Play As An Overall-Wearing Arrow-Slinging Pumpkin In Shoot the Zombirds
Shoot The Zombirds ($0.99) by Infinite Dreams Inc. features a mix of the two most popular tropes in the App Store - zombies and birds, in a game that brings Halloween to the month of May.
That’s right, this is a completely Halloween themed game, with gravestones, crows, pumpkins, and haunted houses. Luckily, Zombirds is endearingly cute with its overall-wearing pumpkin main character, so it can get away with being a holiday-themed app.
In the game, the evil zombie birds fly through the sky with abandon, capturing helpless pumpkins. It’s your job, as a bow-and-arrow wielding pumpkin man, to shoot them from the sky.
To shoot, you tap and hold anywhere on the screen, and then drag your finger down to set the power of your shot, and sideways to aim. These controls feel backwards at first because it’s natural to swipe upwards rather than downwards in a game like this, but it becomes second nature in just a few rounds.
Each time you shoot, you lose an arrow, so it’s important not to miss. If you run out of arrows it’s game over, but when you manage to snag a zombird, you get an arrow back. You can gather up multiple arrows if you nail two birds with a single arrow.
When you miss a zombird and it reaches the right side of the screen, it will kidnap one of the pumpkins, aka Pumpkids. If you lose all the Pumpkids the game will end.
Occasionally, when you shoot a zombird down, a skull will appear. If you manage to shoot the skull out of the sky, you’ll earn gold coins, which are used to buy upgrades (more Pumpkids and arrows), one time use power ups, and new characters.
You will have a series of goals to complete, such as shooting a certain number of zombirds out of the sky or scoring a set number of points.
Zombie birds will fly at different speeds and come in different sizes, so it can be a challenge to shoot them down before they escape, but it’s a fun game even when you lose.
Despite its out of season theme and its use of two oversaturated character types, Shoot the Zombirds is one of the better shooting games that I’ve played. It’s a lot like Duck Hunt with zombies.
My favorite part? The graphics. The Pumpkids are adorable, and the zombirds look fantastically disgusting, with bones and body parts hanging out. I loved the sound effects too, from the arrow shooter’s cute quips and to the Pumpkids’ squealing.
If you’re looking for a fun and easy game this week, I’d suggest Shoot the Zombirds. It’s a great casual title and it’s a steal at just $0.99.
