GAMES Review – Regular Show: Killer Z’s

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Starting off the new year nice and strong, gave myself a few character building resolutions, was able to write some of my own personal scripts and was able to get plenty of much needed sleep. My favorite dreams while sleeping are always the weird one’s. The one’s that even if you suck at remembering dreams these stick in your mind. I once had a dream where my entire house was filled with animals doing everyday human stuff, ironing clothing, eating toast and showering. I can’t say though I’ve ever had a dream where I took a mystical amulet and start blasting all my friends, who have become monsters, into purple goo. Not that I wanted a dream like that but here’s Killer Z’s to show us what that dream entails.

The contextual story is just like I said, Mordecai gets whooped by Rigby playing their favorite game, and while staying up to practice he falls asleep. There he dreams his friends have become monsters, Rigby being the final boss, and he dons a mystical amulet to beat the 11 levels to fight the evil tyrannical Rigby. The controls are your basic ‘WASD’ variety, adding also your mouse as you aim and shoot all the baddies that try to kill you.

Now I have to first say that this is a long game for a web based flash game. 11 levels in all, and all designed beautifully complimenting the aesthetic of the game and show as well as complimenting games in general. The explosions of goo, the pixel design, the vibrant hit count as you hit your enemy with each blast, it all serves to put you in this state of old school run and gun platforming in the same lane as Contra.

However while playing I wasn’t feeling like I was having a lot of fun. I couldn’t understand why at first. The controls are fluent. The design and aesthetics of the game was top notch. Basically everything that I want from a web based game was in this game. But what watered down that enthusiasm? The sound design. Now granted, I know being a web based game they don’t really have a lot of funds to go extensive with the sound work but, again, this is a long game and throughout it you’ll be hearing the same 30 second loop of the two musical scores over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over until you’re just plain sick of it. And, speaking from personal experience here, sporting a good ol’headache.

And speaking of poor sound design, the firing of your weapon, the amulet, sounds like the most generic firing sound effect possible. It makes the weapon have such little impact behind it that there’s a disconnect between the sound and the unbelievable carnage it causes. This may sound like just needless nitpicking of the game but I’m just here to state what I thought about the game. I still feel the game, as a whole is a great play. A TON of effort went into it and it really shows, except for the ending level… that was half assed. So, I guess what I’m saying is even though I’m going to just give the game an average score it should definitely be played if you’re at all interested. It definitely won’t put you to sleep.
Score:number-solid-6-204x204 number-full-stopnumber-solid-5-204x204

About Taylor Wyatt

Taylor Wyatt is a 24-year-old writer and producer. He has gone through the Toronto Film School for TV and Film Writing to develop his production and writing skills, implementing them into several independent film projects, music videos, and short film anthologies. He is also the co-owner of the online production company ToonGrin.com and the host of the animated review show Cartoon Corner.