Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse

In the same vein as last year's "Destroy All Humans" (also from THQ, but developed by Pandemic), Stubbs the Zombie is very much a one trick pony. Though there is a consistent vein of humour running throughout ever aspect of the game from the visuals to the soundtrack, the dialogue, and the gameplay itself, Stubbs does stuff a tad from repetitiveness.

A definite rent, the reason I cannot recommend this for everyone is because you really need to enjoy the B-Movie substance and Stubbs is short.

While Stubbs the Zombie is rambunctiously fun, the game engine is extremely dated. Stubbs the Zombie is riddled with clipping, questionable AI, and if you thought The Master Chief's jump was slow in Halo, Stubbs is even slower.

It's short and sometimes repetitive game play with limited multiplayer doesn't exactly ooze with replay value.

Thankfully, the game's humor and action overcomes the technical glitches. The brain-crunching animations are so much fun that, coupled with the peoples' cries for help, it's easy to get lost in Punchbowl, even as you realize that there's not much there.

It's a good game overall, but it does have a tendency to become quite repetitive, and the gameplay isn't exciting enough to propel this title into the must buy category.

It's a brief ride and the action can become repetitive, but the sharp humour keeps you smiling.

Packed full of limitations and issues, the sense of fun and destruction overcomes the majority of flaws on display.

Stubbs deserves to succeed, just to prove to publishers and retailers that new IPs and obscure ideas aren't something to fear. [Mar 2006, p.118]

Stubbs might be left craving a few more brains and he might have wished that he could have done a little bit more than just feast and fart, but I think that by the time Punchbowl and love have been conquered, Stubbs is reasonably satisfied with the second chance he was given for life and love.

Great style and shambling zombie hordes make for some terrific undead moments, but it's a shame there are only a few of them in the game.

What I like best about this entire game is the music. It is perfect for this game, as recent artists like Death Cab for Cutie, Cake, and the Flaming Lips, remix and redo old songs. Oranger redid the song called Mr. Sandman, and with the punk rock style, makes it seems like an instant classic all over again.

It's repetitive and lacks any kind of real long lasting game play. This is more of a game to play to pass a bit of time.

It's too short, too easy, way too repetitive, and the level design is left wanting.

As different, interesting and funny as Stubbs is, clunky controls are annoying, poor design and many dubious decisions are intolerable at market price and simply, an ordinary game is an ordinary game.

Honestly, the gameplay in Stubbs isn't bad. It's just not close to as cool as it ought to be.

Wideload has placed a welcome knee in the groin of the status quo, but by taking its subject too lightly it's also failed to turn an adventurous prototype into a durable production. [Christmas 2005, p.102]

If the thought of using noxious farts to temporarily disable mad mid-western farmers at Knobb Cheese Farm (where the password to get in is cornhole) has you laughing uncontrollably, then Stubbs the Zombie will keep you entertained from beginning to end (assuming your tendency to drool doesn't short out your controller).