Dead Pixels

Please note that this is the rough draft for a review I wrote for BuyZombie.com. Please check out the final draft of the review here.


Dead Pixels is an interesting little game for Xbox Live or on the PC. It's a retro sidescroller with a pixel art style, which makes its name more than just a simple pun. More than just the art style is retro, however. It's a fairly classic side-scroller, much as you would often find back in the days of the old-school Nintendo Entertainment System, and much of the storyline fluff has a seriously groovy 70s vibe to it.

News

Well, I suppose it wouldn't kill me to give a state of the blog post. (For all zero of you regular readers.) I have been meaning to return to a once a week schedule, but money troubles have been getting int he way. It's a bit hard to worry about writing up a silly review on a personal, non-professional blog when you're having trouble making ends meet and pay the bills, despite having a full-time job + benefits. Freelancing has been slow. I have to find a way to promote myself better, and I am working on that. In the meantime, I'm debating whether or not I should try to resurrect the blog, or let it die. If I do resurrect it, should I keep it as it's been, or try and find a way to monetize it? I'd prefer not to do the latter, I hate ads, but I may have no choice. It's surprisingly hard to find a part-time job when you've got a full-time job and are looking for freelance work at the same time.
I've got a lot of thinking to do, but either way, expect to see changes around here soon. Hopefully for the better, but...

Dead Anyway

Please note that this is the rough draft for a review I wrote for BuyZombie.com. Please check out the final draft of the review here.

Dead Anyway: Stories From the Zombie Apocalypse is a collection of short zombie-themed stories in comic form. I believe the most apt word to apply to this book would be "potpourri." Fifteen artists contributed to this work, and each contribution is about as different from the rest as you can get.

Containment: The Zombie Puzzler

Please note that this is the rough draft for a review I wrote for BuyZombie.com. Please check out the final draft of the review here.

I never know what to do with self-explanitory titles. I mean, how do I explain it any further? "Containment: The Zombie Puzzler (on iPad and PC) is a puzzle game with zombies that you must contain." It's great for the developer/publisher, because they don't have to spend any extra time explaining the concept of the game. But reviewers like me who have delusions of cleverness no longer have anything to work with. Won't anyone think of the poor reviewers?

Zombie Bowl-O-Rama

Please note that this is the rough draft for a review I wrote for BuyZombie.com. Please check out the final draft of the review here.

Zombie Bowl-O-Rama... It's a casual game by Mumbo Jumbo about bowling. With zombies. That's not normally what you would consider two great tastes that taste great together. It's really quite... random. The "story" (such as it is) is that an asteroid FROM OUTER SPACE crashes into a graveyard and then suddenly zombies! The opening intro video and the main menu are actually probably my favorite parts of the game. They've got this great cheesy 50s sci-fi horror vibe that I quite dig.

The Walking Dead Episode 5.

Please note that this is the rough draft for a review I wrote for BuyZombie.com. Please check out the final draft of the review here. 

I'm just going to stay it right off the bat: The Walking Dead is my personal pick for game of the year, no contest. It is simply, in my opinion, easily one of the greatest adventure games ever made and one of the best games ever told by a video game. Episode five was the very satisfying conclusion to what has been one heck of an emotional trip into Robert Kirkman's world.
This will be my spoiler free-ish review. I may or may not write a spoiler-filled reflection on the game in a while, but for now, rest assured that if you haven't played the game yet, I will keep the spoilers to a minimum. Though I will say, right off the bat, that my severe acrophobia did not make playing this last episode any easier.

City of Horror

Please note that this is the rough draft for a review I wrote for BuyZombie.com. Please check out the final draft of the review here.

Regular readers will remember that the first game review I did for Buy Zombie was Mall of Horror. I recall having positive things to say about it. It was fun and strategic, though somewhat friendship-destroying. City of Horror is the... well, I'm not sure what to call it. It's its own game, so it's not an expansion or reprinting. Is it a sequel? Can board games even have sequels? The website boardgamegeek.com classifies it as a "reimplementation". I suppose that works better than anything I can think of.
Whatever it is, it takes the rules of Mall of Horror and then refines them, expands on them, and tweaks them in a few areas. This creates an experience that if you've played Mall of Horror will feel familiar, yet wholly distinct. If you've never played Mall of Horror, but you think you'd enjoy the kind of game where you feed your friends to zombies for fun and profit, then you're in for a special treat.