If you do not already know, the Mayan calendar stops counting days on December 21, 2012. In honor of the impending end of the world, we here at New Gamer Nation have decided that we will attempt to appease the Mayan Gods. To do so, New Gamer Nation will post a review of a zombie game every month, publishing it shortly after the 21st of each month. If the gods are successfully appeased, there will be a December 22nd article. For us, zombies are symbolic of the apocalypse. So in honor of our attempt to appease the Mayan Gods, our first review is Zombie Gunship.
Zombie Gunship is developed by Limbic Software and is exclusive to the iOS platform. Zombie Gunship is a single-player 
game that has two playable boards with only one goal, and that is to save humans by protecting them from evil zombies. Doing so will earn the player precious gold coins. In the game, humans are depicted as white bodies while zombies are the solid black bodies moving across the level. In addition to zombies, there are giant monsters to deal with as well. The humans are trying to reach the safe house while zombies/monsters are trying to raid it, so all the action is directed at one point on the map. The player’s job is to use one of three different weapons to kill the creatures before they breach the safe house. You can choose the 105 MM Howitzer, which is the strongest gun. Use this for killing hordes of zombies over a larger radius, and it can also be used to inflict extra damage on those pesky monsters. But beware, this gun’s large radius can lead to human collateral damage. Next up for weapons (and a personal favorite) is the 40 MM Bofors gun. This weapon can also kill a horde of creatures but the blast radius is smaller, making it less likely for a player to kill humans. You may find a situation while scrolling across the screen where a zombie is slowly killing a human. There might be a chance to save them if you use the 25 MM Gatling gun, which is the last weapon available in the game. It provides pinpoint accuracy while limiting collateral damage.
The coins collected from zombies killed and humans saved can be used to upgrade the efficiency of weapons, although there are a few other options that players may want to consider when they are spending their coins. Defensive options are 
available to players, such as a bunker bomb defense system or increase radar visibility. Both of these defensive upgrades can prove vital when the going gets tough. Once your weapons are fully upgraded, players can purchase other upgrades such as more bounty per killed zombie, or a chance to lengthen the game by allowing you to kill more humans.
The controls are easy to master and can be learned relatively quickly. Thankfully the player does not control the flight path of the aircraft – the gunship will slowly rotate in a counter clockwise manner. Not having to focus on the flight of the aircraft frees up a player’s finger for more important tasks, such as the aiming scope. When engaging the scope, players can move their finger across the screen to find the zombies. Once a zombie is found, players hit the fire button on the lower left hand side of the screen. The player can cycle through the weapons with their free hand, allowing for a simple and efficient control scheme.
This game is a lot of fun, and you are challenged with an increasing number of zombies as the level progresses. Furthermore, the ability to purchase extras to strengthen a player’s fighting ability lengthens the gameplay. A bunker
defender or increased radar visibility helps stretch out a game that only has two playable levels. One would think that a game with two boards would get boring quickly, but that is not the case. The game finds a way to stay fresh with its fast-
paced gameplay and interesting concept. In addition, there is always the urge to get the best human save score possible.
Unfortunately, the game’s soundtrack leaves something to be desired. There is no music at all and very few sound effects. All the player hears is the constant background noise of the engine of the plane. Every time a bullet leaves the chamber or when a bullet hits the ground, players will hear something, but that is about the extent of the sound effects, which is really unfortunate since we would have liked to experience a more extensive soundtrack and range of sound effects. The game could have been improved greatly by adding music in the background and more realistic sound effects. Furthermore, the game is only available for iOS users, and it would have been great if we could see Limbic Software expand their gaming variety to other mobile operating systems.
Overall, we believe that Zombie Gunship has solid gameplay, easy to learn controls, and lots of fun options to help players save more human lives. It more than makes up for the lack of a competent soundtrack and sound effects. We look forward to playing other Limbic Software titles in the future and we hope they expand upon this concept, since it has a lot of promise. This game is worth 7 saved humans out of 10.
Rating: 
This review is based on a retail copy of the iOS version of Zombie Gunship provided by Limbic Software