Zadzooks: Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies review (iPad)

The rabid zombie has infected every nook and cranny of multimedia and gaming pop culture and, thankfully, Apple’s magical tablet has not been immune.

Now arrives Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies (Activision, reviewed for iPad 2, rated M for mature, must be 17 years or older to download the app, $6.99), one of the premiere undead combat experiences for the mobile, hand-held gamer, courtesy of one of the most popular first-person-shooter franchises in the history of the medium.

Anyone familiar with Call of Duty from entertainment consoles knows of the multitude of undead maps available to bring a player claustrophobically close to attacking a zombie plague.

This iPad app celebrates the original Black Ops source material and takes warriors into Kino der Toten, a ravaged movie theater of the damned loaded with decomposing Nazis on a rampage.

After a welcome tutorial, the player selects from avatars including American Tank Dempsey, Japan’s Takeo Masaki, Russian Nikolai Belinski and German Dr. Edward Richtofen, and it’s time for the 1943 horror show.

The game’s first person action now relies on the mobile device’s intuitive touch screen, which delivers a pair of virtual analog sticks that allow for moving and looking around as well as directing and firing weapons. One setting even allows tilting the iPad to direct viewpoints, which offers a very creepy shaky-camera effect.

Additionally, various icons appear for tapping to perform moves such as crouching, rebuilding barricades, knifing an enemy, picking up weapons, throwing a grenade and using a sight to aim a weapon.

It’s a vicious, vicious fight for survival as decaying, glowing-eyed zombies (and don’t forget about the Hellhounds) crawl and charge at the player, who must practically dissect them into bloody messes to hold back the unlimited waves of assaults.

The full complement of features includes trading points collected from kills to unlock rooms and find new weapons (look for the chalk outlines), teleporting to special areas to upgrade a weapon (using the legendary Pack-a-Punch machine), accessing Mystery Boxes (that open for a cost and offer a new, random weapon) and immediate relief from pickups such as nukes to kill all the enemies on the screen.

The atmosphere of a broken-down antique theater sets the stage for the slaughter and is enhanced by pulp-art menus ripped from a 1940s comic book, a musical theme obviously inspired by “The Exorcist,” constant groans and screams of pain from the creatures, and some cackling for those who die.

An inspired, four-warrior multiplayer mode rounds out the Kino map, enjoyed online or through local Wi-Fi and includes using the iPad’s microphone to communicate during the very cooperative fights.

Players also get the devilishly quirky Dead Ops Arcade game, offering a third-person dual-trigger challenge (for up to four players) set in an overhead perspective. Unlock the action by finding four pieces of a gold coin hidden among the menus and dive into 50 levels of mowing down the zombie menace.

Control a tiny character as he uses unlimited ammo to stop the hordes of flesh-eaters in locations such as a beach, prison, courtyard and cave.

Our hero can collect swag (precious metals and jewels) to increase his score totals and will find limited use of boutique weapons, such as a Death Machine, Battle Chicken (a fowl assistant wielding its own firepower) and ray gun that offer limited usage. He occasionally can jump into a tank or attack helicopter for short periods of time.

Both Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombie challenges will more than satisfy a mature iPad owner’s undead blood lust. Those who relish the grotesque mobile mayhem can look forward to a free download of the Ascension map (zombies in space, tough guy) in the near future.