Puzzle games and Online games

I’ll be honest: I wasn’t expecting much from a game titled “Burn Zombie Burn!” and at first I wasn’t impressed. A top down arcade shooter, where you play a short dude with a toothy grin and weird hair mowing down waves of zombies. Seemed like a half hearted cash in on society’s zombie obsession. Plus, I am not a fan of the game’s art style. But then I dove into the complexities of the combat, and oh boy, I think I have found my new PSN obsession.

At first glace, the combat is simple. Left analogue to move, R1 to fire, and if a zombie touches you, you lose health. But that barely even scratches the surface. Press R2 to pull out your torch, and the strategizing begins. Zombies are afraid of fire, so you can run through undead crowds unscathed if you have got your torch out. But once those zombies start burning, they will do damage to you again. Also, each enflamed zombie adds one point to your multiplier, but killing burning zombies decreases your multiplier. Plus (yes, there’s more!), burning and non-burning zombies drop different power ups (including the TNT upgrades you need to earn insane scores), so determining when and how many zombies to burn requires a delicate, strategic balance to maximize score and survivability Quite a juggle.

And variety of weapon and enemy types (including a lawnmower, a cricket bat, and ballerina zombies), the three different modes (free, timed and defend the girlfriend), the slew of entertaining challenges (like herding linebacker zombies across a zombie zapping pad), the splitscreen  multiplier, and a few other neat tricks. Much like my first PSN love.