It's got to be a hard unlife, being a zombie. They just want to live and let live, sort of; apart from eating the occasional brain, there's really no harm in them. For three teenage zombies - Lori "Lefty" Lopez, Finnigan "Fins" Magee and Zack "Half-Pipe" Boyd - the time has finally come to redress the balance - to show the world that zombies can have a part to play in a well-formed society. Indeed, now that the alien brain thingys have invaded, this intrepid band of three freshly-dead teens is perhaps our only hope.

Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys, as you may have already gathered, is something of a silly game. You control the three zombies, each of which has different strengths and weaknesses, and you must fight your way up through various platform-based levels until you eventually reach the aliens' mothership and the final confrontation with the big-brained boss. Along the way you'll kill and consume a large number of alien brain thingys, which boost your energy levels and keep you fighting fit (should that be unfit, given that these characters are zombies?), solve large numbers of puzzles and laugh out loud at some of the fifties B-movie humour that is prevalent throughout.

If you've already glanced at the score then you'll know that this is a pretty decent little game. So let's start our review proper with an overview of the things that prevented it from being better. The main complaint I have, other than the overall length (which is on the short side, unfortunately), is to do with the level balancing. Some of the thirty or so levels are remarkably short and some are treacherously long. Some have sections that can be skipped completely if you use the zombie power-ups that are lying around. In one memorable level, I managed to skip a section without realising I had done so, missing out on the instructions for using a new type of power up. It was only much later (about three levels on, in fact), that I found another one of these power ups - a vacuum attachment for Lori's missing arm - but I had no real idea of how to use it, as I'd skipped the instructions previously.

There are other problems too. When you enter a new level, the game is automatically saved - but if you die during the level then you go right back to the beginning. There are no checkpoints in the middle of levels. For the shorter ones, this is fine, but some of the longer ones have quite tricky puzzles right at the end and you'll die two or three times before you figure them out. This means that you have to work your way through the entire level again, repeating all the actions you've already carried out, until you can get back to the puzzle and try once again. This is unfortunate, because the levels are pretty fun the first time through, okay the second time and tiresome by the third or fourth.

While we're on a negative note, let's talk about the puzzles. Each zombie has certain skills and working out how to solve a puzzle largely revolves around working out which zombie to use at which time. By the way, swapping zombies is as simple as tapping the bottom screen, or pressing a shoulder button, and the swap occurs wherever you're currently standing. In other words, there are no puzzles that involve different zombies being in different places, so they don't include the level of teamwork that could have been involved if the three zombies truly 'existed' independently of each other.

So, why give it a seven? Well, I nearly didn't - the lack of longevity and the slightly repetitive gameplay very nearly knocked it down to a six. However, there are some really very good things about this game. First among them - and something that is notoriously hard to get right - is the humour. I'm not going to spoil things for you by revealing any of the many one-liners or hilarious snippets of dialogue, but I will tell you one thing: this game is very funny. It's hard not to like something that makes you laugh. The level designs, too, are generally pretty good. Although, as I've already pointed out, there are some areas of unevenness, overall things stack up well. There is a good mix of puzzling, fighting and exploration, and there isn't too much backtracking (except when you die, of course). Some of the puzzles in the later levels are actually pretty difficult (although not terribly so - this isn't the world's hardest game by any means) and they can be very satisfying to work out.

As I've mentioned, each zombie has a set of unique skills and power ups that are used in combination to solve the puzzles. Lori can jump pretty high and her arm can reach even higher, which makes her useful for getting to hard-to-reach places. Finnigan has a set of purple tentacles attached to his back (as all good zombies do, of course), which allow him to climb up vertical surfaces and grapple across ropes and wires once he's up high. He also has about the strongest attacking move of the three zombies and if you time hits right he can easily take out three alien brain thingys at once. When you first start out, Zack seems the weakest of the three characters, but his speedy skateboard and ability to jump long distances soon becomes useful. He can also squat down and get into very small gaps.

As well as their basic skills, there are a variety of power ups that can be picked up and used for short time periods. Zack can turn his skateboard into a hoverboard and get up really high, or he can turn it into a jet powered device that gives him a real boost of speed. Finnigan can vomit acid and fire, which is useful for destroying hoards of enemies and some walls and floors. It also makes the most accurate and disgusting sound effect ever - you seriously have to hear it! Lori has a variety of power ups, too, which slot into the place of her missing arm. There's the vacuum that allows her to suck up rubbish and then spit it out again later, but she also has a gun and an umbrella, which... well, let's not spoil the surprises too much. Suffice to say, there are a number of different skills and powers that must be brought to bear against the large number of puzzles throughout.

Graphically, Teenage Zombies is simple, colourful, cartoony and fun. The various animations, although somewhat jerky, are implemented with so much flair that it doesn't matter. Finnigan's fins pull him up walls and across lines convincingly, Lori shuffles along with her feet turned inward, Zack hunkers down to get into tight gaps. Everything just looks right and the cartoony feel is helped along by the clever cut scenes, which have you turning the DS on its side and making it into something of a comic book. The only downside to the graphics - and this is probably because I'm playing on a first generation DS rather than a Lite with its better screens - is that some of the levels are pretty dingy and in brighter light are hard to see. The sound effects are good too, as is the music. Everything is Fifties-movie dramatic and even the slightly hammy voiceover acting adds to this feel. As I've already mentioned, Finnigan's vomit effect is particularly gruesome, but all of the little sound touches really add up to create a convincing and immersing experience.

To keep things going, there are a variety of mini-games to unlock as you play. The best of these is probably the one that involves flinging Lori's limp body up into the air, using a tightrope, to burst alien brain thingys. The good thing is that all the mini-games are different, but the bad thing is that none of them are particularly fun. They're not terrible - they're not even bad, really - they're just not that great. Still, it's good to see the effort made and they do add a little bit more to the longevity of the game.

One thing that really comes across when you play Teenage Zombies is just how much effort the developers have put into creating it. You get the sense that, although things are not perfect by any means, a lot of care has been taken to make them good. All the little touches add up to a sense of real quality, which isn't something you always get in modern games - particularly handheld titles. You'll get an idea of what I mean if you take a look at the game's website - although the music might irritate you, the site has clearly been designed to reflect the game and isn't just a thrown together afterthought like some official sites can be.

Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys isn't perfect, but it is very good. Next time around I'd like to see a smidge more variety in the puzzles, perhaps a few more mini-games and maybe a multiplayer mode for some of those mini-games would be good - oh, and checkpoints in the longer levels! But you don't need to wait until next time to get a good game - if you can swallow the short playing time (I reckon you'll get a weekend out of it, if you're persistent), it's definitely worth picking up - it doesn't take a lot of brains to work that out. Mmmm, did somebody say brains?

Reviewed by Dom Turner for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).