By Kevin "Berserker" Hall

Player(s): 1 - 2 (local multiplayer only)
Memory: 830KB

Killing zombies in videogames happens to be an old pastime of mine. Over the years, I have greatly enjoyed cracking whips at zombies, tossing lances at them and of course shooting at them in a variety of different ways. I think Dead Rising was the pinnacle of that guilty pleasure. Now with Burn Zombie Burn, I can experiment even more with this fun hobby!

Burn Zombie Burn distances itself rather well from the standard overhead shooter. Constantly shooting at zombies and killing them one by one is not a real effective way to boost a player's score. A player has to use the flamethrower that the main character carries in order to set zombies on fire to increase the score multiplier. Multiple zombies can be set on fire, set every single zombie on fire that is on the screen to boost the score multiplier heavily then defeat them in large groups to raise the score heavily.

Zombies become more dangerous and faster once they are torched and will chase the player with a newfound aggression. A few environmental objects (such as a wooden fence) can be set on fire, which can cause zombies to burn if the zombies get in close proximity of the burning objects. Zombies that are on fire can also spread the fire to other zombies when a burning group is lead throughout an area.

Once zombies have been set on fire, a player can kill several of them at one time and receive the normal score amount, which is multiplied times the current multiplier from burned zombies. The multiplier is constantly falling as zombies are killed or if they simply burn up, so a player has to constantly set more zombies on fire to keep the multiplier high.

The main character gets access to several different types of guns and weapons to dispose of zombies. All of them feel quite unique. A player starts with a standard handgun but can receive other weapons such as a sub machine gun, Gatling gun, chainsaw, a bat, a shotgun, and even a lawnmower among other weapons. All weapons kill in a unique way and you'll want to take advantage of each weapon type depending on the situation. For instance, if a player has a group of burning zombies following that player, the player would want to pick up the nearest shotgun to blast the whole group at once to receive an instant high score based on the current burning group instead of taking them down one by one with a submachine gun, thereby decreasing the multiplier per kill.

The melee weapons found in the game feel very unique and completely fit the wacky mood of the game. A bat swing can be charged from a distance then a player can approach a horde of zombies and hit a whole group with a charged swing. The chainsaw can be used to slice through a whole line of zombies as a player circles a group of zombies. The lawnmower always felt the most unique to me because of the way it is used; the main character holds the lawnmower by the top then charges forward with the blades exposed to cut up zombies as he runs by them.

TNT also plays a big role in defeating zombies. TNT will allow a player to take down several zombies at one time, so if a burning group is approaching, a player can simply lay out a TNT stick then walk away from it or actually kick the stick with a button in order to knock it into a crowd then gain an instant kill on a group which will give the player many more points based on the current multiplier.

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