Stubbs The Zombie Songs

[Ortiz Ullery]

Stubbs the Zombie was a very neat release from 2005. In a world populated by zombie media, movies, games, etc, Stubbs came along and through a wrench in the zombie game formula by adding comedy, a neat setting, and instead of killing the zombies, you ARE the zombie.

You play as Stubbs, formerly known as Edward Stubbs, an entrepreneur from the early 1900's who unfortunately met his fate in a rather...precarious situation. He rises from his grave during 1950's America in a city built for the future. It has floating cars, robots, lasers, all of that cool future tech that we still don't have most of today! Well, it's all about to be ruined.

Stubbs's adventure leads him through several parts of the city as he goes to exact his revenge. The game runs on the same engine that Halo 2 was built upon and it shows. You control Stubbs in a third person perspective, beating up cops, and other baddies with basic Melee attacks to start with. Once you kill an enemy with Stubbs, they will shortly rise as a zombie companion that will fight by your side! When they kill others, they too create more zombies for your horde. Granted these zombies are much dumber than Stubbs and don't have the staying power he does, but they pack a punch in numbers. Like zombies! Another big aspect is brain eating, which can be done once an enemy is stunned or if attack from the air or from behind. Eating brains refills your health, your power ups that you get, and is a quick way of dealing with enemies. Not all enemies are susceptible to this though so think wisely.

Throughout the game, you get several 'power ups' that help you dispatch your enemies and these add variety to the gameplay. You get things like a flatulence blast which stuns enemies allowing for quick brain eating, a gut grenade, and even

removing your hand to mind control different enemies, allowing you to use their firearm as a weapon! These are recharged as you eat brains and they add a good amount of variety to the game's combat since the standard Melee attacks would get old quick.

The controls are fairly straight forward. You control Stubbs with the left stick, camera with the right, and all of the other buttons perform your different actions. Since it runs on the Halo engine, it actually feels a lot like that in control, well, except for the zombie part. This carries into controlling the different vehicles you can use throughout the game, which further adds to combat variety. Despite being a zombie, Stubbs does manage to control well except in jumping, which sometimes can feel floaty and imprecise.

The story is very cliche intentionally with a ton of random humor thrown into the dialogue and the world. The humor here is actually really effective which is hard to achieve in a video game and it will have you laughing at several points. The humor involving the futuristic aspects of the city are also well done.

The game also features a co op mode where you play through the story with another person, who plays as a zombie that looks eerily similar to Stubbs but is a different entrepreneur entirely. While this mode is basic, I actually found it quite fun as it basically doubles the carnage you can cause. Granted it definitely makes the game easier but that's what the harder difficulties are for.

Another great aspect that was unexpected for me was the wonderful soundtrack. It features many wonderful songs that belong in the timeframe that the game takes place, with classic songs and remixed versions of those songs. Yeah, the soundtrack surprised me greatly and it was one of the best for that year.

My only real complaint other than some of the simplistic aspects of the combat is the length of the game itself. The game is rather short and can be beaten in only a few or even a couple of

Stubbs the Zombie is an excellent game that is only really held back by its length and lack of modes. While the basic combat isn't entirely engaging the zombie creating aspect and the different power ups at your disposal make the game satisfying to play through. The humor is an added bonus as it is done very well and will have you laughing at several points, the game definitely doesn't take itself too seriously. The voice acting is good too and supports the humor. The co op mode helps add to the replayability but it is local only. If you can look past the shortness of the game, I say it is well worth having in your collection and it is a game I would love to see get a sequel.

Not a total surprise, as the original halo CE was supposed to be a 3rd person game. This is further evidenced by the development log bungie has since released on it, and the reason why you cannot see your legs in the original.

I have this game. The main aspect of YOU being the Zombie, was what made me enjoy the game. It was a really fun game having a different perspective as being the zombie, instead of hunting the zombies. This game is also a rather rare Xbox game.

I'd like to see a modern game like this, where you play as the zombie. I Know you can play as a zombie in LEft 4 Dead Multiplayer....but I mean playing as the main character, and not just a mob.

Thanks for that review! I had no idea this game existed, i should get it right away sounds like a lot of mindless fun. Because converting others into followers in real time sounds great. Is the game on PC?

