‘Zombie Slayer Diox’ Review

Game Rant‘s Riley Little reviews Zombie Slayer Diox on the 3DS.

Late last month, the Nintendo 3DS eShop began selling UFO Interactive‘s Zombie Slayer Diox. The downloadable game attempts to give gamers a Rock Band-esque experience with a zombie twist, and the end result is a game that’ll fail to impress fans of either genre. The game is more like a rhythm game that happens to feature zombies, and even during the frantic zombie slashing you can’t help but feel stupefied over how tedious and superfluous this mash-up really is.

Players take on the role of a rocker/samurai named Diox who just so happens to look almost identical to Thor the God of Thunder. He may not have the power to launch lightning bolts, but he is able to shred a mean guitar solo — an irreplaceable skill during a zombie apocalypse. Diox is on a quest to find a magical guitar amp that’s capable of wiping out the zombie hordes, and he’ll use his guitar to bust out some mad beats and slaughter zombies when they get too close. This sets up the mechanics used in the actual gameplay.

Zombie Slayer Diox focuses on leading flesh-eating mindless husks at Diox, all of which charge at the protagonist in sync with the beat of the music. Players will use a combination of the touchscreen and D-Pad to slash up the zombies, and score points that add to their main score. There are four differently colored zombies, and each button on the D-Pad activates a certain color. For example: red zombies require either a vertical or horizontal slash, along with the corresponding button in order to net points for mutilating the infected civilian.

On paper the premise sounds interesting, and it’s one that may have worked if it had been executed properly. Instead, after getting into the rhythm, all players will be looking at is the colored bubbles floating above the zombies’ heads, and the undead are quickly an afterthought. It doesn’t help that the songs being played are brand-less guitar rifts and listening to the tunes present in Zombie Slayer Diox quickly become irritating. If the developer had sprung for licensed music then the experience would have been significantly more enjoyable.

After playing through a handful of levels, Diox will occasionally run into a boss. These areas may change the ongoing action on the top screen during a play session, but other than that they’re identical to every other generic level — aside from a mild spike in difficulty. Fortunately, the game has three different difficulty options which tend to make the gameplay a little more interesting and even more exciting for a small amount of time. Once you adjust to the faster pace and challenge of the ‘Hard’ difficulty, however, the game quickly falls back into mediocrity.

If you’re hungry for eShop content on your 3DS then avoid dropping the money on Zombie Slayer Diox. There was a lot of potential in the basic concept, but the intended premise was lost in translation. The 3D effects and graphics are laughable, the gameplay is boring, and the lack of licensed music makes it a chore to listen to the soundtrack – an unforgivable misstep for a music rhythm game. Save the $5.99 you would have spent on this game and put it towards something that’ll bring you more enjoyment.

Follow me on Twitter @TheRileyLittle.

Zombie Slayer Diox is available now for the Nintendo 3DS.