Those smarties at Wideload Games achieved two things when they developed Stubbs the Zombie; a top-knotch, darkly humorous game AND an outstanding soundtrack.

I got my copy of the soundtrack bundled with the original Stubbs the Zombie game, back in 2005. The game features a lot of the music on the soundtrack - so it was an amazing bonus, one I still listen to today.

The Meat

Now, I would be the first to say that I’m not a music expert, but I do know what I like, and its this. The soundtrack features covers of various songs from the 50’s and 60’s - such as “My Boyfriend’s Back” by The Angels, “Mr. Sandman” recorded by The Chordettes and my personal favorite The Wizard of Oz- “If I Only Had a Brain“. These classics are re-recorded and spun by fantastic bands like: Death Cab for Cutie, Cake, The Dandy Warhols, The Flaming Lips and many more. Phantom Planet’s The Living Dead is the only original recording on the soundtrack, but its a very welcome addition.

Here is the complete track listing.

1. Ben Kweller - “Lollipop“
2. The Raveonettes - “My Boyfriend’s Back”
3. Death Cab for Cutie - “Earth Angel”
4. Rose Hill Drive - “Shakin’ All Over”
5. Cake - “Strangers In The Night”
6. The Walkmen - “There Goes My Baby”
7. Rogue Wave - “Everyday”
8. The Dandy Warhols - “All I Have To Do Is Dream”
9. Oranger - “Mr. Sandman”
10. The Flaming Lips - “If I Only Had a Brain”
11. Clem Snide - “Tears On My Pillow”
12. Milton Mapes - “Lonesome Town”
13. Phantom Planet - “The Living Dead”

The Bones

No bones with this one, it is a little hard to get the soundtrack in stores - but you can thank the zombified deity of your choice that online distributors, like Amazon.com, still carry it.

The Taste

Its good, real good, I still listen to it - and I’ve had it for 3 years. Get your teeth into it.

Stubbs the Zombie is a fantastic video game which was released by Wideload Games in 2005 for both the Xbox and the PC. The avatar and anti-hero is Stubbs the zombie; initially a traveling salesman, Stubbs was brutally murdered by his girlfriends father after their union was unexpectedly blessed with fruit. Now, 26 years later, Stubbs has risen from the grave driven by a thirst for revenge and brains.

The Meat

Stubbs digs himself up in the city of Punchbowl during its opening ceremony in 1959. Punchbowl is a fictional retro-futuristic 1950’s city with lazers, hovercars, robots and a hell of a lot of civilians, police and military - ripe for the biting.

Whenever you kill somone with Stubbs they has a chance of returning to life as a zombie under your control. These zombies, when not specifically given an order, will lurch around and bite any humans they encounter - turning them into zombies as well; like some sort of cannibalistic pyramid scheme.

In order to facilitate the creation of your own zombie horde, Stubbs has many inventive and fun options to choose from when killing the humans who get in his way. Stubbs can: Tear off people’s arms and beat them to death with them, Fart so corrosively that nearby enemies are stunned with sheer horror, throw organs pulled from his own ribcage that explode with damp furiousity, possess enemies with his left hand that detaches and runs around by itself and even bowl his own head at the enemy.

Stubbs weapons are slowly revealed to him throughout the story where they are necessary to get him out of more and more sticky situations and game itself is filled with lots of dark humor which makes it very entertaining and funny.

The Bones

Because Stubbs is a zombie he is unable to speak, except for saying the word “Brains”. This is wholly sensible behavior for a zombie and is to be expected, but, it makes it very difficult to understand the reason Stubbs does things when he literally doesn’t tell you. Wideload games did their best and Stubbs is a very emotive character but every so often Stubbs does something that is not well explained that left me lost and trying to understand why I was in this particular situation and what i needed to do to get out of it.

The Taste

Luckily, if you missed this gem of a game the first time - it is available on Steam and the Xbox Live Marketplace! For approximatly $20 you get all the brain eating, organ throwing, head bowling action you can possibly handle.

Get and play this game, if you haven’t already. Its offbeat humor, engaging retro-futuristic environments and the fact that you actually play a zombie controlling hordes of undead makes this game a must-play if you are any sort of a zombie fan.