Review: Pirates Vs Ninjas Vs Zombies Vs Pandas - What's In A Name?
by Staff Writer
December 11, 2010
Overview
An all out battle is commencing of Pirates vs Ninjas vs Zombies vs Pandas with everyone in the firing line at one point or another. It’s the newest physics based puzzler similar to Angry Birds, but the war is on a much bigger scale than simply birds and pigs. There are four chapters of the war that begins with everyone vs pandas, then everyone vs pirates, on to everyone vs ninja, and finally everyone vs zombies.
In each chapter there is a primary group battling while being helped with a few members of the other groups. It’s mainly pirates vs pandas, then zombies vs pirates, then pandas vs ninjas though each of the other groups provides special members to help.
Features
There are 45 levels in total with 15 in the first chapter, and ten each in the remaining chapters. Every level is scored based on three stars, and Game Center is included for online high scores and achievements. There are eight special characters including farting panda, bomb dropping rotting zombie, and chopping ninja.
The Good
The game has a good idea behind it, and a great theme combining so many things, and high on comedy. The art style and sound effects contribute to the humorous nature of the game, that doesn’t try to be taken seriously, and just sets out to be fun. The familiar launching objects at structure gameplay is included so you know what you’re getting from that.
There are a few minor additions that improve the overall experience and challenge. Many levels have friends you can’t destroy or you’ll lose, and the shot meter lets you manipulate power and direction extremely easily as well as identifying your last shot. There are a number of characters with special abilities that are quite unique, and you can switch what character is next to launch rather than going in a specific order.
The Bad
You want to like the game simply from the name and theme, but there are a number of problems with the game. When you complete a level the game saves, and there is a considerable wait to move on to the next level or even replay the current level for a better score. You expect to jump right back into the action, but the wait times really drag down the whole experience.
The game crashes from time to time when ever you go back to the level select rather than just tapping next. Trying to scroll through the levels, and picking a different one causes the game to crash as tested on a fourth gen iPod Touch. After launching a character the game automatically zooms in to show the destruction up close, but it doesn’t zoom back out, and just trying to manually zoom can cause firing another shot by accident.
You have to hold your shot for a few seconds, and aim very high for the game to zoom back out to actually see where you’re firing. Most of the structure is out of the screen after the first shot zooms in. Another minor concern is that the physics engine isn’t the best out there, and some times the structures don’t respond accurately to your shot like you’ve come to expect if you’ve played Angry Birds.
You never know how well you did on the three star scale until the level is over, but then you have to wait for the save to be able to replay. The included sound effects try to be humorous, but are so repetitive that they’re just annoying. Also the 45 levels go by relatively quickly especially in comparison to the number of levels in Angry Birds or Trucks and Skulls.
The Verdict
Pirates vs Ninjas vs Zombies vs Pandas looks good on the surface with the theme and physics puzzle style, but falls flat when playing. There are a number of problems included, that by themselves aren’t major, but when added together really hamper the game. The game has a nice style, but gameplay is king, and it’s lacking in this game, and there is more frustration than enjoyment.
Pirates vs Ninjas vs Zombies vs Pandas is not worth picking up with tons of more enjoyable games available.
