We’ve first got a glimpse of his story on Monster Dash . This time around, good ol Barry Steakfries is sent back to time for chunk full of adventures.

Age of Zombies (Universal – $2.99)

It seems as if Barry Steakfries is the most unfortunate iPhone character ever. After dealing with a running game, he’s now sent to a dual stick game. If Monster Dash is any indication though, his game will be just as good with dual stick action.

Presentation

Age of Zombies follows the same 16bit graphics displayed on Monster Dash. It’s a relief really to see retro looking games out of the many shiny 3D games out there. One of the bits this game really shines through is the soundtrack.

The game’s soundtrack is super awesome and is one I really don’t recommend to the kiddos. Why? Barry sure does swear a lot. I like this added touch, but I can understand why some parents are complaining. Other than this, the game is yet another hit from Halfbrick.

Controls

Even though the game is dual stick controlled, it still managed to come off pretty unique. How so? You can change the location of your “sticks” on the fly. Depending on where your left or right finger lands on the screen on either location, that’s where the stick magically pops up.

For powerups you can pick up throughout the levels, they’ll appear above the right stick to activate.

Gameplay

Barry Steakfries is sent through five different time periods in both survival and campaign modes, battling as you guessed it, zombies. The difficulty curve in terms of how many zombies are thrown at you and at what pace is higher than any other game we’ve seen (say Minigore).

There’s many classes of zombies from the stupid ones (and thus die easily), to some that are super powerful. Pickups are aplenty like typical grenades and guns. We wished they were as creative as the Monster Dash powerups though like the motorcycle one.

As with all of their other games, Age of Zombies is hooked up with both OpenFeint and Game Center for all your achievements and leaderboards needs. You can choose where to upload default, but both systems are in the game.

Suggestions

There should be an on and off button to the game’s expletive language. I know it’s not the studio’s faults some parents don’t really know how to be parents (even if the swearing is taken off, do you really want your 5 year olds killing zombies with guns), but just offer this option to remedy the iTunes reviews that complain about this.

The campaign mode is a bit flat. I think we can fix this by offering more interesting powerups throughout the game. Lastly (and I have to say it), retina display please.

Conclusion

Age of Zombies marks three out of three Halbrick releases where they’re all outstanding hits. With a couple more tweaks, this game may be the best of all their games. The studio has shown dedication in the past, and I’d doubt they won’t for this game all of a sudden. Pick this up now. iPhone and iPad versions for the price of one, why would you NOT want in?