Stubbs The Zombie Review
Claribel Szwaja
Stuart is a seasoned reviewer, games writer, and author who also makes comics, videos, and podcasts. You can hear him regularly on Retronauts and his book, All Games Are Good, examines the games that nobody else writes about.
As someone unfamiliar with the original release and can only judge what I see by today's standards, it sure does look like a 3/10-quality game. Probably one that's only going to be for those who have nostalgia for it.
Yeah, this has been one of the more puzzling remasters. This game wasn't particularly good back in the day. The only reason why it had any modicum of success was it hit right when zombies started coming back into the public consciousness in a big way.
i will get back to this some point. it's okay in terms of it's gameplay. IMO, the game is more of a 6/10 than a 3/10 though.
i do agree that at A.I. isn't that great, and so far from what i've played, the story... isn't that interesting or great to say the least.
I still have the disc with PC version. The game wasn't very good back then (I've managed to power through it thanks to fun localization) and it baffles me it was released on Switch AND even shown in Direct.
As far as fun horror games from that time period are concerned, I wouldn't mind Ghost Master released on Switch, preferably with a sequel backed by Nintendo.
This game was pretty novel back when it was first released. I have friends who constantly bring it up in their "personal favorites" list. When this was shown in the Direct I immediately texted them and they were very pleased as most of them have stored their OG XBOX. This game is totally a nostalgia bomb and as such was a good choice to show on the Direct as it built hype with those fans.
That's why I'm not liking the new direction Directs have gone recently. We don't need long explanations of games like this, or the dodgeball one, or the DC comics one. It should be a quick sizzle reel and that's it. First party exclusives, high quality triple AAA third party titles and high quality indie titles are the only games that should get their own segments.
I can't figure out why this was in a Direct at all. They had half a dozen mini nindie shovelware directs to dispense with this stuff. Why did it make it into a real direct? At least they could have spent that time on something that mattered like MH, SMT, Rune Factory that wasn't even there, Disgaia that wasn't even there.....
I was never aware of this gaming having "cult classic" status in the first place. It's one of those remasters that seemed to come out of nowhere with pretty much no demand. It's like I vaguely remember seeing this game back in the day but even back when this game was new it didn't standout to me.
This game is interesting and tries something different than the gun toting hero.
It's like when the people told Lanning that Abe should have a gun, but then abe would solve all problems with the gun!
Same reason the kid in Heart of Darkness gets his gun taken, guns are an easy and somewhat lazy way of making an action game.
While I do agree that this seems like it's aged terribly, so has Mario 64 and plenty of people, including this very site, are still praising that game to kingdom come. A baffling double standard, to be sure.
@TheAwesomeBowser shhhhh, don't point out the double standards.
Goldeneye 64 could release as a straight port and would still be awarded 10's, despite how truly horrible it is to go back and play now.
@Grandiajet I totally agree with this and have mentioned it in other threads. It devalues the directs and Nintendo's role as curator of enjoyable content. Honestly, it feels like they are getting paid to include things in directs at this point. This may just be my jaded nature talking but the directs are starting to feel more like commercials where space goes to the highest bidder. The older format directs felt a lot more personal.
@Saint_Link Oh on! You're on to me. I'm under mind control from Nintendo Life. They are, after all, the only site to critically pan the game. And I personally have all the time and money in the world to play every video game.
I love this game. I'll get this for my switch if limited run releases a physical edition. I'm sure the game will look, and play fine in handheld mode. I know better then to play this on a 65" inch 4k tv and examine the games 20 year old graphics.
@Grandiajet You do know that it's a hard to find Xbox game. Keep your fanboy-ing to yourself and sorry that is not Bayonetta 3 or Metroid Prime 4 news. I guess you need to go to patience and gratefulness school.
Been playing through it, only a few levels left. Loved it so far, really fun, absolutely HILARIOUS. an f-ing great game, but I never played the original, so I did not have anything to base it on, also I loved how it still looks like it is from 2005. definitely not for all tastes though.
