Releasing last October, Zombie Tycoon was one of the first Playstation Network “Minis” made available to the public.  PSN Minis are a collection of games that can be downloaded and played on either the PS3 or the PSP and are smaller than 100Mb in size.  Minis generally offer short, fun and easy-to-pick-up experiences that are light on the wallet.  Priced at $4.99, Zombie Tycoon is one of the more original experiences you’ll find and we here at ComicsOnline thought we’d take a good hard look at a game we, and you, might have missed previously.
 

You’re placed in the shoes of a megalomaniac scientist who has just created a serum that animates the dead and turns living flesh into walking corpses.  When the serum fails on your assistant Ernest, you decide to take it yourself, becoming the first zombie.  Now, playing as different mad scientist, you use the same serum to create hordes of the undead in an attempt to take over the world.  By world, I mean the nine stages/cities that gradually get larger and more difficult as you go, with each one introduced by some decent animation and witty banter between the scientist and the ogre-like Ernest.

Gameplay

With “tycoon” in the title, you’d think you’d be commanding towns or cities worth of zombie squads attacking the masses of humanity, but you would have been misled.  At most there are only three squads separated by colors and limited to eight undead minions each.  Controlling them is even easier.  The face buttons correspond to different colors of brains and each colored zombie follows that type: i.e. the green squad chases green brains.  Drop any type of brain and the corresponding zombie will chase it down, destroying anything the brain touches.  Pressing the X button drops all three colored brains, sending everyone to that point.

As the Zombies destroy buildings, livestock and people they drop icons that represent defense, attack and speed modifications. Once acquired, you can outfit your squads with the various hats, shirts, rolling pins, pencils, bicycle tires, bunny slippers and many other items that not only change stats for your zombies, but change the way they look. For such a small game, it’s awesome having so many options.  Seeing your zombie destroy a building with a fish in one hand and a bike tire shield in the other is pretty funny to watch.

Despite the robust amount of equipment and clothing options present here, the core gameplay is extremely basic and doesn’t evolve throughout its three to four hour playtime.  There’s not much anyone could expect from zombie intelligence but the AI present here leaves much to be desired.  While your squads of undead are destroying an object or building, they will completely ignore anything that is attacking them. A single civilian can decimate your squads if you’re not paying attention.  On top of that, it’s easy to lose your entire horde to a pitfall when they head in a completely different direction than the one you anticipated. These elements combined can make for some frustration during the later levels.

Audio/Video

Given that Zombie Tycoon is a Mini and is about 55 Mb is size, there’s not much you can expect from the graphics.  With that said, it looks about as rough as an original PSone game.  The story portions at the beginning of each level feature some pretty cool character designs and the interactions between Ernest and your mad scientist are worth watching.  Other than the constant groaning of the undead and the sound of stuff breaking, there’s not much to Zombie Tycoon’s soundtrack.  It features the same base heavy tune for all of the levels, but it’s a memorable one that works here.

Overall

With zombie games coming out frequently these days, I can safely say that I have never played anything like Zombie Tycoon before.  Its fun to watch your horde, outfitted with a bunch of silly gear, rampage through the cities.  Despite its originality, the AI makes it hard to keep yourself from occasionally getting frustrated.  It’s worth the price, but it could definitely use a few tweaks.
 
ComicsOnline gives Zombie Tycoon 3.5 out of 5 ruling brain eaters.
 
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