The PAX 2008 show floor was full of DS titles from many different developers. Some were simple ports or games tied in to console releases. Others were games made to stand on their own for Nintendo’s handheld console. While a good majority of these games were at Nintendo’s own booth, there were a few other notable titles scattered around the show:
Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ (Release date: Oct. 28, 2008)
Don’t ignore this game because of it’s long, silly-sounding name or the fact that Destineer is publishing it: Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ is a game that’s hard to hate if you’re a fan of retro gaming.
Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ might just be PAX’s greatest hidden gem. Developed by Enjoy Up and Gammick Entertainment, the game’s story centers around Little Red Riding Hood and her friend Momotaro saving the world of fairy tales from a zombie invasion. Why Little Red Riding Hood is friends with a character out of Japanese mythology, I’ll probably never know. But beyond the seemingly silly story is a game with pretty solid game play.
Zombie BBQ is a rail shooter on the DS set in a third-person view from up above your main characters. While forward movement is controlled automatically, you can move side-to-side and will have to do so to dodge enemies and their attacks. The enemies are a bit comically oversized and come at you in wave after wave, giving it a definite retro feel. As you progress through each level, you can pick up power-ups fro your weapons that will fire faster and/or do more damage. It’s like Destineer, Gammick and Enjoy Up have just backed a dump truck full of fun up to your house and are ready to unload it.
While Zombie BBQ isn’t perfect - the fact that it’s on rails is a small let-down, but far from a game killer - the story and actual game play aren’t too bad. This is definitely a DS title where you can let your mind go for a bit and just have a great time. Here’s hoping the game will be solid fun all the way through.
Bangai-O Spirits (Currently available)
The latest creation of legendary developer Treasure, Bangai-O Spirits is a very hard game to describe. There’s action, puzzles and plenty of shoot ‘em up action , all in one cartridge. It’s hard to describe unless you play it for yourself.
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