Shoot the Zombirds Review

I like archery in almost every game. In RPGs, bow-shooting characters are my second favorite (nothing beats magic). Shoot the Zombirds isn't an RPG, but it does involve archery...so I enjoyed playing it. The game involves shooting zombie birds over and over until the player loses or runs out of arrows. I liked Shoot the Zombirds. It uses the simplicity of a touch interface to inspire some complex-ish fun.

Gameplay involves shooting down Zombirds (zombie birds). After that it gets a little more complex. Since the character is a humanoid jack-o-lantern thing (maybe a scarecrow), the goal is to keep the zombirds from flying completely across the screen with a Pumpkid (a baby jack-o-lantern). At first, only two Pumpkids are allowed to be kidnapped before the level ends. But that number can be upgraded via coins earned by shooting down elusive, tiny skull zombirds. Of course, it wouldn't be a modern iOS game without the ability to cheat and buy more coins via in-app purchases. Currency purchases are set up a bit like Temple Run. There are upgradable stats (Pumpkids allowed, frequency of skulls, and starting arrows), power-ups, and extra characters.

Not all of the zombirds are kidnapping Pumpkids. The rest of them are there for the player to rack up combos, earn more arrows (running out of arrows is another way to lose), and basically distract the player from the Zombirds kidnapping the Pumpkids. If the player shoots down enough birds in a row quickly enough, a berserk mode will start. This mode ignites the arrows and makes the birds burst into flames when hit. If the player can keep racking up the combo quick enough, the berserk will continue. A timer even pops up if the combo is kept up long enough.

To shoot the arrows, the player simply pulls down on the screen and moves their finger to aim. I suppose it's supposed to mimic pulling back the arrow. But it mostly feels like the slingshot from Angry Birds turned 90 degrees.

The graphics and sound were fine. I was quite amused by the sorta cute-ish wailing sounds of the Pumpkids as they're being kidnapped. That sounded a bit sadistic...

The game was a flawless execution of a simple concept that is hard to put down. I played the game long after I felt comfortable writing this review. It has the same addiciting quality as Temple Run, but with gameplay that feels a bit more skillful.