Twin stick shooters have been done a million ways to Sunday. I remember plugging quarters into Berzerk and the countless Saturday afternoons spent mastering games like Smash TV. I have played so many top down shooters that now it seems like I would rather skip new ones all together. Over 9000 Zombies! landed on my desk and promised that I would feel that retro love again, but do I want to?
Over 9k drops us into the role of some faceless Rambo type character with tons of weapons and plenty of enemies. Zombies are becoming just a little played out so we even get some animals to maim like birds, dogs and crabs, who doesn’t love killing crabs?
My biggest concern with these pixelated top down retro shooting fests is the fact they become monotonous rather quickly. If you want to keep my ADD ass in the seat you need to layer the gameplay somewhat. Over 9k attempts this by giving me the ability to build basic walls and turrets that allow for some strategy like building around turrets to help them last longer. This addition is nice but it could have been expanded upon with other items or abilities.
The title ships with a total of 5 maps (3 single player, and 2 multiplayer). Now I know people will gripe saying that seems far too few for a simple shooter but I didn’t find myself running out of terrain to traverse. The focus here is not the graphics or maps, it’s the gameplay and I appreciate that.
I totally get the retro visuals and how hot they are right now. Games like Hotline Miami are the pinnacle of this type of gaming and with good reason, they are damn fun. Over 9k’s blocky visuals lacked that crisp look and seemed just a little too blurry at times. I ended up firing at anything moving most times and couldn’t tell if it was a dog or a zombie.
These types of games also benefit from having a kick ass soundtrack. One of the main reasons I had no issue replaying missions in Hotline Miami was because I could listen to those toe tapping jams and crisp effects all day long. Over 9k uses a pretty generic soundtrack. Your best bet is to turn it off and rock out to something you like.
In this day and age it’s almost unforgivable to omit the ability to change controls. Having to use the keyboard led to a ton of profanity being spewed at the screen as I had to look down causing my untimely death again and again. Thankfully there is controller support or I would have turned this game off within 5 minutes.
Pros
-Fun retro feel.
-The name causes a chuckle and nod to fans of a certain anime series.
-Tons of enemies and weapons.
Cons
-Very repetitive.
-Poor soundtrack.
-No custom controls.
-Visuals could use some work.
2/5 exploding zombie heads!
Over 9000 Zombies! treads the same path as many games before it with less success. People are gonna complain saying I was too harsh on a game created by only one person but the reality is, I judge them all on the same scale. At $9.99 via the Steam store, this is a little retro fun that won’t break the bank.
