Describe Zombie Panic in Wonderland.
Describe Zombie Panic in Wonderland, huh? Are you sure you can handle it? CAN YOU?
Okay then.
Not long before this game, there was a little-known gem crafted for the Nintendo DS called Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ, a quirky fairytale-themed shooter game that also revolved around a Zombie Apocalypse situation. Many of the people who developed that game went on to form another group, Akaoni, who would go on and develop this WiiWare Download game. While not a direct sequel, Zombie Panic carries everything that Zombie BBQ had from the DS to the Wii.
The game begins with Momotaro, a Japanese fairytale character, stopping by a quiet village that appears to be abandoned. However, he is quickly attacked by zombies, and the game’s story really begins. Along the way, Momotaro discovers that his friends (The monkey, pheasant, and dog) aren’t immune to the zombie virus and succumbed to the undead mayhem. Momotaro then sets off to find other survivors, the cause of this mess, and if he’s lucky, an antidote.
The gameplay of Zombie Panic is a fixed Third-Person Shooter, with the player (Or players) strafing along the foreground, shooting up the enemies assaulting from the rest of the scenery. By killing zombies and blowing up buildings, the player fills a “Cleanup” meter; once the meter reaches 100%, the player wins and advances to the next stage. It might sound simple in written form, but in practice, the game knows just how many zombies to throw at you; add in a timer, and each stage becomes a delightful little slice of chaos for you and a friend to enjoy.
Zombie Panic, upon its release, actually managed to impress some critics with its goofy charm, beautiful graphics (It’s easily the finest-looking WiiWare game available), catchy music, and chaotic gameplay. The only real downsides to the game were its short length, and that two of the three featured bosses were lackluster when compared to the first. Still, this game is an enjoyable title, and we get the feeling that it’ll end up becoming obscure. Life is like that.
Roughly one years later, the game received an Updated Re-release port for the iOS systems on March 1, 2011. And then 3 years after that, yet another updated rerelease came out on October 30, 2014 for the Nintendo 3DS. Just in time for Halloween!
The Happy Video Game Nerd took a brief look at the original WiiWare game here.
The Original WiiWare Version Provides Examples Of:
- Action Girl: Snow White and Dorothy. Plus Alice and Red Riding Hood.
- Adorable Evil Minions: Well, they’re not entirely evil, but the Dwarves are still carrying out the villain’s plan, whether they realize it or not. And they’re so adorable! <3
- All There on a Website: The Japanese official site includes a reason why the playable characters aren't affected by the epidemic.
- Amazon Brigade: Nearly all playable character are gun-toting girls.
- And I Must Scream: What the fate of many Wonderlanders must be. They’re unable to control their behavior while under the influence of Prince Charming’s perfume.
- Animesque: The game was developed by a Spanish company, but one look at the artwork and presentation would give some Otaku massive hard-ons.
- Anti-Villain: Again, Prince Charming. Everything about this guy is disappointing.
- Badass Adorable: Dorothy blows away zombie hordes, only to skip happily along the Yellow Brick Road afterward.
- Bad Santa: One of the enemies in the fifth stage is a zombie Santa. Apparently, no one is safe from the outbreak.
- Berserk Button: Snow White has zero tolerance for her husband’s shenanigans. Whoo-hoo, shenanigans!
- Big Freaking Gun: A heavy machine gun can be used to more damage, and it's large size is used to indicate it's not default machine gun when in use.
- Bindle Stick: Carried by Momotaro in the beginning of the game.
- Bullet Hell: More along the lines of “Stuff Being Thrown At You” Hell. No one in this game uses guns except for the player.
Which of course, begs the question of why monsters drop ammo and missiles. - Button Mashing: Thankfully averted. You only need to hold down the B Trigger to keep firing.
- Camp Gay: Prince Charming. Oh, so much much much. His flamboyant ensemble and exploding kisses invokes this trope, although he is married to Snow White.
- Clown-Car Grave: The Graveyard level has several zombies popping out of their graves.
