Game Review: Zombeee (Video) -- Windows Phone Daily

For some reason, people are really starting to like undead, flesh-eating corpses lately. Zombies are the new black (which is ironically the color of their blood) and it's kind of hard not to enjoy a good ol' zombie flick. But recently zombies have evolved into a genre of video gaming with casual games like Plants vs. Zombies hit the mainstream while more hardcore-oriented titles like Left 4 Dead earn some serious nerd love. So it was inevitable that we would find a game in the Marketplace about an innocent farmer trying to protect his untainted herd from an all-flesh-diet horde of zombie sheep. That's the story behind NUIFramework's Zombeee, a fun action/strategy hybrid that pits you against some rotten fur. Keep reading for our full review of this unique game.

The Basics
Like we said before, the story is very light and all it does is lay out the context for why you're playing the game. When you load up a level of the game, there are five columns of grass that Zombeees will emerge in. From there, they slowly progress towards the bottom of the screen to infiltrate beyond your white picket fence. Your objective is to prevent that from happening until the time for the level runs out and as you progress in the game each level has a longer time and more enemies. So how do you, a humble farmer, expect to battle terrifying Zombeees? With farmer-y weapons of course:

Simple Stone: The go-to basic weapon that packs a decent punch if charged up and also has the fastest reload time.
Mud-Trap: The most timing-centric weapon, which creates a clump of mud that Zombeees get stuck in and slowly work their way out of. It lasts for a while depending on how strong of an enemy you trapped, but it takes some time to reload.
Gatling Carrot: The last-resort weapon that shoots out five carrots to push a Zombeee nearly all the way to the back of the column. A life-saver but it also takes a 10-20 seconds to reload.
Multi-Grapes: Another somewhat basic weapon that is very similar to Simple Stone but with a key difference: you can shoot two grapes in any two rows at the same time. Useful if you're trying to push a wave back.
Cannon-Watermelon: The big kahuna that will take nearly half of the toughest Zombeee's health out. It also takes the longest time to reload.

As you play a level and defeat Zombeees, you'll eventually rack up enough kills to unlock the Firecracker bonus which will save your sorry butt if you have a bunch of enemies lining up in front of your picket fence. There are 12 levels total in this release, with more promised to come soon.

The Good
Alright so that was a lot of explanation, but that's how deep of a game Zombeee is so let's get to what we enjoyed in the game. The one thing we immediately took notice of was the high quality art and graphical style. The production values are through the roof (even better than some Xbox Live games if you ask us) and it is yet another testament to talented indie game developers who have invaded Windows Phone. Even when Zombeees die they have very distinctive animations -- for example, when the basic Zombeee dies it falls on the floor and one of its eyes rolls out. There's little things just like that as well as the hilarious easter egg in the 'Exit Game' option which we really enjoy. Luckily Zombeee isn't all about looks because it also has very fun and well-balanced gameplay. The action-strategy hybrid style of gameplay is just as challenging as a drawn-out game of Chess, but also just as fun as a quick level of Angry Birds -- NUIFramework has struck just the right equilibrium between both. Add in multiple weapons and enemies, as well as level rankings, and it's likely no two people would play a level in the same way. Finally, there's the phenomenal value proposition since you're getting all of this for a dirt-cheap $0.99. It's a killer price for a game of such high quality (sorry for the bad pun).

The Bad
As strong as Zombeee's positives are, there are definitely a few things that detract from the experience. The score system is kind of broken not because it doesn't work but because it doesn't tell you anything. While you're playing a level you can't see how many points you have racked up so far -- it's only shown at the end. This makes for a confusing experience when you try to go back and achieve a higher rank because you can't tell what weapons or methods will earn you more points. Basically if you want to get a higher rank than bronze on a level you have to do it blindly and hope you get a better score, which in our opinion defeats the whole point of the system. Besides that Zombeee is also a little light on content and you really can't do anything after you beat Level 12. We know it's sort of an odd complaint due to the really low asking price of the game and it does promise to add more levels eventually, but we're also concerned that the new levels added may not change anything in the gameplay. The levels may just get harder and with more time on the clock, but that's not really enough -- instead of that we would love to see some minigames that add some variety to the gameplay.

Overall
We really like Zombeee and so we're chucking a 9 out of 10 down its row. While the game sabotages its own replay value with a broken score system and not much other value-adds, it's still a lot of bang for your buck because it really is only a buck. Not only does the game's production values rock, but it builds on top of solid gameplay that creates a challenging but still energetic and interactive experience. You could do a lot worse for $0.99, so we'd recommend you go bash some Zombeees with that money instead.