Game Review: “Zombie Toss” Developed by Flying Wisdom Studios

What is it about Zombies that has everyone going so crazy??? It’s the latest fad like we had for vampires and I’m just waiting to see a romantic trilogy based on star-crossed zombie lovers.  At any rate, zombies rule and everyone else drools! There are tons of zombie games out there; so which one should you play? (All of them)

I just picked up “Zombie Toss(ed) in a Red Wine Sauce”, developed by Flying Wisdom Studios and played it over the weekend. Much like “Fruit Ninja”, “Zombie Toss” has simple controls where the player must swipe their weapon across the screen at the precise time that a zombie is thrown into the air. Slicing more than 3 zombies in one swipe will give you special combo points.

The goal of Zombie Toss is to quickly destroy all of the zombies within each wave before they fall or they will attack you. As you slice-and-dice the zombies, you’re collecting their meat—eew—The more meat you collect, the more points, coins and Skull Keys you will receive. You also have to avoid dangerous obstacles, such as a barrel of poison gas, zombie policeman, or zombie balloons—you have to see it to understand. It’s hilarious.

There are some pretty cool things to purchase, like weapons and power ups but the rate at which in-game currency is rewarded is really low and it takes some time to gather enough dough to buy what you need.  I think the developers do this so the player will need to replay levels for grinding or pressure the player to make in-game purchases to upgrade their weapons.  You start the game off with only 10 Golden Teeth (hard currency that you purchase with real money), allowing you to buy power ups that will give you more health or vaccinate you from poison, allowing you to continue playing when injured within the level. If not? Then you’re dead and you have to start the level over.  I must say, I died a lot.

There are 5 areas of game play, Suburbia Day, Suburbia Night, City Day, City Night and then Survival and you cannot proceed unless you collect enough Skull Keys. These are granted to the player after each successful level is completed.  The game ramps up really nicely and has some really cool bonus moments where you go crazy with a chainsaw like Leatherface.  Timing and true focus is really key and I was totally engrossed and determined to conquer each level.

Zombie Toss has a pretty cool art style–dark and cartoony nasty gore that is “safe enough” for kids but fun enough for adults to appreciate.  I actually love the zombies. They’re pretty funny looking, especially the little blond, pig-tailed girl.

I’m not sure how long I would play this game. I’m sure that Flying Wisdom Studios are planning to add new levels and content, which could be cool but I might not continue with the game after finishing Survival. Getting enough meat to collect all of the Skull Keys for each level is hard, unless you’ve upgraded your weapon and that gets expensive and too long to achieve the cash.  I wish there was a Kitchen feature where the player can take the meat collected and create some kind of zombie treat that can be used as a power up. Now that would really give the game some more interest for me and keep me coming back for more.

It is fun and gets your heart rate up and that’s good. I think if you love games like Fruit Ninja, Zombie Toss is right up your alley and will have you playing for days.

Rating: 4 Stars out of 5