As screenwriters toil to write fictional characters an audience can identify with, Sony Pictures Television is scheming to get you hooked before you enter the theater. The movie came out this month, but not before iZombieland let iPhone gamers slay the hungry undead as Woody Harrelson’s gunslinging protagonist, complete with duel pistols.
The app draws from scenes in the Zombieland film—at one point you’re swinging a banjo around a grocery store in search of Twinkies, for example. But don’t worry about plot spoiling, this game is first and foremost a marketing tool enticing you to boost ticket sales.
The game feels overpriced at $3.99. It’s graphics are repetitive and its gamplay is so linear it herds you like cattle through each level, offering you little choice in strategy besides killing as many zombies as the game allows before you can advance.
That said, the game has more controls than you’d expect, requiring the full and constant utilization of both thumbs to make it through even the first level. This could have been a nightmare if not for this app’s design. The buttons are so logically arranged that within seconds they become second nature—like you’ve been beheading zombies since childhood.
It also helps to know that you’ll get new weapons each level (pickaxes, chainsaws, shotguns, you name it) but sometimes that’s not enough. Sometimes you feel more like you’re watching a preview of the movie than participating in it.
In the end, you’re probably better off just saving the four bucks for a box of Junior Mints.