- Cognizant Limbs: The first and second bosses.
- Crapsaccharine World: Aw, look at how adorable Dorothy is! And her little dog Toto rides around in her apron pocket, how cute! And she has a machine gun… which she uses to blow away zombies… including her friend the Tin Man… You know what, I’m gonna go cry now.
- Creepy Crows: Black birds start ambushing you in level 4 and beyond.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Momotaro, in one scene, is enamored by the presence of Snow White. Of course, no one can really blame him…
- Do Not Drop Your Weapon: The player. Kids love their guns, dincha know?
- Everything-Is-Smashable Area: The whole game works off this, as all the background can be smashed for point! And it's used an advertising point for later ports.
- Everything's Deader with Zombies: The title alone might be an indicator of this trope, but 99% of the enemies fought are the undead.
- Excuse Plot : So, Prince Charming, one day, feeling lonely, created a perfume that would make his entire kingdom love him again, only for it to turn people into zombies instead. Whatever, we’re only here for the zombies anyway.
- Flash of Pain: This is present in the first game to show the zombies are being attacked, but later ports make flashing more obvious due to player feedback.
- Flying Seafood Special: The favored attacks of the Goddamned Bats.
- Fractured Fairytale: Fractured? Try annihilated.
- Ghost Town: Where the game’s story begins.
- Girls with Guns: Roughly half the reason anyone downloads the game.
- Girly Run: Prince Charming, given his flamboyant nature. Dorothy skips along the yellow brick road (and all other paths) after clearing an area, which is adorable.
- Gratuitous Ninja: If one were to watch the victory animations closely, Momo even does the Ninja Run in his.
- Hold the Line: Slight inversion: The gameplay involves your characters filling a “Cleanup Meter” before either time runs out or you are defeated.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Even though she’s taller than the other two main characters, Snow White is dwarfed by her hubby, Prince Charming.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Strangely averted. The zombies don't seem to want to eat you. They just wanna give you a great, big, bone-crushing hug. D’awwww!
- It Runs on Nonsensoleum: THE WHOLE GAME. The less you think about how everything works, the better.
- Jiggle Physics: Most noticeable with Snow White's victory pose.
- Marathon Level: The Shipyard level.
- Medieval European Fantasy: The last few levels, with some snow on top.
- Most Gamers Are Male: How else could you explain why Snow White is unashamedly SMOKING HOT?
- Ms. Fanservice: Snow White and Alice.
- Mythology Gag: Toto is tiny enough to be made into a decoration for Dorothy, Snow White wears a belt made of apples, and Momotaro’s friends (The monkey, pheasant, and dog) are a Tragic Monster. Red Riding Hood carries a small wolf doll in her apron, and Alice’s sash is lined with shrink/growth potions.
- Older Than They Look : Most of the playable characters may look quite young, but are actually in their teens.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Lives are depleted when the characters take a hit from anything from a tiny glowing pebble to a zombie's body.
- Personal Space Invader: Another way to view the amorous zombies.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Literally, there are Red and Blue Oni as enemies in this game. They even have Red and Blue Skeletons, so I guess Zombie Panic has the whole set.
- Don't forget, the group that made this is aka oni, and their logo is a red oni.
- Rewarding Vandalism: The game heavily encourages this with the clean up bar. That increases whenever destruction happens, contrary to its name.
- Ring Menu: The character select menu is presented like this, with new characters greyed out until they're unlocked.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Momotaro wears a pink one in his default outfit.
- Secret Character: Alice from Alice in Wonderland and Little Red Riding Hood.
- Secret Level: The Shipyard. Well, not really a secret, since it can be found on the Arcade select screen.
- Series Mascot: Given that he also appeared in this game as well as its DS prequel/relative/spiritual predecessor, Momotaro could be considered this, although he looks different.
- Shoto Clone : Dorothy, Alice, Little Red Riding Hood all seem to move and sound similar to each other.
- Small Girl, Big Gun: Dorothy’s gun is nearly as big as she is!
- Spiritual Successor: To Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ. Not surprising, since many of the people who developed BBQ developed this game too.
- The One Guy: Momotaro, when compared to the rest of the playable characters.
- Third-Person Seductress: Snow White AGAIN!
- Third-Person Shooter: Of the fixed variety. It plays along the same lines as Cabal, Blood Bros or Wild Guns.
- Took a Level in Badass: When was the last time any of these characters stomped so much ass?
- Tragic Monster: The first two bosses.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Again, Prince Charming and Snow White. I’m sensing a theme here.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: If you’ve seen the Disney movie or read the original story, Snow White is a young woman of sweet, unassuming nature. In Zombie Panic, her introduction scene involves her punching out a guard because he wouldn’t allow her to enter her own castle.
- Voice Grunting: There is barely any voice acting, only zombie moans and character damage noises.
- Wicked Witch: Oddly enough, she’s missing in action. In a game featuring The Wizard of Oz and Snow White, you at least half-expected a Wicked Witch to pop up sooner or later.
- Later played straight in ports, where levels based off The Wizard of Oz are designed to be much more faithful to their origins. Witches come in by tornadoes it seems.
- World of Action Girls: Aside from Momotaro, the playable ensemble are ladies.
- Your Head A-Splode: One of the methods for offing the zombies is to shoot their heads until they explode. The explosion is tiny though.
- Zombie Gait: Unless it's one of the general glowing rock-throwing zombies, they tend to avert this trope with jumps, cartwheels, dashes and so on.
The iOS/Android Port adds the following tropes:
- An Asskicking Christmas: iOS Update 2.3note gives the levels and the main three characters a Christmas themed makeover.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Giant zombie caterpillars of the new Alice in Wonderland levels.
- Cheshire Cat Grin: Looks like the infamous cat and other cats like him succumbed to the epidemic.
- Fastball Special: Not only Prince Charming kicks zombie dwarves, the new boss Red Queen hurls a chained, short, crowned man at the hero in play.
- Funny Afro: The Tin Man is revealed to have a purple one when shooting off his hat.
- Impossibly-Low Neckline: Alice had some case of this in the first game, but a fair amount of the main girls' (Dorothy and Snow's) costumes exhibit this trope.
- Improvised Clothes: Snow, how the heck are you using tiny octopi as a swim suit?
- Maniac Monkeys: There were some zombie monkeys in the original, but their numbers here has increased.
- Mrs. Fanservice: Snow White was already one in the original iteration, but the downloadable costumes can really show off her figure.
- Phallic Weapon: Erm, the Tin Man received a new move involving shooting rockets out from between his legs...or at least an area very very close to that.
- Spinventory: The in-app purchase items are presented with this.
- Stripperiffic: Most of the costumes for the girls fall under this.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Snow and Prince Charming are the Huge Guy, Tiny Girl of the game, but now the fat and huge Red Queen and her tiny husband have come into play.
- Trailers Always Spoil: It's no secret that Prince Charming's the one behind all of the zombies due to the teasers and artwork for the ports.
- Under the Sea: The Survival Level is now a scrolling adventure through the sea!
- The Wonderland: Added in the 2.0 update and included in the Android port.
The DX edition of the Nintendo 3DS updates and adds the following tropes:
- Down the Rabbit Hole: In Alice's introduction scene, she was chasing a zombified rabbit that leads everyone down a hole into the kookier part of Wonderland.
- Fan Disservice: The tubby and cruel Queen of Hearts after being knocked off of the card towers, will break into dance with exposed legs and panties.
- Retcon: The Alice in Wonderland bonus levels? They're part of the plot now so Alice joins the team!
- Some cutscenes were edited to take place in the areas of the refurbished levels, particularly the Wizard of Oz ones.
- Victory Pose: This was present in the iOS port, but are now more explicit with the new end of level result screens.
- Badass Armfold: Momotaro pulls one off in his screen.
