Zombie Volcano Review

Controlling a bunch of square-shaped zombies that accidentally fall into an off-land volcano located in the middle of the ocean, Zombie Volcano will see players aim to keep their new zombie companions in the air as they are catapulted from the volcano's peak and use nearby islands to bounce their way to the longest flight victory.

Featuring some intricately-designed pixel graphics, Zombie Volcano is in fact the premium version of Bailey's earlier title for the platform called Baby Lava Bounce. Zombie Volcano was originally meant to hit the App Store in time for Halloween (which would explain the focus on the living dead), but the game apparently suffered some unforeseen delays just before its expected release.

Now here and ready to shower players with its undead, lava-infused charm, the game starts out by tasking the player to select just the right amount of oomph to propel the zombie into flight. At the beginning of each new attempt the lava gauge continually fluctuates up and down, challenging the player to land the lava level at the highest point in order to have the most powerful eruption - and thus the best chance of surviving.

Once the zombie is air-born, the aim is to keep him flying for as long as possible. Tapping on the screen when an island appears below will see the zombie immediately lose his flight, and successfully hitting specific 'volcano' islands will refuel him with what he loves - lava. Along the way players will also find items and objects which they must hit in order to keep the fuel gauge full. The score they manage to rack up whilst doing this is shown in the top right. Run out of fuel and the zombie will be dead - as in super-dead, for reals - before players can shout “Lava zombie!”

One will know when this happens as the green that fills zombie's head drains away, making for a totally saturated affair. The more objects and islands players manage to hit, the further zombie will be able to go. Heck, if one bounced hard enough they might actually reach space. Space-bound zombies can also use satellites and other celestial objects to bounce off and gain fuel. Watch out, though. One wrong judgement as to where the islands lie below and one will find themselves lava-less and quickly sink to the ocean floor.

Zombie Volcano is an admittedly fun and challenging game to play that relies on a certain amount of skill in order to achieve the furtherest distance possible. The game's art-style is also vibrant and pleasant on the eyes. Sadly though, there's simply little that separates Zombie Volcano enough from the hundreds of other endless side-scrollers that are already available - apart from its hat tip to the world of the undead, of course.