Product Rating

Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys! (DS)

In the world of video games it is common knowledge that zombies serve as great fodder for the target of bullets, swords and blunt objects, but what happens when an even bigger threat comes along that the human race simply cannot handle? Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys is a game that answers that very question.

Led by Big Brain, an army of evil, brain-resembling aliens have descended upon the Earth to conquer the planet and enslave its people. The humans, unable to stop the hoard of Alien Brain Thingys, succumb to the mind control of the aliens, but the invasion stirs the realm of the undead as three zombies are awoken from their rest. With no human brains to eat, the three zombies take pleasure in feasting upon the alien brains instead. Big Brain quickly realises that the three mindless zombies are immune to his controlling methods and focuses his efforts on bringing down the undead trio instead.


Fins had tentacles fused to his back.

Despite sounding rather clich, the plot is very gripping and the method of presentation plays no small part in this. From the initial, voice-presented cut-scene the game requires the player to turn the DS to the side to follow the story like a comic book, complete with pages, panels and speech bubbles. After every couple of chapters another comic is unlocked that further advances the humorous storyline, albeit without the dramatic voice-acting found in the first one. Regardless, all of these are finely-crafted pieces of artwork that bring an original and funny way of story presentation and give the game a comic book feel. Even the levels themselves contain numerous comic discourse features such as hints in the form of narrative boxes.

Sadly, the gameplay mechanics dont quite convey the excitement or innovation as the story. In Teenage Zombies the player takes control of one-of-three zombies, each with their own abilities and talents, and can switch to any member of the trio at any time. To progress from the start of each level to the finish, players must take advantage of the unique abilities of the characters to bypass enemies and environmental puzzles and blockages. It钒s a formula that has been used in countless games but the problem is that this particular game doesnt make any real efforts to stand out from the rest. Unlike many games of this ilk, though, Teenage Zombies is slow and almost methodical in its execution, but not in a way that makes it particularly interesting to play.

The three zombies in your control are certainly a whacky bunch. Lori ғLefty Lopez, once a high school basketball star, can use her jumping and stretching skills to reach higher platforms, Zack ԓHalf-Pipe Boyd has lost the lower half of his body and now uses a skateboard to move around and get through tight gaps, and Finnigan ԓFins Magee can use his fused-tentacles to climb walls, ropes and wires. Each level consists of merely using the right character at the right time and, with a few exceptions, the solution is painfully obvious. ItԒs far from terrible but this kind of approach means that the game can only be enjoyed in small chunks before repetition sets in. Playing for too long turns the game into a monotonous trudge and despite not being particularly long, extended play sessions certainly make it feel that way.


Lori "Lefty" Lopez faces humans under mind control.

Fortunately, the game does feature a few ways of keeping things a little more interesting, even if some work better than others. In its favour, the trio of zombies can be swapped in and out in a mere fraction of a second, either by hitting one of the two shoulder buttons or by tapping them on the touch screen. Its not a groundbreaking way of utilising the DSҒs unique features but it works effectively. Also in the games favour is a selection of power-ups available to each zombie, ranging from barrier-busting acid puke to an enemy-eliminating rivet gun. Each power-up must be picked up from various places within a level but because of their proximity to their position of use, figuring out where and when to use the powers becomes as easy as using the zombieҒs individual abilities. Regardless, they do help to break up the action slightly, as do a small assortment of enemies, but the game also feels the need to throw in some standard mini-games too.

Yes, yet another DS game with a collection of mostly-uninteresting mini-games. Serving as a way of breaking up the puzzling, most of these games are downright boring but some will consider them a requirement as they add to the players overall score at the end of the game. Thankfully, for those not interested in a huge score, they can be skipped. A mini-game embedded within the main game itself involves gathering various body parts hidden around a level and assembling them on the touch screen to fully recover the health bar and if it werenҒt for the dodgy connection-recognition it would have been much more fun. Instead, its probably easier to just die or pick up a brain from a fallen foe.

Aside from mini-game collections Teenage Zombies suffers from a few other troublesome problems that are detrimental to the overall experience. For some reason the game suffers from noticeable frame-rate issues when there are many enemies on the screen at once and, considering the latter half of the game features many circumstances where there are groups of enemies, this issue arises too often to ignore. Another is the actual gameҒs complete contrast with its comic book presentation. Where as the latter is humorous and vibrant, the former is rather dull and drab by comparison. The visual design of each level shows very little in the way of variation and the zombies themselves are rather lifeless in their step, a pun that is very much unintended. Lori Lopez, in particular, has just a handful of frames that make up her entire walking animation.

Pros: - Gripping storyline. - Fun in short amounts of play. - Innovative comic book display.

cons: - Feels long and drawn out. - Progress often feels too easy. - Mini-games are mostly uninteresting. - Technical issues mar the experience.

conclusion: All in all, Teenage Zombies is a rather standard platform game that offers little in the way of variety or innovative features. It’s not a bad game and there is definitely fun to be had in short bursts of play, but after witnessing the pure brilliance that is the opening comic-style cut-scene it cannot be helped to feel a little disappointed with the final product. In a way it’s almost misleading and so it’s hard to label it as anything other than an above-average title that should have delivered more on its promises.

Post a comment on this Review of Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys! (DS)

Type in the verification code above: