School Girl/Zombie Hunter is a 3rd person shooter, which takes place during a zombie outbreak at a Japanese private school where only five girls (Sayuri, Mayaya, Enami, Risa, and Rei) have managed to survive. Players take on the role of one of these five girls, and set out to complete missions and escape from the forsaken high school.
The girls aren't completely defenseless though; they each have their own firearm and melee preferences, the latter of which are inspired by school activities and curriculum. For example, the captain of the kendo club is an expert swordmistress and uses a kendo stick to deal with zombie hordes, while the captain of the soccer and karate clubs can deliver a Kofi Kingston style 360 kick of their own interpretation. Each of these attacks drains from the girl's stamina meter and should be used cautiously and only when surrounded or blocked by a group. Grenades and other improvised explosives exist, but the bread and butter of the combat are the gun-melee-decoy (more on decoys later) triangle the game offers.
The zombies, or zom-zoms, as they are inexplicably and affectionately referred to, are more menacing than an antagonist with a pet name should be. They have high-beams-for-eyes and charge the protagonists with brutal sweeping claw motions and even throw themselves at players with diving body splashes. They're easy enough to counter and check at a distance, but they become much more of a problem up close or in numbers.
Fortunately, the girls can rely on more than just their melee skills as crowd control; they can also resort to disrobing and throwing their outfits as decoys to distract certain zom-zoms. The girls can even pick up spare outfits to throw if they don't want to lose their current clothes.
Another interesting and intriguing decoy option available to the girls is the ability to throw their underwear. Yes, you read that correctly, and I'm certain my editor-in-chief is having himself a laugh at both the idea of me having to type that last sentence as well as the humor of the situation (Valkor's note: He ain't wrong!!). It'll also please him to know that the effect of throwing the underwear changes depending on how long it's last been "used." Go ahead and draw your own conclusions.
The graphics are a little on the low-end side and character models remind me of Playstation 2 era "Dead or Alive" characters. But the game itself is still fun and easy to play. School Girl/Zombie Hunter is a great "pick up and play" title whether you have a whole day to zone out or a few minutes before going to an appointment.
The only disappointment I have with School Girl/Zombie Hunter is the multiplayer co-op mode, which is pretty barren with only 10 levels and few active players to boot. More than that, you can't even play local co-op with a friend in the same room! The only way to play with a friend is for them to also own a copy of the game and play it from their own console in a remote location. I guess the days of split screen multiplayer are just a memory. Still, a solid recommendation for School Girl/Zombie Hunter, which gets a 4 out of TOV 5 stars!
