Zombo Buster Rising

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1

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Review:

Zombo Buster Rising is an Arcade-style game with hints of Tower Defense released on PC in 2016 and ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2021. In this game, players are defending a post-apocalyptic shelter from invading hordes of zombies, taking aim at the hostile horde while trying not to hit fleeing survivors running among them.

I say the gameplay is similar to Tower Defense games not because you build towers, but because the entire game is played on the defensive, just trying to prevent zombies from getting through the door you’re defending. However, other than this the game plays quite differently, with players aiming at enemies via an on-screen cursor and occasionally making use of abilities on cooldown timers.

This game does a few things well – there’s a good variety of zombies to keep adding new challenges throughout the game’s run, and to combat these new threats players have a wealth of upgrades available to their three-person party, letting you choose multiple stats of individual party members to upgrade, as well as upgrading your special attacks. There’s no way to change out these special attacks, but otherwise the progression here is excellent, and players wanting to be overpowered can even opt to replay older levels to grind for the in-game cash needed to improve your characters’ skills.

On the other hand, the game doesn’t do other things so well, and mainly that’s the core gameplay itself, which is overly-repetitive and slow-paced, especially before you start to really upgrade your character.

The presentation is also nothing special, using simple 2D visuals with a cartoony look to them with zombies that slightly resemble Plants Vs. Zombies’ character design. This is backed by a decent but forgettable soundtrack.

Overall, I thought Zombo Buster Rising was reasonably enjoyable for the low $5 price tag, but it definitely feels like more could be done to ensure that the gameplay remained engaging and enjoyable. If you’re looking for a fun little time-waster, I don’t think you’ll be too disappointed in this game, though it’s highly unlikely to become a favorite.

tl;dr – Zombo Buster Rising is an Arcade-style game with some light Tower Defense elements where players are defending a post-apocalyptic shelter from invading zombies. The variety of enemies and upgradeable elements help to keep this game constantly giving players something new to deal with, but the minute-to-minute gameplay can get repetitive and dull. Overall, this is a decent time-waster, but not much more than that.

Grade: C+

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