Rock, Paper, Shotgun: The Pub Lunch Exegesis

Read: our finest words

Donate or subscribe

Revisit: a random post

Diablo 3, Is That You?

Buy classic PC games from Good Old Games, please.

Respond: to our gibberish

g : “one person every five posts judging by the mininova comment section.” on Questions: Your DRM Habits?
Micah : “I think the best question would be, "How many people bought a game because they were unable to pirate it."” on Questions: Your DRM Habits?
Micah : “If I let every program I ever installed to launch on startup and sit around eating 100MB of RAM whether I was using it or ...” on Questions: Your DRM Habits?
Hypocee : “You pay attention to find out the detailed results of your orders - 'Oh, when I have a carrier(?) with a PD destroyer (?) in ...” on Space! Battles! Gratuitousness!
Erlam : “'Arma2 is the world first shepherd sim : you have 5 sheep with you an you have to take care of them. “Oh, please do ...” on Wot I Think: Arma II

Discuss on the forum

Play: indie, mods and webgames

Browse: the mighty RPS archive

Boxhead: The Zombie Wars

Written by Kieron Gillen on March 26, 2008 at 11:41 pm.

Zombie! Zombie! Zombie!
Bouncing mails with Paul Barnett last night and Boxhead turns up in conversation. Now, I’d heard of it, but never played any of the series. Clearly, it prompted me and – lo! – it’s neat. Now, we’d be terribly behind the times linking to it now, but thankfully developer Sean Cooper has saved my indie cred by only releasing the latest version, Boxhead: The Zombie Wars a couple of weeks back. Phew. It’s basically a Robotron derived shooter with a splash of Tower Defence stuff. It’s had a splash of that previously, with walls and crates you can drop and similar, but now there’s turrets and walls and… well, it plays really quickly. There’s a mass of Zombies. There’s you. And then the screen is red. Go play!

And, yes, if you’re thinking the name rings a bell, it’s the Ex-Bullfrog Sean Cooper who you may know from things like Syndicate, Dungeon Keeper and Magic Carpet. And after being deep in the belly of EA, he’s clearly having a lot of fun with this. Or you have to presume he is, as he’s done five Boxheads in less than a year and a half.

__________________

Tags: Boxhead, Boxhead: The Zombie Wars, free, indie, Sean Cooper

__________________

« Warhammer Online: Autumn… No, Really | Marksmanship vs Censorship »

Jonathan says:

But the important question is left unasked. Does Manpuncher finally catch up with him?

March 27th, 2008 at 1:03 am

yutt says:

Wow, awesome to see this here. It is a very fun little game. Especially the Alamo-esque modes like “Welcome to HELL”.

I’m a long time RTS lurker, and oddly enough, I am one of the admin/developers of a site dedicated to zombie flash games… My friend and I work on it as a hobby, and we ended up in PC Gamer (US) last month, so we’re pretty proud of the site. ^_^

http://www.zombiegames.net/games/Boxhead-The-Zombie-Wars.html (semi-shameful plug)

March 27th, 2008 at 4:30 am

Optimaximal says:

Can you type ‘COOPER TEAM’ at any time to get all the power ups?

March 27th, 2008 at 8:50 am

Pwnzerfaust says:

It’s certainly a good way to waste a few hours that are better spent doing important homework assignments.

March 27th, 2008 at 9:02 am

Okami says:

Boxhead: More Rooms stole a large part of my productivity back then. Guess I’d better not click on that link..

March 27th, 2008 at 9:09 am

Andrew Doull says:

And in trivia news, a lot of the art from this game, particularly the larger tile designs, is actually free tile art from the Lost Garden.

March 27th, 2008 at 9:25 am

c-Row says:

Is it just me or does it take some seconds to shoot the pistol? Movement controls are fluid, but whenever I press the space bar, nothing happens at first, and by the time I have to get away from the zombies, the player finally shoots but hits nothing but dead air.

March 27th, 2008 at 10:14 am

Mike says:

Great game i think i got a score of about 36 million before giving up. Looking at the high score table some people have 36 billion so I feel quite self controlled today!

March 27th, 2008 at 12:12 pm

matt says:

Boxhead is so nice, i’ve been playing it a lot since i found it over at CrazyMonkeyGames, and it’s being developped into new versions even funnier, more creeps, more guns.. Pretty well done also.
Lots of people right now seem to be asking for coop mode, that’d be some fun too.

March 27th, 2008 at 1:34 pm

Cigol says:

It’s too easy to get stuck in your barricades. Wish someone would take these Zombie games and make a fully fleshed out version.

March 27th, 2008 at 6:02 pm

Dagda says:

It’s interesting how the gameplay evolves-from tensely thinning the enemy’s numbers to carving a swath through the masses to running around plopping down an expanded network of barricades and turrets until every last enemy is getting wiped out as soon as they set foot onscreen. Not necessarily fun all the way through, but neither does it ever quite break itself, so I have to respect that.

March 27th, 2008 at 7:15 pm

Jimi Hendrix says:

these games are simple yet fun, and better than some of the trash that gets sold these days!

March 29th, 2008 at 12:54 am

ian says:

lmao!!

June 5th, 2008 at 9:07 am

JoJO TheclowN says:

Well.. being an AVID zombie awareness peasant,… My arsenal which consists of nothing less than a .44 . 45. a 12G a 22, a 7.62×54 russian. 8mm Mauser, .22Lr. and M17s bullpup assaul rifle; with several hundred rounds in retainer for each respective weapon…. Yes, I do consider the day when I WILL have to mow down a few thousand Zombies in order to secure a well stocked fortress to stemm the finance my next wave of ZOmbie Slaughter… HEHEH!.. I found this game very VERY full of potential, and in all respects it is a wonderful basis for a more potent and longer lasting render that should be considered by the producer.. Short of which should consist of larger (extremely) larger levels. terrain such as urban and rural countryside settings. Old castles and whatnot to barricade and defend. perhaps a mall or small Anytown amerika town overrun with zombies. And a few vehicles would do wonders too. such as a dirt bike, and a jeep.. and a multiplayer COOP of up to like 10 players would be exquisite… however, the number of zombies would need to increase accordingly. And as far as the controls are concerned, I need to be able to run one way and shoot another, or at least, a button that allows me to stand in one place AND shoot in different directions- like Super Contra for the SNES allowed. Happy Hunting..!

November 23rd, 2008 at 8:52 am

Rock, Paper, Shotgun