Bringing classic gameplay mechanics into modern games is a trend that has seen a wide range of successes and failures. Pinball may be one of the oldest mechanics used for this purpose and one that has had some innovative implementations. Zombie Rollerz: Pinball Heroes isn’t the most direct manifestation of that classic game, but it does expand on the addictive qualities of bouncing balls and flashing lights to make something that’s pretty easy to get sucked into.
Abbreviated Review: https://youtu.be/-xJa9idibpY

At its core, the pinball mechanics of Zombie Rollerz are pretty enjoyable. While you’re not (necessarily) going for high scores or following an elaborate unlocking progression of point accumulation, you’re still paddling a ball around for the bulk of the gameplay. The distinction is that now you just happen to be smashing zombies to death with that ball – which is a very enjoyable experience.

Isolating just this, the pinball aspects are some of the best parts of the game. You can use the expected nature of the ball just hitting the zombies to do damage, but you can also trigger environmental effects like explosive boxes, whirling axes, and wells that blast water out onto certain areas of each arena. This design is rewarding in that it promotes the same sort of practiced aiming you’d get in a more traditional pinball game, but with a wide variety of effects. This alone would provide a unique enough platform to build out the game, but then the ball, support, and ultimate effects add a layer on top of it that gives it some of the depth it needs.

The numerous effects that unlock allow you to have a fairly unique loadout for each playthrough. The ball effects are skills that give your ball certain abilities or damage types such as fire, ice, and even launching little swords. These effects charge a meter that, once full, can be triggered for additional powers like launching daggers or giving your ball an AOE of flames. Similarly, support and ultimate skills you accumulate can be triggered for their own effects – though they don’t necessarily happen on the ball. For instance, one ultimate turns your paddles into literal machine guns to blast away at the zombie infestation. Support skills can vary between simply buffing up your pinball’s damage or shooting lightning bolts at enemies and everything in between.

All of this functions to create a dynamic and addictive experience when it comes to what you’ll be doing for most of the gameplay. However, it is still just a part of the overall progression within the game.

The rest of Zombie Rollerz’s gameplay orbits around a roguelike mechanic that has you venturing through four hex-grid maps. On this journey, you’ll be collecting and upgrading gear and picking up tools that make battling zombies and moving around the map easier. Making it through the various obstacles, random discoveries, and zombie encounters will level you up - giving you a chance to unlock more skills and upgrade the ones you currently have. It’s advantageous to explore every nook and cranny and fight every battle, but you’re going to risk potentially losing too much health and ending your run early.

As you move forward, you’ll have to defeat a boss at the end of each map before teleporting to the next. These are more elaborate battles than you normally face with other zombies and there is a significantly smaller focus on engaging with arena features. While they add some spice to the overall experience, they can feel a bit unfair if you happened to have a build of abilities that help you do direct damage.

However, their difficulty isn’t so high that it makes it impossible to finish a run. Once you’ve made it through the static cycle of only four maps, you’ll have one final boss to defeat to hit the end screen.

I didn’t really expect Zombie Rollerz to have a strong story, but I kind of expected to be able to find my way to an actual ending. After the 16 or so hours I’ve played as of writing this, I still have no idea what or where the ending is. I’ve unlocked all of the 11 characters and progressed through hundreds of levels on the “road” unlocking more abilities and trinkets, yet I’ve only seen a handful of the “endings” according to the collection pages. Each time you reach the end and defeat the final boss, a black screen of text describes a strange scenario with somewhat poor grammatical structure, and after a quick “The End” you’re back at the menu. With a story that’s already pretty difficult to follow given how broken up it is, this was pretty disappointing. I don’t really feel the motivation to play more without characters to unlock or any idea what is necessary to reach the ending.

While it is nice to have a variety of characters with different starting stats to try out, they don’t bring much to the table outside of tiny broken tidbits of information as to what the story is trying to convey. Each one is looking to accomplish something, but much of it seems unrelated despite always culminating in a rendezvous with a portal. The only part you can reference afterward is those same couple of sentences that scrawled across the end screen of each successful battle.

With this issue of an ending I can’t find and the repetition of the maps and arenas, it really takes away from what is a fun pinball-based adventure. If I could give a more middling score than “recommended” or “not recommended,” I definitely would. Yet, Zombie Rollerz: Pinball Heroes does present an otherwise well-crafted and mostly bug-free experience I enjoyed most of the way through, so I will have to lean toward recommended. It’s just frustrating to play a game without any idea of what it’s trying to convey to you or if you’re making any progress toward an eventual goal.

