Review of Flash Game: Haunted Suburb

Zombies, ghosts, robots and giant insects are taking over the suburbs. This time, don't call Ghost Busters or your local pest control man; call the steam punk characters, Otis and Franceska, to save the neighborhood. Choose your favorite character and set up a variety of towers and traps for these undead and inhuman creatures to fall, waddle, or drive into in this desktop tower defense game.

The graphics and animation are unique for a flash game. The bold shades of green and off kilter houses are similar to the animation in shows such as "Invader Zim." The dark, but colorful world is attractive. Most of the monsters don't say much, which is fine, but the one that does speak is amusing. The sumo zombies sometimes call for women or puppies as the waddle up the streets. If you get bored or antsy of waiting for the next wave, you can always fast forward, which is nice. The game doesn't start off easy, but it does get progressively harder and fast forwarding can make it more difficult. The steam punk duo starts saving neighborhoods that are just chilling and then progress to neighborhoods that are creepy and then neighborhoods that are just plain horrifying. Every few levels, the number of wavess of monsters that must be defeated increases. With each new level, the map of the neighborhood gets more difficult to protect, e.g. the houses are rearranged, natural barriers are removed, roads are removed and rearranged, and there are less spots to place towers. If you are looking for a challenge, you have found one.

The one major fault or glitch in the game is that the next wave button does not always work. Although the game is definitely a challenge, it is extremely slow moving. Most of the weapons or towers are quite fun, but the pulse tower doesn't do much until upgraded, which can be slightly inconvenient when you are trying to set up traps around the neighborhood.

Hints and Tips:

-Open a gate to direct the monsters to a certain house, usually the one furthest from the start.

-Place lots of towers where the monsters spawn to destroy them before they get a chance to get close to the houses.

-Figure out which towers you think are the most effective and upgrade. Upgrade the tower a few times if you can.

-Don't forget to place carnivorous plants and ghost vortexes. Place the carnivorous plants at the houses where you leave the gates open most. Unfortunately, you don't gain any ectoplasm when the carnivorous plants finish off a zombie. Keep that in mind if you need new towers or to upgrade existing ones.