Have you ever been playing Rockband, Guitar Hero or any other beat game and suddenly had the need to play a zombie-filled survivor horror? Sometimes it can be tough to choose one over the other. But what if there was a game that merged the two game styles? A survival horror, zombie-bash AND a beat game? Well, 3G Studios Inc. has done just that. Like Dr. Frankenstein deep in his lab tucked away in the mountains, 3G Studios tinkered away at an idea. They took the best of both worlds, channeling copious amounts of brainwaves and high voltage into their secret project.
Zombeat is a quirky and fun beat game. During the game, you assist the biker-clad hero by hitting the colored gems in proper sequence as they scroll down the track. Hitting the gems builds your point base, doing so without mistakes builds your multiplier. If you hit a series of black gems that scroll down, you will be given a power-up, such as bombs that clear the screen. However, don’t forget that just because the bombs roll on screen via the conveyor belt, they are not automatically deployed. You must time your finger movement so that you tap the bombs to set them off. Same goes for the white gems that send more powerful weapons on screen. For the hero to use the weapons, you must tap it. Either of these moves can get tricky, especially on the higher difficulty settings.
Zombeat is incredibly responsive to finger presses. I never once felt that the game was missing my gem presses. Furthermore, because I was pressing the gems with my fingers and not hitting a controller button, I felt as if Zombeat was more responsive than some of the console-based beat games.
The art and animations in Zombeat are a lot of fun. The saturated cartoony graphics lend to the style of gameplay. I found myself really looking forward to the different zombie characters and backgrounds. One thing I had hoped to find — but didn’t — was the ability to change my hero’s clothes. It would have been particularly cool to hit achievements that unlocked new gear, garb or points that I could spend selectively. But, I do understand the cost of development and the intense schedules development teams engage in while making games. Maybe we will see an opportunity for more features like this in future iterations of the game.
Lastly, I want to comment on the music. The soundtrack for Zombeat is a blast and worthy of listening to outside of the game. I noticed that is also now up for purchase at the iTunes store. It is definitely worth a listen.
Overall, Zombeat gets positive marks from me. It is still keeping me entertained and proves to me that listening to music is evolving into something completely fresh and new. I hope 3G Studios keeps moving forward in this direction, as I believe being innovative with beat games and exposing indie music artists is the way to go!
