Platform: iOS

Developer: Playforge Games LLC

Publisher: Playforge Games LLC

Release Date: June 13th, 2013

Genre: Collectable Card Game (CCG), Strategy

Nerd Rating: 5.5 out of 10!

Continuing my review of Playforge Games LLC’s mobile Zombie Farm series, today I bring you free spin-off collectable card game, Zombie Farm Battles. Out of the entire Zombie Farm series, Zombie Farm Battles happens to be my favorite. The game takes obvious inspiration from similar iOS card games like Square Enix’s Guardian Cross, predecessor to Deadman’s Cross.

The actual single player questing of Zombie Farm Battles is very basic and boring, as you simply tap to move your leader card on a path while running into enemies and grabbing treasure. However boring this questing may be however, it is essential to gaining money and cards to improve your team for PVP (player vs. player.) There are ten different worlds with five levels each in which you will quest, and they have an interesting amount of variety ranging from reoccurring franchise villian Old Mcdonnell’s Farm to Pixel Castle and Ice Cream Land. The biggest problem with the questing is the fact that it is pretty glitchy. I have not been able to finish one level without it giving me an error message and booting me a few spaces back on the path. Though these glitches don’t effect you too much, they are a minor annoyance that could’ve been fixed by now.

The PVP of Zombie Farm Battles is pretty entertaining if only for the reason that you are fighting for spots on leaderboards and showing off your team. Playforge Games LLC creates many PVP events to keep the game’s community alive and to give them inspiration to play the PVP. Like many iOS games, Zombie Farm Battles playtime is limited by energy. Although the questing energy is okay for the most part, the PVP limit of three battles every twenty minutes is pretty annoying and a little overboard.

My favorite part of Zombie Farm Battles is the card themselves. The cards that you can receive in the game are interesting, funny, and pretty unique. I haven’t even come close to collecting all the cards in the game, by my favorites so far are definitely ninja boy, ninja girl, and 8-bit dragon. There is a total of 203 cards, so it will take quite a long time for players to run out of cards to collect.

Like the other games in the Zombie Farm series, the premium currency of Zombie Farm Battles is brains. However, unlike Zombie Farm 2, the brains in Zombie Farm Battles seem to be fairly priced and seem to be relatively close to the premium currency in other iOS titles. The cheapest pack of brains will get you 100 for $0.99, and the most expensive will get you 1100 for $9.99.

Perhaps the weakest part of Zombie Farm Battles is the annoying soundtrack, that is just a few notes repeating themselves with the occasional addition of unique instruments like the triangle and banjo. As with nearly every other game in the franchise, I can only recommend that you keep your volume off unless you are a masochist and enjoy suffering (or simply like the music.)

If I had to recommend a game from the Zombie Farm series, I would have to recommend this game as it is simply my favorite of them all. While not the most fun and not for everyone, Zombie Farm Battles gave me some enjoyment while I kept it on my device, and is the kindest to your wallet for sure. One thing I would love to see implemented into the game is possible card trading, as I have always preferred TCGs over CCGs.

I love this picture, haha!