Game Review: Age Of Zombies (PSP Mini)

Barry Steakfries? have I read that correctly? Barry Steakfries? Genius! Whoever thought of that name definitely needs a pay rise!

Sorry I shall now begin. Barry Steakfries then, is the star of the PSP Minis title Age Of Zombies, which has been developed by Halfbrick Studios for the PSP, PlayStation 3 and PS Vita. The game is a top down shooter with you playing the role of our hero and saviour Barry Steakfries, as he attempts to travel back through time, shoot zombies, travel forward through time and shoot more Zombies, all the while chewing on a toothpick! That’s an action hero all right!

Barry will travel through different periods of time and each period will be split into maps. On each arena style map you will fight off waves of the undead until you have defeated all waves and can move onto the next Map. At the end of a time period you will be able to take on an end of level boss. The end of level bosses are typically over the top and relevant to the time period that you are in. What about the weapons? I hear you cry! well fear not, as well as your bog standard weapon, there are power up crates dotted around the maps that spawn randomly and can contain more powerful offensive and defensive weaponry that give you a temporary boost against the hordes.

There is also a survival mode which allows you to choose a map and just blast everything for as long as you can hold out. Maps are unlocked by completing them in the main campaign and this mode is great for filling in dull moments of your time where you just want some simple plain old fun. Sometimes the simple things in life are all you need and there can be nothing simpler than taking out as many zombies as you possibly can, no objectives, no messing around.

Controls are very simple and explained at the start of the game, the D-pad/left analogue stick moves Barry around and the action buttons dictate the direction Barry shoots in or you can use the Right shoulder button to fire in the direction Barry is facing in, your secondary weapon is deployed using the Left shoulder button. The controls are simple and they need to be in order to cope with the wave after wave of zombies that start to fill your screen.

I loved Age of Zombies and its mix of humour and fun. There are plenty of shooters out there that take themselves far too seriously and it is great to find something that pokes fun at itself and the genre it is placed in. It is also a great commuting game as levels are fast and bitesize, completing the campaign won’t take you hours of hard graft, but I guarantee you will have had a lot of fun along the way, and a few laughs!

It’s not hard to recommend this title to anyone! It is simple and fun, and that gives it license to appeal to everyone, and since it seems everyone loves shooting zombies at the moment this will definitely feed your hunger, and with its 80s action film humour it never takes itself seriously, I mean come on… with a hero named Barry Steakfries what is there not to like about this game?! And if you haven’t had enough of Barry by the end of this I have good news… he’ll be back!

Ben Gove

At A Glance