Zombies!!! escapes, becomes the Xbox Windows Phone Deal of the Week

It’s board game week for Windows Phone. First the long-awaited Carcassonne debuted on Xbox Live, and now another board game has become the Deal of the Week. Babaroga’s Zombies!!! is on sale for the first time for $2.99, down from $4.99. Are you ready to roll some dice and do battle with the undead?

Like Carcassonne, Zombies!!! (review) is a board game in which players place a land tile every turn, effectively building the board. In this game though, some modes start with a completed board, which happens to represent a single zombie-infested city. The city, players, and zombies all come to life with 3D graphics (as opposed to Carcassonne’s mostly 2D visuals), while the cards that players draw, play, and discard every turn feature Dave Aikins’ hand-drawn art. Some of the many card effects include restoration of health and other supplies; stealing items from other players; and even sending zombies after your opponents.

Survival of the fittest

One of the coolest aspects of this game is its dice-based combat. Whenever a player runs into a zombie (controlled by the AI or other players), a battle ensues. Players must roll a four or higher in order to avoid taking damage. Carrying a weapon (which you mostly get from playing weapon cards inside of specific buildings) adds one or more points to your roll, increasing the chance of coming away unscathed. You can also elect to use one of your precious bullets to boost your roll, though ammunition tends to come in scarce quantities. All told, combat provides an enjoyable mix of chance and strategy.

The game currently supports single-player and 4-person pass-and-play multiplayer. Single-player is more fun than you might expect thanks to the Survival Horror mode, which pits a sole human survivor against the entire city of zombies. Kill them all full of holes (everyone knows they deserve it) or reach the helicopter to win. As for the online multiplayer long ago promised in our developer interview, see the section below for an idea of how that will be delivered.

DLC and Windows Phone 8 plans

Once you’ve spent enough time with the game and unlocked its precious GamerScore, you may still hunger for more. Zombies!!! has one downloadable expansion right now – ‘3.5: Not Dead Yet!’ The DLC costs $2 and includes 50 GamerScore worth of Achievements. It’s not a bad buy if you want more variety in your cards and weapons or more GamerScore. Check out our full impressions here.

Babaroga’s plans for the game’s future are even more exciting. Not only is it coming to Windows 8, but it will be coming to Windows Phone 8 too. As I understand it, there’s a good chance the WP7 version will receive an update that upgrades it to WP8. That way, people who buy the game now will still have access to WP8-specific features once they’re introduced. Future expansion DLC will be WP8-specific as well.

Zombies!!! is on sale for $2.99 for one week only. Get it here on the Windows Phone Store before those pesky zombies get your brains!