Zombie Boy

Zombie Boy
     Ever wish you could be an insane scientist woman, growing your own zombie boyfriend inside an old dilapidated mansion your uncle owns? Who hasn't, right?  Ok, so it seems a bit far fetched, but that is the premise of this game, so bear with me.

     As I played through this game, I have to say I found it a bit boring and tedious.  The plot seemed thin at best and there's not much playable content involved.  That being said the graphics are quite nice and the audio is fitting... if only one could turn it off.  I'll get to that in a moment.

     The game gives you a brief, vague bit of context when you start it.  You are a woman, you are trying to get your boyfriend back, and you have a tiny bat who is apparently... your experimental... boyfriend.

     The creature which is apparently a zombie needs to be fed in order to 'grow'.  To get food you have to click the 'Go Hunt' button.  Usually around 23 small boys will appear that can be tapped to collect.  The longer you wait after collecting them, the more appear.  Then go back and tap the 'Meal' button to give the food to the boyfriend.

     There are only two types of boys to hunt, you can see one example to the left.  Basically you hunt once, feed the boyfriend, close the app, open it later and do it again.

     You can also tap 'Convo' to communicate with your little zombie.  This was originally not in English, so some of the dialogue may be a bit odd.  Also, you will get new messages each time your zombie boy grows (Meaning the Zombie Gauge fills completely, and the zombie features change).

     The 'Diary' feature shows you every form of zombie you have unlocked through feeding and growing your zombie.  Clicking on these allows you to browse all the text conversations available with that form.  It will also tell you the percentage of chat text unlocked from that form.  Getting 100 percent doesn't actually do anything special.

     Also in the diary you can see the endings you have unlocked.  there are three all together.  The game is over when you get the last ending which is the 'True' ending.  this ending actually explains a lot more about what is going on in this story.  Though even with this information, it doesn't feel like a really deep and meaningful plot.

     The last part of the diary features the secret content which is just images of different zombie forms.  You can unlock an image by using 150 zombie food to unlock it.  Considering how many times you have to hunt to get that, and all you get is one image, it doesn't feel worth it.  Though the best part of this app is the art, so maybe it is.

     I want to briefly hit on the Settings button because there is an issue I have with it.  Here you can turn the sound effects or music off or change how loud they are.  The music works fine but if you turn the sound effects off, it plays them at the loudest volume.  In fact you can't actually turn them off at all.  You can turn them to a volume of 1, but that's it.  The off function seems to be poorly coded, so it doesn't work right.

     The Zombie Gauge can be viewed above your zombie boy.  When this is full he changes, adding a new set of conversation text and a new look.  Once you get your ending, restarting will take you down a slightly different path of zombie growth.

     You can also click the social network buttons on the gauge to post about the app on LINE or Twitter.

     Here is some of the art from the game...

     Another issue I have is that when the zombie boy becomes the white haired fellow, the woman you play says he is 'old and fat'... How is that character old and fat?  He is skinny as a pole!  Just seems needlessly rude...

     All in all the app is visually nice, and the music and sounds are good (Excluding the fact you can not turn the sounds off properly).  The idea is interesting but the story and conversation doesn't feel well written and the game isn't really fun to play.  The only fun part comes from unlocking new things and reading new story details as you progress.  The app also has a lot of ads that pop up randomly and often crash the app, which is a huge issue.  I won't be able to rate this very high due to all the issues and the lack of things to do in the app.

Rating: 2/5

• Free
• Seller: Chiharu Nakajima
• Category: Games
• Size: 35.9 MB
• Languages: English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese
• Copyright: © KaraponGames

Rated 9+ for the following: Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes and Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence