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Zombie Gunship: A game Sarah Palin would love

Forget fighting zombies on the ground--that's a no-win proposition! Instead, sit in an AC-130 gunship and mow 'em down from the skies.

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida
2 min read
The screenshots don't do it justice. Zombie Gunship lets you rain down human justice from the skies.
The screenshots don't do it justice. Zombie Gunship lets you rain down human justice from the skies. Limbic Software

Fighting zombies on the ground is a sucker bet. I mean, they always outnumber you, and there's never enough ammo.

Plus, it's a level playing field, and that's the last thing you want when faced with relentless hordes of flesh-eaters. (Yes, I've thought this through.)

In Zombie Gunship, you take the high road--literally. You're the gunner for an AC-130 ground-attack aircraft. As the heavily armed weapon of undead destruction circles a bunker, you have to--make that get to--gun down the zombies before they reach the entrance.

Of course, humans are trying to get there, too, as it's the only safe place. So you can't just lay down fire willy-nilly; you must aim for the zombies and avoid hitting the humans.

And so the stage is set. Part of what makes Zombie Gunship such an interesting challenge is that your aircraft is constantly circling the bunker (albeit slowly), so your perspective is forever shifting. You don't get the muscle memory of "zombies that way, bunker that way," like with most tower-defense games.

What's more, you see everything through a motion-blurred, night-vision lens, giving the game a certain militaristic realism. It feels like something you'd see in Call of Duty (and, indeed, you can see where Zombie Gunship drew some inspiration).

Upgrades keep things lively. Each zombie you kill and human you save earns you coins, which you can use to upgrade your guns and buy bigger, better ones. There are a few extra upgrades as well, like more money per kill and a bunker-gate bomb that's automatically deployed--but only once per round--when the zombies get too close.

Which, eventually, they do, at which point you head to the upgrade store for more gear, then take to the skies again. Die, zombies, die!

Zombie Gunship is one of the best games I've played this year, and a bargain at 99 cents. The only thing missing is an iPad version, which would make gameplay a lot easier on my aging eyes.

By the way, if you love zombie-whompin' like I do, be sure to check out these other posts:

iPhone apps for a very zombie Christmas
5 iPhone games for zombie lovers (and haters)
Braaaains: 5 more iPhone games for zombie lovers/haters