DS Review Teenage Zombies - Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys

Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys

DS Review
Publisher: Ignition Entertainment
Developer: InLight Entertainment
Players: 1

One thing which the Nintendo DS has not received much love in terms of types of characters, is zombies. DS owners had a Resident Evil release, as well as a few other notable releases with these whacked out creatures, but nothing to really garner any attention. InLight Entertainment has tried to change that with the Nintendo DS game Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys. Is this really an invasion you’ll enjoy though? Or one you want to truly run from?

The game is set up as a slow platformer in a sense, as you have to solve many puzzles along the way as you run into quite a few aliens and zombies. The story is presented in a comic book style as players have to turn the DS on its side to check out everything going on.

The whole visual layout of the game has that same exact comic-book feel, and comes across fairly nice. The graphics are very basic with some good colors, but the sprites themselves lack a lot of animation and fluidity.

The same can be said about the sound as there is very little to be had here in terms of actual voiceover work for the characters and such. More effective and creative sound effects could have gone a long way to add to the entertainment of the game as well.

The game kicks off with the brains attacking, these gray things which can control minds, shoot lasers, etc.

It is up to the Teenage Zombies to rise from their graves and beat the brains.

The Teenage Zombies are made up of three undead kids named Lori, Finnigan, and Zack. Each of the characters has their own special skills which can take down the brains. The first character, Lori, has the ability to reach up high and get to high places. Finnigan, also known as Half-Pipe, has no legs and rides a skateboard going off ramps. Zack, also known as Fins, has tentacles growing out of his back and can climbs walls, wires. Etc.

The game is set up very nicely as each character has to use their own special abilities to try and complete the various puzzles they encounter. The puzzles, although put together nicely and intuitively, seem almost too much at times. The whole layout of the game and design of it makes you want it to be more action-oriented. Instead though things are very methodical as you have to play around with the various skills of the Teenage Zombies, seeing which can make you progress to the next puzzle.

The whole layout of the game feels too slow for the average DS gamer to really be able to get interested for a long time. Things take far too long to move across the screen as one of the zombies, and the levels are very linear.

On top of the puzzles you do run across some touch-screen mini-games at times which can be fun and allow you to score some extra points.

One plus side is the fact that the game does last 33 chapters in total, spanning seven different varying worlds. This helps with the longevity of the game if you do get into the puzzles.

Overall Teenage Zombies is not a bad game on the DS by any means, it is just clearly going to be a hit or miss with gamers. Do not go into this thinking it is going to be a side-scrolling action game, because it is far from it. This is more of a hardcore puzzle platformer than anything else. The problem with it though is that while some of it is really well done, other parts of the game clearly lack quality and polish. This may be worth checking out for the true puzzle fans out there, but even they will be able to plow through this one very quickly.

Graphics: 6.8 A decent-looking DS game, but lacking animation and detail.

Audio: 6.5 Just as with the graphics, there is not much wrong, it just lacks the creativity and uniqueness to really draw in the gamer.

Gameplay: 7.5 The game plays very well and the skills of the Teenage Zombies come in handy and are handled nicely. Fans of puzzles and platformers will not be disappointed.

Replay Value: 6.8 The 33 levels are a bit short and may not take you too long to beat, but the puzzles, along with the mini-games, can be enjoyable.

Final Score: 7.0

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