Coins Vs Zombies Summer – a Bright & Bizarre Zombie Shooter Thingamajig
by Paul Wilks
Sep 1, 2011 2:48 PM –
Install
Coins vs Zombies Summer is an arcade-style amalgamation of: slot machine, fruit machine and umm… zombie shooter. Granted, it is a strange concept but the controls are simple and there are many bonuses to win. Add to this a kind of Summery beach/Hawaiian/surfer feel to the game design and you might begin to understand how tricky it would be to put the game into understandable words. Thankfully the pictures below should help a little for comprehending this fun yet completely bizarre game.
Price: Free
Tested on: HTC Desire HD
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Bright colorful graphics.
- Lots of bonuses.
- Easy to play.
Cons
- The shooting controls are frustrating.
- Extremely repetitive.
- Music becomes incredibly grating after a while.
- Shooting button is right above the adverts, meaning you hit the ad plenty of times.
Features:
Here we are with another Zombie game, this time the aim is to knock zombies off a rotating life-saver ring. You do this with coins, and if you hit the zombies those coins fall onto the shifting floor which eventually drops the coins back into your tray. It’s an odd concept, but the game is brightly colored and extremely easy to play.
You fire the coins by tapping the screen at the bottom, where the coin-shooting device-thingy is. The device swings from side to side and you have to hit it at the right moment to aim correctly. I did find this a bit annoying, as the game becomes more about timing than aim. The main thing you notice about the game is just how much is going on at the same time. You have to watch where the device is aiming when you fire your coins. You have to notice where the zombies are in order to hit them at the right moment. You have to time this right too so that the coins fall into the right place in order for them to be pushed. You also need to keep an eye on the fruit machine symbols at the back. As various goodies end up in the coin tray you’ll need to watch these and endeavor to make them drop. All these variables make the game more about pure luck than skill, which is quite frustrating. All the time this chirpy surf music is tinkling in the background…
You never quite know what is for the best. Is it better to miss the zombies and hit the fruit machine symbols? These symbols when aligned can give you rewards, so it’s difficult to fathom what is for the best. You keep hitting the zombies until their life bar runs down when they fall off/die. They eventually get replaced by other zombies, and you sometimes get notification that you have somehow ‘earned’ a new zombie to fire at. It just made me wonder what the aim of the game actually was. Subsequently the game becomes very repetitive very quickly and you don’t really feel like you make much in the way of progress.
In the game’s defense, the animated graphics are very good and has a 3 dimensional element to the game screen. There are ‘mysteries’ which you collect and ‘achievements’ to unlock, but there really isn’t any indication as to what these do. Rapid firing isn’t perhaps the best plan, even if it is more fun. Eventually you can run out of coins- they go behind or fall off the sides into the sea- and you have to wait for coin numbers to rise, I think this occurs after a certain period of time. You can, however, buy more coins, although why people would do that I’m unsure, it would genuinely be like throwing money in the sea. The game seems to be well developed by there is little understanding given to what things actually do, and why. Bright, detailed, quirky but baffling. :confused:
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Coins vs Zombies Summer – Zombies pass by on a rotating life ring
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Coins vs Zombies Summer – Looks like you are about to win a crucifix. Hhmm.
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Coins vs Zombies Summer – Do something right and the coins get cleared
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Coins vs Zombies Summer – Eventually your fruit machine gives you rewards
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Coins vs Zombies Summer – I unlocked a baby zombie
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Coins vs Zombies Summer – Mysteries and achievements to unlock
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Coins vs Zombies Summer – Start screen
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Coins vs Zombies Summer – Download other games to earn more coins
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Coins vs Zombies Summer – Option to buy coins
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Coins vs Zombies Summer – Shop
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Coins vs Zombies Summer – Instructions
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Coins vs Zombies Summer – Settings.
Fun Factor:
The game is actually lots of fun for the first 4 minutes, then you start to wonder exactly what is going on in the game and why. You also then run out of coins and realise it will be long slow wait watching pixelated zombies pass in front of you on a rotating life ring before you get more coins. You perhaps then need to look yourself in the mirror (or your front facing camera) and question if there is anything better you could be doing with your time…. like take Facebook pics! 
Addictive:
There are seemingly things to collect and unlock, so I imagine some people might grasp this concept and play it to death, but I personally didn’t find it remotely challenging or addictive. There was just nothing that really draws you back to the game. Each level just streams into the next so there is no sense of achievement, and you have little idea of how many levels there are.
Graphics:
The graphics are actually very good and look cute but cool. There is lots of things going on in the game, as listed above, and each action is well done graphically. There’s lots to watch, its just not clear what is important and what is just an elaborate effect.
Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:
The sound is pretty irritating. The zombies make sounds when you hit them, little bells ring occasionally and the fruit machine at the back makes various bleeps and noises. While this is all OK, the music grates like nails down a chalkboard. Its a kind of short surf/Hawaii/Spongebob number on loop which became so irritating I had to switch it off. Thankfully you can switch it off in the settings.