I’d merely skimmed over the press release and was delighted I had. For about sixty seconds in to Brain Guzzler, the thrillingly bloody new game from Flaming Pumpkin, I had a revelation. ‘It’s Snake!’, I squealed aloud, to no one in particular. ‘It’s just like Snake!’ Suddenly I was fifteen again, grasping my Nokia 3330, eyes locked and focused, battling to stay spirit level even as the school bus rocked at crazy, highly dangerous angles. From then on, I was hooked on that classic. But how does this gruesome 2014 reiteration square up in the long run?
The concept behind ‘Brain Guzzler’ is slightly different to what we usually see in the popular zombie genre. Instead of Rick Grimes hunting down shitty zombies with his oversized hand-cannon, this time YOU play the undead. Your goal is to feast on as many humans as possible, creating as you go a cannibalistic conga line of reanimated allies which snake out behind you, following your every twist and turn. The puny humans scramble around in terror, and all you need do is run into them in order to consume and enslave. More than that, if they hit any of your collected undead, they’re toast too. Conversely, if you hit a wall, you’ll erupt in a fountain of blood, killing you further and ending the game. Various obstacles are thrown in your way (RVs, chickens, the army) which you must destroy, dodge or consume as applicable.
The character designs are cool and suitably cartoon-like, while the gameplay is remarkably smooth. This is a major plus, as a jerky reaction time could kill this game in the long term. Thankfully that’s not the case, and it handles very well indeed. There’s some nice touches in there too – the screaming victims for one, the humorous stage bosses, and the fact that you have to watch your player go through the same horrendous zombie transformation at the start of every level. The conga line can get REALLY huge as well, which can make for some intense scenes as you thread your undead through a throng of bad bastards in gas masks.
Which all makes for a hell of a good time really. This is certainly one of the better game apps I’ve encountered. Why no one has reinvented the classic Snake like this before is beyond me. Certainly, this particular spin on it is a little slice of creative genius, but the fundamentally addictive (or maybe it’s addictively fundamental) mechanic is there for the taking. The gruesome little number is well worth getting your teeth in to if you’re looking for an enslaving time killer this Halloween.
