Zombie Rollerz: Pinball Heroes

Genre: Pinball

Players: 1

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Review:

Zombie Rollerz is a family-friendly Pinball game with some light Tower Defense elements released on mobile devices in 2020 and ported to PC and Nintendo Switch in 2022. Zombie Rollerz reimagines Pinball as a battlefield where players fend off a horde of encroaching zombies by flinging a flaming ball at them from a ballista and then batting it around using… well, flippers.

It’s a silly concept, and it’s presented as such using colorful, cartoony cel-shaded 3D visuals. The character models are blocky, but I suppose you could argue that’s a stylistic choice, and while the game overall doesn’t look very impressive, it’s still generally appealing. The sound, on the other hand, could use some work – the bouncy music and cartoony sound effects playing behind these visuals definitely hearken back to this game’s mobile roots.

For the gameplay, this is a pretty unique take on the Pinball genre, as the game doesn’t even attempt to have anything resembling realistic pinball physics, and takes a lot of license with how pinball works – you can call the ball back to your ballista at any time (barring a cooldown) to re-fire it, the ball slows to a crawl when it touches a flipper to give players more control over its angle of fire which is projected, and having your ball fall in the gutter isn’t lethal, although it does lose you a bit of health.

That health is what you’re seeking to protect here, and what is gradually worn down by zombies that manage to make it all the way down to your ballista. You can swat these zombies away somewhat by using your flippers, but ideally you’ll want to keep them from swarming you by taking them out with the ball before they get to you. And as you progress, zombies will use increasingly more odd and elaborate methods to try to get closer to your ballista, with some reminiscent of the Plants Vs. Zombies franchise. Meanwhile, you’ll collect various special abilities you can use to get yourself out of a pinch or do massive damage.

If I had one main complaint here, it’s that the gameplay feels a bit too wacky – I often felt like I didn’t have as much control over my ball as I wanted. Yes, you are able to have fine control over your ball’s trajectory as you let it slowly roll over your paddles, but if you’re being rushed by zombies you may not have the time to do this, and it might have been preferable to have the option to press a button to turn this feature on and off.

In addition to this, the way the map screen uses a spreading zombie infection to gradually close up the area behind you seems unnecessary, and discourages players from revisiting earlier areas they might want to go back to. I’m not sure why this gameplay element is even here.

Overall, Zombie Rollerz is a unique spin on the Pinball genre that’s not without its flaws, but that’s enjoyable and original enough that players should find it worth giving a try. If you hate pinball, I don’t think this will change your mind, and if you’re looking for a more traditional pinball game you won’t find it here, but what you will find is something fun and unique in its own right.

tl;dr – Zombie Rollerz is a family-friendly Pinball game with Tower Defense elements, where players must use a pinball to protect their ballista from an invading horde of zombies. This game takes a lot of liberties with the genre’s typical formula, and some of these experimental elements work better than others, but this is overall an enjoyable spin on Pinball that’s worth a try.

Grade: B-

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