Zombie Rollerz: The Last Ship Switch Review

This is the zombie apocalypse, and you are trapped inside your massive vehicle called The Ark, though this isn’t as horrible as it may seem. The Ark isn't a regular ship: it's ready to be upgraded to become a deadly zombie-killing weapon. There's nothing wrong with just running the enemy over, aside from the fact that it'll damage your vehicle, making it undrivable. Welcome to Zombie Rollerz: The Last Ship.

As soon as we begin, the game shows you the basic controls so you know how to pilot the ship you are commandeering. No intro to start, it gets right down to the important stuff! Zombie Rollerz has you battling against waves of zombies, although they aren’t scary; they are actually quite adorable! Defeat enemies and blow up structures to acquire parts and weapons to install on your ride to help you survive in this apocalypse. 

If you have played this game on Steam before, you know exactly what you are in for. The main difference with it being on the Nintendo Switch is that now you have a portable way to play Zombie Rollerz if you don’t have the Steam Deck. 

Zombie Rollerz: The Last Ship looks and sounds great on the Switch 2; the colours are vibrant and popping off the screen with upbeat, catchy music. The framerate is set to 60fps, so it’s nice and smooth. No matter how many enemies were on the screen, it never felt like it was lagging or stuttering while I was playing.  

When you go to play a level, you can change the difficulty between Normal, Hard, or Hell; the harder it is, the better the rewards you can get. The Hard setting has a 125% score multiplier, and the zombies have that much more health and deal that much damage, too. Then the Hell setting is a 200% multiplier, but the zombies have 300% more health and deal 200% damage. If you have played it before, the highest score that you have achieved is displayed, ready for you to try again and beat it. 

Each of the stages has a different amount of time the player needs to survive in order to complete it. Desert Caldera is easy; it’s only five minutes, but Poison Fields requires you to stay alive for 10 minutes. Traditionally, zombies are portrayed as slow-walking, groaning monsters, so surviving for that long seems easy. Don’t forget the sheer amount of waves of cute enemies coming at you; there are also other hazards like clouds of poison gas and incoming storms to avoid. When you are surrounded, it doesn’t take much time for the zombies to deal serious damage to your ship, ending your run.   

Your ship has six available slots to unlock to place weapons. There are a variety of different turrets that you can mount on your ship, ranging from a Machine Gun that fires quickly, a Cannon that is slow but deals more damage, or one of my favourites, the Disco Ball. This turret shoots a disco ball that makes all the enemies in the area dance. Since they are busy busting a move, you can easily launch your attack. The bonus is that the enemy looks super silly when they are boogieing. All these weapons fire automatically when placed on the ship, so your main challenge is to drive around and avoid the incoming attacks.

If your ship is destroyed, your run is over, and you will need to attempt it again, though you unlock trinkets and gadgets on the Unload Road, which rewards you based on your performance. If you progress far enough, slots for additional turrets will be opened so more weapons can be placed on The Ark. Every attempt makes your vehicle stronger, so it will get a bit easier to fight off all the zombies on your next try.

While playing, Zombie Rollerz: The Last Ship feels like a blend of a bullet hell title, a roguelike, and a tower defence, making it an addictive and sometimes chaotic experience. Your main tasks are to collect resources to fortify your ship, so that you can drive over anything that gets in your way, and build turrets to mount on The Ark, making it a driveable, zombie-destroying machine. The longer that you survive, the stronger the enemies become, but the weapons and items that you pick up also deal more damage, so you need to be strategic when you upgrade your ship to ensure your success.

Zombie Rollerz: The Last Ship is an addictive, cartoony title that is full of personality. The humour is great, and there is a huge collection of stuff to unlock; it will keep you busy for a long time. If you are a fan of survival, shoot ‘em up titles, or tower defence games, you will surely find a lot to love here. Plus, what other game lets you use a disco ball to distract your foes and make them dance? It’s so silly and fun and is great to play on the Switch or Switch 2!