Zombies are awesome; everyone knows that. So, logically speaking, Burn Zombie Burn should have a significant advantage over its PSN peers - and in a stylistic sense, it does. Playing out like a cross between Geometry Wars, Dead Rising and The Evil Dead, Burn Zombie Burn is an ode to ’70s & ’80s horror B-movies, with a healthy dose of humour and sass thrown in. However, the oft-times rudimentary gameplay doesn’t always match the strong presentation and sense of humour.

Burn Zombie Burn is an arena-based shooter, where you must slay hordes of the undead with a variety of weapons to rack up high scores. You play a chiselled caricature with a resemblance to Bruce Campbell and a healthy selection of quips to hand, who has a worryingly efficient penchant for mass zombie genocide. You always begin equipped with a revolver (replete with infinite ammo) and a burning torch with which to set alight the undead, and throughout each arena are scattered more collectible weapons such as flame-throwers, machine guns and baseball bats. Two out of three modes concern lasting against waves of the undead - one timed, the other free-for-all, while the third mode tasks you with protecting your girlfriend Daisy in your car as the undead converge on her.

Your character (let’s just call him ‘Ash’ for ease) handles well, and has both a speed and agility advantage over the hordes of zombies. R1 handles your primary weapon (firearm) while R2 is for using your torch, and L1 aims at the nearest enemies while L2 allows you to strafe while facing one direction. Weapons can be picked up in specific points around the map, and a lot of the fun comes from the various weapons developers doublesix included, and their use in dispatching the undead - for example, suicidal bomber zombies can’t be hit from up close otherwise you’ll take damage from their blast, and some zombies wield dustbin lid shields, meaning you’ll need another means to take them down, such as dynamite or preferably a lawnmower. These varied enemies and the ways to take them down are the best thing about the game - leading a bomber into a group of burning zombies so they all blow up is consistently great - so it’s a bit of a shame that there’s only really a few different types of zombie and there weren’t efforts to mix things up a little more frequently.

The six environments you find yourself in are pretty much the typical horror B-movie locations - the likes of a graveyard, suburbia and a laboratory. These areas are essentially rectangular spaces with fences to break them up, and you have to survive as long as possible while zombies come from all angles, while you rack up high scores for killing them. It seems like something of a waste that the developers didn’t make the environments a bit more varied or interesting - other than setting alight to items like wooden fences or hitting a bonus switch when you gain a multiplier, there’s not really a lot you can do with them. Options like the ability to lead zombies into traps or more open and developed environments would have really helped break up the monotony of the fact you’re essentially just moving around holding L1 and tapping R1 thousands of times.

The game is at its most interesting when you bring tactics into it. Shooting regular zombies will occasionally net you dynamite which can be used to kill lots at once, if you time the explosion right. However, burning zombies move faster and cause you more damage but they will drop better items, allowing you to upgrade your explosives. It’s this balancing act which grants the game a lot of its chaotic enjoyment - you can simply blast through using Ash’s regular revolver if you want, but if you’re chasing the big scores (and the trophies that naturally come with them) you’ll need to get those zombies burning and make use of the simple but effective tactics available.

Burn Zombie Burn has really strong presentation, with nice, chunky visuals, and a collection of appropriate ditties playing over the background. There can be several dozen zombies on screen (often all on fire) and the frame rate never struggles. The animation of the undead is pretty well done; for the most part they are the typical Romero slow, dumb monsters, but survive long enough and you’ll see them pirouetting while wearing tutus, headbutting zombies who charge at you and giant foes many times your size, who can only be felled with efficient use of TNT. One thrilling weapon which makes all close-by zombies dance along with a very ’80s-sounding pop track is a particular highlight.

If Burn Zombie Burn was half its price it would be a good investment, as it has a lot of laughs - particularly in the decent two-player mode - and a strong style and presentation, but at £6.29 (or $9.99) it’s a little on the expensive side. After a slew of twin-stick shooters in the wake of Geometry Wars it falls to captivating gameplay to really make a title stand out, and Burn Zombie Burn feels a little too generic and repetitive to really make an impact on PSN. If you’re a zombie freak and really like the sub-genre then this might be worth an investment, but for the rest of us there’s not really a great deal here that will pull us away from Super Stardust HD, Flower or PixelJunk.