Pet Zombies for Nintendo 3DS

Pet Zombies is a new game from Majesco entertainment that takes the cutesy little pet games like Nintendogs and replaces the cute little puppies with disgusting undead creatures. Intrigued? You should be. It’s a good bit of fun, and you won’t feel completely emasculated playing this the way you would if your friends caught you putting little ribbons in your cocker spaniel’s fur.

When you fire up the game you’re greeted by some newspapers giving you little tidbits of backstory that explain how you came to be in possession of your very own zombie. None of that is really important, because no one plays a pet game for the riveting story. After your introduction video you’re taken to the creation area where you can choose your zombie type. You have the Jock, Prom Queen, Nerd, Waitress, Scientist, Cook, Granny, and one with the biggest creepy potential – The Clown. Now don’t be fooled, they aren’t intended to be scary at all. This is a very light-hearted and goofy game. But we all know at least 1 person that is scared of clowns, and it doesn’t matter how goofy they are. So when you take a clown and make it into a zombie, somebody is going to get freaked out. Part of the customization process is choosing a “play area” for your re-animated corpse, which you can decorate later with items you buy from an in-game store (don’t worry, it’s all virtual currency).

Gameplay

As far as game play goes, there’s not really much to talk about in the main part of the game. You’re a pet owner, so you have to play with, feed, reward, and punish your pet as you see fit. That’s pretty much it. Aside from figuring out the goofy animations that were programmed into all of the different toys you can purchase, I didn’t find much to enjoy about this mode. The main part of the game, where you have to do all of the leveling up to unlock new goodies, is probably the least fun out of all of it. Luckily there are some mini-games to distract you from the tedium of slapping your zombie with a toilet brush (no, that’s not a euphemism). The only hitch is that you have to unlock the mini-games by leveling up your zombie, and the only way to do that is by playing the main game.

The mini-games range from “decent fun” all the way to “I quit”. The Zombie Launch mini-game is the most fun, and luckily it’s also the one that you get first. You have a big slingshot that you use to propel your zombie through the skies in an effort to collect as many floating coins as possible. You extend your flight by snagging energy drinks mid-flight and you use magnets, also picked up while gliding, to grab nearby coins without touching them. The coins collected can be used to buy stuff for your zombie in the in-game store. Then there’s the Stomach Pumpin game. Zombies in this game will eat anything and everything, regardless of whether or not it is supposed to be food. So you, diligent owner that you are, must pump the non-edible things from the stomach of your grotesque pet using your stylus and the touch screen. If you touch the sides of the intestinal walls with the stylus, acid begins to build up, which will eventually end the game. The channels you must navigate are only slightly wider than the things you’re dragging through them, and unless you have incredibly steady hands, this game is an exercise in frustration. The Backyard Bullseye is an interesting distraction that makes good use of the 3D software. Throwing the objects at the target took some getting used to, but eventually I was able to ping the target with ease.

Graphics

It’s a game about cartoony zombies. You’re getting exactly what you would expect. Most of the processing power was used for the 3D, so the graphics aren’t astonishing. Not exactly amazing, but good enough I guess.

Final Thought

I get the distinct feeling that I’m not the intended market for this game. It was fun for a few minutes, but that was right up until I figured out how to break the leveling process. After that I only kept playing to see what I would unlock next. Occasionally I would get laugh out of setting my zombie on fire and then zapping it with the shock collar while it was still burning. Make that face at me all you want, but if you ever play this game you’re going to do the exact same thing now that you know it’s possible. If you like the other pet-centric games you might like this one. But for my personal tastes, this one didn’t exactly hit the mark.