Game review: Zombie Goes Up

Zombie Goes Up is a casual, action game produced by Neutronized. The programming and artwork is by Glonathan Pesaresi and music by Sserrac. The player's objective is to get the zombie up to the surface, navigating around obstacles and opposition.

Summary of analysis
Quick learning curve which parallels steep difficulty curve, decent if occasionally unforgiving gameplay, minimal interface and simple keyboard controls, cartoon-style graphics, interesting and amusing sound.

Tutorial/New player experience
With only four in-game controls, it's a fairly quick learning curve to master the basics. As new elements of the game are introduced, the player will be passing by the tutorial elements in the form of underground signs. Be careful about getting confident, as the gameplay difficulty increases just as quickly as the new elements are introduced.

Gameplay experience
After the first few levels, it gets frustrating trying to dodge between obstacles, thankfully there appears to be an infinite lives mechanic at play. Nonetheless, there are quite a lot of times when the game's safe path is tightrope-thin.

Interface & Controls
The interface consists of a progress bar, score, and game menu controls (pause and mute functions). The gameplay controls are just the four arrow keys.

Graphics
Cartoon-style zombie and creatures alongside similarly-styled world objects and animated interactive objects. The graphics definitely help the casual appeal and it's always nice to see Halloween-themed games abstain from the blood and gore tedium.

Music & Sound
Zombie Goes Up has an interesting background music that seems equal parts light-hearted and dramatic tension. The sound effects certainly go along with the graphics with plenty of boings, pops, and tiny explosions.

Commentary
It's a well-made game and decent way to fill a little time. I'd say that after the first few levels, the game's bound to lose appeal to a casual gamer audience but due to the time commitment by that point, it's already starting to tread into hardcore gamer style anyway.