bottom screen shows three coffins that you can tap with the stylus to switch between the three wacky characters or to activate their individual power-ups.
The levels, which include a graveyard, a construction site and a fun fair, are well designed with a variety of locations and puzzles that play specifically to each character strengths, ensuring that you need to frequently switch between each of the avatars and use their array of skills to overcome them.
Although navigating the locations or working out how to reach a power-up isn't the most brain-challenging of tasks - it's merely a case of trial and error - shifting between the characters and using their range of skills is entertaining, for example, you may start a section as Lopez, where you climb onto a ledge and flick brains out of the way with your freakishly long arm, switch to Finnegan to scuttle up a wall with your tentacles and then launch down a zip-line, eat some grub and then spit fire over a pack of rats, and then finally shift to Zack to squeeze through a small opening in a wall as you shoot down a ramp at high speed.
In addition to working your way around the locations to the next chapter and blasting any baddies along the way, you can also collect body parts. Once you’ve gathered every part you get to play a mini-game, where you need to use your stylus to fit them all back together. If you succeed, you re-gain full health, so it comes in handy when you’re close to dying. Though the mini-game is extremely easy to complete,working out how to reach a body part by using the three character skills is where the real challenge, and entertainment value, lies.
There are also ‘Big Brain Challenges' that can crop up at anytime during gameplay, pitting you against the leader of the alien brain thingys in a variety of challenges, such as memory or reflex tests. Once again, they're fairly easy to complete, but they are surprisingly addictive and can be played as separate games once you've unlocked them in story mode, adding further replay-value for your cash.
Although the main concept isn't new, Teenage Zombies “Invasion of the alien brain thingys” does what it does extremely well with some entertaining team-based objectives and seamless character switching. If you throw into the zombie melting-pot, a great set of characters with some groovy abilities and level design which really makes the most of their skills, then you've got a really solid and entertaining platform game.
Pros
Great characters
Fun abilities
Entertaining power-ups
Team-based puzzles
Cons
Won't be a huge challenge to seasoned gamers
Good entertaining platformer on the DS. This shouldn't be the last time we'll see those Teenage Zombies.
HEXUS Awards
Teenage Zombies- DSi