It is on PC and that might be the only way to experience this game as the Xbox version is quite expensive nowadays, last time I checked. The game was downloadable on the Xbox 360 a long while ago but it has since been removed which is a complete shame. This game was a gem on that console gen despite its length.

Interestingly enough, before Stubbs the Zombie was released, there was a game featured in the Xbox 360 launch guide that focused on this very mechanic and it apparently was going to take a more serious approach with it. I cannot remember the name and there was only one screenshot of it but the game was apparently canceled long ago. This concept of 'you are the zombie' needs to be explored more!

I have a friend who is a fan of anti-hero games of carnage, and he loves Stubbs! There's another game similar to this, called destroy all humans.. in which you play an alien bent on world domination. anyway, great review! very accurate.

Festering hordes of shambling undead monsters may not seem like a good subject for music but zombies have inspired many great songs. While thousands of songs have been written about the undead, most are about death, the afterlife and revenge. Zombies, on the other hand, have inspired love ballads, protest songs and pop hits. It seems that musicians have found the shambling hordes to be quite adaptable as subject matter.

The song has become a major hit in geek circles. It was included in the game Left 4 Dead 2 as an Easter egg. Cycle through the songs on a jukebox in the game and it will eventually land on Re: Your Brains.

The Cranberries berate the leaders causing the troubles, comparing their mindlessness to zombies, hence the title of the song. Still, given how incompetent the military is portrayed in zombie genre stories, this song could be applied to the forces in World War Z or the Governor in the Walking Dead.

No zombie song list could be complete without the pop masterpiece that is Thriller. One of the biggest hits in the history of recorded music, Thriller is an excellent song in its own right, but the spoken word part and epic 14 minute music video make it the epitome of all zombie-based music. It took a choreography genius like Michael Jackson to make the dead dance and have it look good but they have become an inedible part of popular culture. Even today, people around the world still dance as zombies. You can see it in America or as far away as a prison in the Philippines.

As mild as this song seems today, back when it was released, it drew some criticism for its horror imagery and content. No matter how happy or harmless we try to make the undead seem, they still find a way to terrify us.

Despite its inventive ideas and more humorous take on horror, it just became thought of as an obscure gem. Now, fifteen years after its initial release, we see original North American publishers Aspyr put in the time to bring this monster of the past back to life and bring it into the modern world. The results are less than impressive.

Stubbs was originally built for the Xbox on the Halo engine and was a point of reference for the original marketing. Set in a satirical take on the 1950s city of the future, you are a suddenly reanimated zombie awoken during the official grand opening of the city of Punchbowl, Pennsylvania. The game more or less just tells you to go ahead and have fun with the concept of being the returned dead, giving you a slowly growing, if small, set of abilities to cause havoc with and letting you loose. It feels as though this could have been a concept transposed to a more open-world formula a few years down the line, but here you are playing a linear series of sequences that tell a relatively thin yet still slightly entertaining story.

The original release of Stubbs featured a really great and inventive soundtrack made up of covers of classic 50s songs covered by then-modern indie bands. Covers of Lollipop by Ben Kweller, My Boyfriends Back by The Raveonettes, and If I Only Had A Brain by The Flaming Lips and several other really fun and entertaining songs that used to be featured from the moment you booted up the game.

Now maybe this is due to a legal loophole, maybe they were left in the form they were without permission, or maybe they just got stripped out of the main game by mistake, but this just makes encountering the songs a bizarre moment and the situation in general maddening.

The breaks in these stages come with a handful of one-off moments. One stage sees you able to take control of a hover tank, controlling much like the vehicles did in the original Halo with duel sticks movement, that you can use to mow down people or take potshots at with a cannon. Another scripted sequence sees you forced to use your arm to possess a police officer and free Stubbs from containment. The first boss battle you encounter is where those previously mentioned songs make a comeback as, entirely out of the blue, a character challenges you to a dance-off. The whole battle is a poorly implemented rhythm action game. As a fan of rhythm titles, this was initially a pleasant inclusion, especially with the returning music, but the game has very poor input registration when pushing buttons with any semblance of timing. This turned an entertaining aside into another in a long line of unbearable chores.

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