iHooy (iPhone) Review

Brutal Gamer goes zombie mashing.

Zombies are kind of a big thing in gaming at the moment.  There’s a lot of undead slaying available to pick up these days, and iHooy is another game which involves zombie crushing, but with a bit of a twist.

You play the role of a guy at the controls of a defence device with the aim of crushing the exploding zombies, or ‘bombies’, from getting through the walls of the town, at the same time as saving civilians from them.  Zombies are destroyed by pressing the crusher buttons as they pass over a big red X, whereas civilians are saved by opening trapdoors for them to fall through.

The game is quite fun initially, as you wait for bombies to come down the screen for you to smash.  However, things start to fall apart when having to save civilians and crush zombies as well, as the controls become fiddly and slow to react, making progression through the game frustratingly annoying and difficult.

There’s a couple of game modes.  There’s your standard campaign mode, where you have an aim to each level, such as survive a certain number of waves of zombies or protect your fort for a certain length of time.  There is also a survival style mode with the aim of getting as many points as you can and keep the fort intact for as long as possible.

This could have been a good game, and in theory it is, but the execution is so poor that it just doesn’t work.  It’s a shame, because the initial levels when you just crush the zombies are fun, but the addition of the civilians just messes things up.  In addition, the somewhat basic art style and annoying sound just add to the frustration of the game.

FINAL THOUGHTS
iHooy is basically a game that sounds fun on paper, but is so poorly executed that it isn’t really worth spending the pennies on it.  The controls are unresponsive, it looks cobbled together and is really only enjoyable for about 10 minutes.  The game is being touted as Metal Gear Solid meets Guitar Hero, and quite frankly is nothing like either.  One to avoid, I’m afraid.

Related posts:

1. Canabalt (iPhone) Review Brutal Gamer’s first ever iPhone/iPod Touch review. It’s quite easy...
2. Resident Evil 5 (PC) Review I’m confused about this multi-platform trend. If a game is...
3. Fort Zombie coming this Autumn One of the most interesting zombie titles coming this year....
4. Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360) Review Brutal Gamer’s review of Left 4 Dead 2 on the...
5. Fifa ’10 (Xbox 360) Review Brutal Gamer’s review of Fifa ’10. Fifa ’10 is the...

News