@The_FastLife The company aspyr, (the people who did the remaster) are going to release a super expensive special collectors edition, that comes with a special stubbs head statue, lighter, gut grenade plush, the soundtrack, a few other goodies, and the physical copy of the game
Genuinely one of the worst games I've ever played. It's extremely rare that I don't finish a game because it's that bad but I couldn't bring myself to complete this game. The novelty and enjoyment lasts for about 15 minutes and then it's gone. The entire game is a repetitive, joyless slog without a single redeeming feature.
There are many games from the past few generations that are remembered with a degree of fondness. There were other games that were entertaining for about a weekend, but were quickly forgotten. Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse, originally released by developer Wideload in 2005, is one of those games that falls into the latter category. When a re-release was announced earlier this year, I couldn't think of a single person who asked for one. And, after playing it for a full weekend, I'm sorry to say that there's a lot about Stubbs the Zombie that didn't age well.
The one major element of Stubbs the Zombie that sticks out is its setting. Players are taken to the city of Punchbowl. It's a futuristic town with guide robots and hover cars, but it's one that's basically stuck in a 1950s timewarp. Stubbs just randomly shows up one day, hungry for brains. Don't think too hard about how he wound up there. The idea is just to start munching on human heads. It might take a while, given that the tutorial is painfully slow.
The majority of Stubbs is simply running around and eating people. Some won't resist, others will put up a big fight. But there isn't a lot of variety when it comes to objectives. Move forward, eat brains, move some more, eat some more brains. It's fun for about a minute, but it gets repetitive fast, which I'll discuss momentarily.
The action is broken up with some primitive cutscenes and, as ugly as the visuals are in this game, at least the cinematics are good for some laughs. The sight gags and the one-liners from the various citizens, as well as the police officers and the militias, are pretty funny in a B-movie kind of way. Stubbs' story isn't aiming for high art, it's aiming for a few good laughs. The absurdity of the dialogue nails that, as the story is mainly about people reacting to the presence of this awkward zombie with a gaping pancreatic wound.
The downside of the Stubbs visual style is that a majority of the game is presented through a grainy 1950s film filter. It's ugly as sin and even if the film filter is turned off in the Options menu, it offers little improvement. Stubbs looked so painfully dated that I seriously wondered if something was wrong with my Switch.
As amusing as the cutscenes are, they eventually end and then you're reminded of what a painfully mediocre experience Stubbs the Zombie is from a gameplay standpoint. If humans try and resist, the idea is to strike them directly. The number of hits it takes to subdue them in order to eat their brains varies depending on the enemy and it's largely inconsistent due to the game's poor hit detection. Stubbs has a flatulence attack that can stun foes, but it's hard to tell how far it actually reaches. Ditto for Stubbs' other attacks, which include tossing his pancreas as a grenade and bowling his head at groups of enemies.
There's a cool idea in place in that any fallen enemies will rise again as zombie allies. Stubbs can whistle in their direction to get them to follow him. Again, that idea is undone by an inability to tell how far the whistle reaches and how many allies can be called over. Where this mechanic fails is that it's often really hard to tell who's a zombie ally and who's an enemy. Considering that portions of the stage won't open up until all enemies are defeated, this becomes aggravating fast.
Speaking of the stage opening up, Stubbs' stages are vast portions of the Punchbowl utopia and its surroundings. It can be easy to make a wrong turn and suddenly go down the same path you were going before. Unfortunately, this game doesn't offer a map, a radar, or anything to help you know where you're going. Much of this game is spent going in circles, unintentionally backtracking, or frantically searching for the one last enemy to help you progress forward. The combat is already monotonous, but this makes the moment-to-moment gameplay feel so much worse.
The best thing Stubbs has going for it is that some of the boss battles are genuinely clever. For example, the Punchbowl police station is supposed to end with a fight against the police chief, but he wants a dance-off. That leads to a dance battle between a balding police chief and an undead zombie breakdancing to 1950s doo-wop oldies. It's one of the funniest moments in the game and if there were more moments like this, Stubbs would really stand out.
Video game rental venues like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video were in their twilight when Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse originally released. I say that because Stubbs feels like it was made for a weekend rental. There isn't a lot to it, it's not really made for longer play sessions, and the story only goes a few hours. There aren't any collectibles or really any incentive whatsoever to go back to it once it's over.
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