If you'd like to see more of my reviews, check out my curator page here: Endyo’s Indies, Abbreviated Reviews, and online at BagoGames

Bringing classic gameplay mechanics into modern games is a trend that has seen a wide range of successes and failures. Pinball may be one of the oldest mechanics used for this purpose and one that has had some innovative implementations. Zombie Rollerz: Pinball Heroes isn’t the most direct manifestation of that classic game, but it does expand on the addictive qualities of bouncing balls and flashing lights to make something that’s pretty easy to get sucked into. Abbreviated Review: https://youtu.be/-xJa9idibpY [h1] Pin those Balls [/h1] At its core, the pinball mechanics of Zombie Rollerz are pretty enjoyable. While you’re not (necessarily) going for high scores or following an elaborate unlocking progression of point accumulation, you’re still paddling a ball around for the bulk of the gameplay. The distinction is that now you just happen to be smashing zombies to death with that ball – which is a very enjoyable experience. Isolating just this, the pinball aspects are some of the best parts of the game. You can use the expected nature of the ball just hitting the zombies to do damage, but you can also trigger environmental effects like explosive boxes, whirling axes, and wells that blast water out onto certain areas of each arena. This design is rewarding in that it promotes the same sort of practiced aiming you’d get in a more traditional pinball game, but with a wide variety of effects. This alone would provide a unique enough platform to build out the game, but then the ball, support, and ultimate effects add a layer on top of it that gives it some of the depth it needs. The numerous effects that unlock allow you to have a fairly unique loadout for each playthrough. The ball effects are skills that give your ball certain abilities or damage types such as fire, ice, and even launching little swords. These effects charge a meter that, once full, can be triggered for additional powers like launching daggers or giving your ball an AOE of flames. Similarly, support and ultimate skills you accumulate can be triggered for their own effects – though they don’t necessarily happen on the ball. For instance, one ultimate turns your paddles into literal machine guns to blast away at the zombie infestation. Support skills can vary between simply buffing up your pinball’s damage or shooting lightning bolts at enemies and everything in between. All of this functions to create a dynamic and addictive experience when it comes to what you’ll be doing for most of the gameplay. However, it is still just a part of the overall progression within the game. [h1] Hex Hopping to Hell [/h1] The rest of Zombie Rollerz’s gameplay orbits around a roguelike mechanic that has you venturing through four hex-grid maps. On this journey, you’ll be collecting and upgrading gear and picking up tools that make battling zombies and moving around the map easier. Making it through the various obstacles, random discoveries, and zombie encounters will level you up - giving you a chance to unlock more skills and upgrade the ones you currently have. It’s advantageous to explore every nook and cranny and fight every battle, but you’re going to risk potentially losing too much health and ending your run early. As you move forward, you’ll have to defeat a boss at the end of each map before teleporting to the next. These are more elaborate battles than you normally face with other zombies and there is a significantly smaller focus on engaging with arena features. While they add some spice to the overall experience, they can feel a bit unfair if you happened to have a build of abilities that help you do direct damage. However, their difficulty isn’t so high that it makes it impossible to finish a run. Once you’ve made it through the static cycle of only four maps, you’ll have one final boss to defeat to hit the end screen. [h1]Bouncing back over and over again[/h1] I didn’t really expect Zombie Rollerz to have a strong story, but I kind of expected to be able to find my way to an actual ending. After the 16 or so hours I’ve played as of writing this, I still have no idea what or where the ending is. I’ve unlocked all of the 11 characters and progressed through hundreds of levels on the “road” unlocking more abilities and trinkets, yet I’ve only seen a handful of the “endings” according to the collection pages. Each time you reach the end and defeat the final boss, a black screen of text describes a strange scenario with somewhat poor grammatical structure, and after a quick “The End” you’re back at the menu. With a story that’s already pretty difficult to follow given how broken up it is, this was pretty disappointing. I don’t really feel the motivation to play more without characters to unlock or any idea what is necessary to reach the ending. While it is nice to have a variety of characters with different starting stats to try out, they don’t bring much to the table outside of tiny broken tidbits of information as to what the story is trying to convey. Each one is looking to accomplish something, but much of it seems unrelated despite always culminating in a rendezvous with a portal. The only part you can reference afterward is those same couple of sentences that scrawled across the end screen of each successful battle. With this issue of an ending I can’t find and the repetition of the maps and arenas, it really takes away from what is a fun pinball-based adventure. If I could give a more middling score than “recommended” or “not recommended,” I definitely would. Yet, Zombie Rollerz: Pinball Heroes does present an otherwise well-crafted and mostly bug-free experience I enjoyed most of the way through, so I will have to lean toward recommended. It’s just frustrating to play a game without any idea of what it’s trying to convey to you or if you’re making any progress toward an eventual goal. [quote] If you'd like to see more of my reviews, check out my curator page here: [url= http://store.steampowered.com/curator/28346672-Endyo-Gaming/]Endyo’s Indies[/url], [url= http://store.steampowered.com/curator/38271367/]Abbreviated Reviews[/url], and online at BagoGames[/quote]