Zombie! Zombie! Zombie! (or Zx3 for short) is an action puzzle game for iOS devices (reviewed on iPad here). While it may sound like a zombie puzzle iPad game I reviewed last year called Containment, Zx3 is actually its own beast. Crowds of zombies approach from the top of the screen down to the bottom, where your survivors are. Tap on three of the same kind of zombie to clear them out. The three that you clear out will form a triangle. Zombies inside this triangle will be defeated, too. Try to make big triangles to defeat larger groups of zombies and boost your score. Survive waves to make it to the next round, but if the zombies defeat all of your survivors at the bottom of the screen, it’s Game Over!

Luckily there are plenty of power-ups to help you out. By clearing zombies quickly and chaining combos, you can earn all sorts of powers. One turns a survivor into a ninja, and then you can guide them with your finger to slice up the zombies. Others include taxis, air strikes, or nuke bombs to clear out a whole screen of the undead. Or a tank that you can use to guide a reticule with your finger to blast the hordes. Some stages even let you use parts of the environment to clear out zombies, too. Defeated zombies release coins, tap on them to collect them. Use the coins at the shop to buy more power-ups and upgrades. Some powers you can only buy with real money, though. You can try Story Mode which has TONS of stages, or Survival Mode where you try to last as long as you can through endless waves of zombies.

Only problem I had with Zx3 is that sometimes it’s tough to differentiate the various colors and types of zombies when they’re all bunched up in a crowd. You might end up accidentally tapping the wrong zombie when forming a triangle. Plus, the stages get pretty darn hard after the second world. But otherwise it’s a pretty decent action puzzler.

Kid Factor:

Even though the game stars zombies, they’re all very cartoony and no worse than the ones found in Plants vs. Zombies (in fact they look a little too similar. There is no blood, but plenty of green guts get splattered around when zombies or you get defeated. You do use guns, blades, and other weapons to defeat zombies, though. Even so, it’s all pretty silly and I’d be OK with most any kid playing this. If your kids HAVE to play a zombie game, this is a decent alternative anyway. Reading skill is helpful, and younger players might get frustrated at the tougher levels, though.

Tags: Game Reviews