Indie Corner: Grandpa and the Zombies

Welcome to our review of Grandpa and the Zombies, a crazy little puzzler on Nintendo Switch.Grandpa Willy’s brain might not be the freshest anymore, but he’s not ready to surrender it to the zombies anytime soon! If only the brakes would function on his wheelchair… Brace yourself for crazy puzzle fun and help Willy to safely navigate through the zombie apocalypse.

Just after waking up in a hospital, Grandpa Willy quickly realizes that there’s something fishy going on and that the world has changed. There’s no time to ask questions though since the zombies are already pounding on the door. “Grandpa and the Zombies” is a fast-paced trip through 120 levels and four different worlds, which shows that you can also survive a zombie invasion in a wheelchair. The levels are filled to the brim with the craziest undead that make Grandpa Willy’s escape that much harder including stinky Burping Bob or Lifting Leah the Forklift of Evil. Some of the undead can even be really helpful if you know how to interact with them.

Reaching the elevator is the way to clear the level but by no means is this an easy game. Originally released on smartphone and currently available for free on mobile, it is now seeing release on Nintendo Switch at 8,99 as its price point.

Every few levels at first, new game mechanics are introduced, adding to the difficulty of the game. Mind you that getting the three candies, that is not your everyday task in most levels, you really need to think about most of them, you will get caught by the evil zombies before you know it.

Among those zombies, some are not harmful to Grandpa and you need to know how to maneuver those around too, so you can bump them and use them to be able to slide through a certain corridor on your way to rescue.

This is a fun game, though clearly a game made for mobile. I consider this a good port though, it brings a fun game mechanic with a hilarious presentation. Nothing beats destroying one of the zombies or roughly escaping its clutches. It does have some minor annoyances, like not being able to speed up the sliding of the wheelchair. I would love that function, the wait, how small it may be, for every NPC on screen to also complete the same slide… it gets a little boring.

As the game is built up in worlds, you need to be sure to grab the 3 candies, which is a nice way to force you to grab those too and not just go for the elevator. Sure, you can go there, but it will sooner or later block you from advancing. A nice little trick to go all out.

In conclusion, Grandpa and the Zombies is a little too expensive for my liking. At this price point, you are better off waiting for a discount. At which point you will enjoy the game a little more!

6.5/10

Tested on Nintendo Switch