Zombie Panic in Wonderland DX

Genre: Arcade / Shooting Gallery

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

Zombie Panic in Wonderland DX is an Arcade-style Shooting Gallery game with a unique history. The game was first released in 2010 on the Nintendo Wii’s WiiWare service, later being ported to the 3DS and mobile platforms before eventually hitting the PC and Nintendo Switch in 2019 with remade graphics and improved enemy AI. The Nintendo Switch version also adds the touchscreen controls of the mobile versions (which are an excellent addition), as well as reputedly adding motion controls, but I could find no option for this (which is a shame, as it would have added a lot to the game).

Despite being developed by a Spanish developer, Zombie Panic in Wonderland feels very Japanese in its presentation and sensibilities, presenting players with stylized 3D visuals in a cutesy anime style depicting “love zombies” of in various absurd cartoony styles – zombie sumo wrestlers, zombie ninjas, and the like. The game has a very anime-esque high-energy soundtrack as well, which does a great job of underscoring the absurdity the game has on offer. Suffice it to say, this game absolutely does not take zombies seriously, and it is far more amusing for doing so. And while nothing here will impress on a technical level, the game is full of charm and style.

The gameplay here is really fun and varied too – zombies can have their limbs torn off by gunfire or have their heads taken off by a headshot, but before they do they have all sorts of interesting and unique mannerisms and differing attacks that add a lot of variety into the game. Likewise, players have multiple weapons they can swap between, each offering something different. And while players guide a cursor with one stick, they can move their character to dodge attacks using the other (or, in an alternate control scheme, they can move both with one stick), deflecting incoming projectiles with gunfire or tapping a button to dodge.

There’s a lot to like about this game, but a few elements don’t work quite so well. Firstly, I’ve gotta’ highlight, this game feels like it would be much better with gyroscopic motion control, and its absence here is disappointing. Also, the screen scrolls left and right with the player’s movement, but not until the player is far over on the side they’re moving towards, placing them in danger. This is especially troublesome as not only can you not shoot enemies that are off-screen, you can’t see what type of enemy they are either, meaning you don’t know what sort of risk you’re taking to move in that direction until you take it. Finally, while this game is great in two-player co-op mode, this mode is sadly limited to the game’s arcade mode, and for some reason its story mode is one-player only.

While Zombie Panic in Wonderland DX has its fair share of flaws, it more than makes up for them with an abundance of personality, a healthy amount of variety, and some great old-school Arcade-style action. While the game could use a few tweaks and added features, overall this is an excellent co-op Arcade-style experience that’s well worth playing.

tl;dr – Zombie Panic in Wonderland DX is an Arcade-Style Shooting Gallery game that has players blasting away silly anime-style zombies. This game doesn’t take itself seriously at all, and that’s just fine, because its silly presentation is one of its best qualities, and fits the fast-paced action well. While there are still some places this game could do with improvement, overall it’s an excellent co-op Action game well worth playing.

Grade: B

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