Undead Storm Nightmare

Genre: Top-Down Action

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local Wireless)

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Review:

Undead Storm Nightmare, released on Nintendo 3DS in 2015, is a Top-Down Action game that has you fighting off hordes of zombies. This game is the sequel to 2012’s Go Series: Undead Storm.

The presentation here isn’t very good. Environments and characters are rendered in 3D, but everything is fairly low-poly and low detail. In the campaign mode your main character is inexplicably a cheerful girl who speaks only in Japanese, while the game’s announcer speaks everything with a drawn-out over-the-top growl. And backing all of this is absurdly generic-sounding electric guitar music. I feel like this game wants to be a parody of something, but it can’t quite seem to settle on what it’s parodying exactly.

Unfortunately, as with many games I have to label as “Top-Down Action games”, this is a game that would have been better off as a Two-Stick Shooter, if it was designed with that in mind. There’s no support here for the Circle Pad Pro or the New Nintendo 3DS’s second analog input, nor can you aim using the touchscreen. Instead, you’re rotating your character with the L and R buttons, which feels really clunky.

That’s not the only issue with this game. Enemies are endlessly spawning everywhere, with no rhyme or reason, and just to highlight how pointless it is to try to mow down all of your enemies, they’re also constantly de-spawning, making sure you feel like your efforts to thin them out mean nothing. Every now and then you’ll be trapped in an area nad have to survive, but then your best bet is often to run around in circles just to keep zombies off your toes. It doesn’t help that hit detection in this game is a crapshoot too.

This game also makes it a point to highlight its Nightwalker zombie, which is clearly this game’s take on Left 4 Dead’s “witch” zombie, similarly a seemingly-placid female zombie until you get in range and then they make a quick beeline towards you. However, in this game, when they reach you it sets off “nightmare mode” which causes enemy spawn rates to skyrocket, ensuring you’ll get swarmed. This doesn’t really feel exciting or engaging, it’s mostly just frustrating.

With all these gameplay issues, it’s disappointing that this game’s progression system and local multiplayer seem like they’ll likely go to waste, because there are some good ideas here, like being able to choose how to upgrade your arsenal, or even going back into prior levels if you want to grind for resources. However, all of this is built around gameplay that just isn’t fun.

In the end, that’s ultimately what all of this comes down to – Undead Storm Nightmare just isn’t fun, with poor controls, terrible hit detection, frustrating enemies that constantly spawn and despawn, and a tone and presentation that’s all over the place, but generally just off-putting. If you want a fun action game on Nintendo 3DS, you have better options. If you want a good zombie game on Nintendo 3DS, you have better options. Don’t bother with this one.

tl;dr – Undead Storm Nightmare is a Top-Down Action game that has players fighting off hordes of zombies. Unfortunately, this game’s poor controls, bad hit detection, frustrating game design, and unappealing presentation all make for an experience that’s just not worth bothering with.

Grade: D

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