Quick and painless review: there are zombies; you're not a zombie; kill all the zombies that want to eat you.

User Rating: 7.6 | Touch the Dead DS
Aside from this banal concept, the remaining game is very playable in this form. The overall experience is much less an FPS - as you would think it is - and plays much more like 'House of the Dead', light-gun style. The main player has no control over the character movement, as you're incessantly guided down long corridors that all look grossly familiar. Often, swarms of ten or larger will flood the screen, lurching or running as the pacing dictates. The game handles this deftly, with ner' a lag or hiccup, but there is one HELL of a difficulty spike after the first part of the first level. I started on medium and had to go back on easy - not something I'm prone to doing. I have, however turned the sound off- there's three samples of zombie screams, which, strangely enough, sound like pitched variations of my grandpap hawking up a loogie. On top of that, I've heard better gun noises after granny breaks out the baked beans at a family picnic.

As far as controls go: again, very simplistic. Aiming and shooting takes a few minutes, but is otherwise very logical and works well. The touch-drag-and-drop for ammo reload concept often wastes time, though, as shots are fired off to the side of the screen (or you continue to shoot an unloaded weapon while swearing at the DS) leaving the player wide open for a royal trouncing. Multi-player is as it does: local wi-fi is seamless, but, man, would I love me some online! Minimal bonus features also have that strapped-on feel.

All in all, this gives what it should: frenetic pacing allowing players to shoot zombies with minimal storyline. To boot, it's pocket sized, and on the same system Mario and the good Princess have graced. For a developer that hasn't published anything big yet (as much as I love any game with 'Nutz' in the title...), this is a great stab into gaming. Worth the thirty dollar investment for zombie fans, 20-25 for the rest.