Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ review

A vertically scrolling shooter that mixes old-school arcade values with some real zombie splatter

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GamesRadar+ Verdict

Pros

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    Fun premise

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    Neat art design

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    Locational zombie damage

Cons

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    Crippled movement controls

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    Stupid weapon-swapping controls

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    Cheap close-spawns

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You really can’t help but be curious about a game called Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ. The questions just flood in. What kind of game is that? Are you really cooking zombies? Does Little Red Riding Hood have a tiny red minidress and a giant rack? And the answers are, in order: A vertically scrolling shooter; only when you’re using the flamethrower; and amazingly, yeah. They’re huge.

Fairy tale land has been invaded by the undead. And for some reason it’s up to a strangely sexed-up Little Red Riding Hood and nearly identical-but-slightly-lamer second playable character Momotaro (a male ninja with an underpowered shuriken gun), to take care of the invasion.

So, the little girl who needed a woodsman to protect her from a single wild dog straps on shotgun, flamethrower and machine gun and sets out to blow endless waves of zombies into gibs, including her own zombified grandmother and a humongous, cybernetic, undead Pinocchio. No, we don’t know how a wooden puppet becomes a mechazombie either, but when he’s throwing his head at you in an attempt to drive his massive, spear-like nose through your intestines, that’s hardly the point. And don’t get us started on Santa.

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Gameplay itself is simple: Red stays at the bottom of the screen and walks forward, the bad guys erupting from the ground in front of her. You touch the screen anywhere you want her to unload with her machine gun. If she runs out of bullets, momentarily lifting the stylus from the screen reloads, and when you set it down again the carnage resumes. If she’s collected special ammo, she can double-tap to launch a grenade or touch the flamethrower or shotgun icons in the corners to equip those items in a pinch.

Eric Bratcher
Eric Bratcher
I was the founding Executive Editor/Editor in Chief here at GR, charged with making sure we published great stories every day without burning down the building or getting sued. Which isn't nearly as easy as you might imagine. I don't work for GR any longer, but I still come here - why wouldn't I? It's awesome. I'm a fairly average person who has nursed an above average love of video games since I first played Pong just over 30 years ago. I entered the games journalism world as a freelancer and have since been on staff at the magazines Next Generation and PSM before coming over to GamesRadar. Outside of gaming, I also love music (especially classic metal and hard rock), my lovely wife, my pet pig Bacon, Japanese monster movies, and my dented, now dearly departed '89 Ranger pickup truck. I pray sincerely. I cheer for the Bears, Bulls, and White Sox. And behind Tyler Nagata, I am probably the GR staffer least likely to get arrested... again.