The Walking Vegetables: Radical Edition review

Picture the scene, aliens have brought all the vegetables in the city to life.  Cool you might think, until they over run and turn in to the stuff of nightmares of any fan of the classic B-movie Attack of killer tomatoes.

Yes, that’s right the walking veg have climbed out of the dirt and jumped off the kids plates….  I always knew there was a reason I hated my veg on my plate as a kid…. Sitting there, plotting, waiting for their chance to turn the tables.

Merge games have brought Still Running’s classic retro themed twin stick shooter to the Xbox to enjoy, and I can confirm theirs lots of fun to be had with this little gem.

The Walking Vegetables: Radical Edition, Put’s you in the shoes of unlikely hero. The cops have run out of options, and you’re the man for the job. Armed with your trusty pistol, and an unlimited supply of hot coffee, you are transported in to a 2d style city with one goal, to rid the world of mutated zombie fruit and veg.

The game is fast and furious, with a step learning curve. However, stick with it and you are rewarded with classic fun and addictive gameplay, with smart retro graphics, an 80’s theme, and an excellent electro soundtrack. This is how you produce a retro style game and bring it up to date.

The Walking Vegetables is full of charm and wit and can be enjoyed on your own or with an additional player next to you on the couch, adding to the feel of the game, as you both take on and increase your chances of putting the evil veg and those nasty aliens to bed.

This wave clearing game suits the wonderfully created and brought to life 2d top down style. The Game is densely populated with things to smash, find and unlock, and that’s not even mentioning the amount of fruit and veg to smoke. Pretty much anything can be destroyed, and there are plenty of power up weapons to unlock.

Many of the buildings in each city can be unlocked, as long as you have a spare key. Key’s are hidden through the world, either behind bushes, bin bags or even park benches.

Inside these buildings are an additional wave of enemies to beat. Clearing the area can often bare fruit, in the form of chests, which often have plenty of goodies inside, ranging from ammo, coins or even an additional weapon to replace your trusty pistol, or your hot coffee that you like to throw at on coming veg and fruit.

In each city, you will uncover a shop, which possess health unlocks, ammo, and weapons for your hard earned coin. Your also given the option to trade, just in case you don’t have the required cash for that extra heart required.

Changing Weapons are the key to success in your quest, with a whole barrel of arsenal waiting to be uncovered and used against these possessed foe. The game is packed full of shot guns, machine guns, bats, blades, grenades, even plasma guns, although I would recommend saving the very best ammunition, for the boss battles, which on completion pave the wave for the next city to be conquered.

Did I mention Boss battle? Yep, no wave shooter would be complete without a boss battle. First job is to stick it to that pesky alien that produced all this mess in the first place, having passed your encounter you will notice a boss battle door appear, enter and you are whisked away off world to the evil mothership, in this area you encounter the mother of all fruit or veg. Your job, to destroy the oversized zombie firing Fruit or veg.

The Walking Vegetables game content is overflowing, a single play through just won’t cut it, as you play more, you will notice that there is an excellent section at the start of the game, back at the police precinct. Inside the precinct besides the chief’s office and the pencil pushers behind there desks is an area yet to be unlocked with the promise of being reserved for top secret stuff, additional to this is an old style desktop to access.

Here you will find handy benefits and upgrades such as the wonderfully named “a tongue of steel” thus giving you the ability to absorb any damage from acid or fire attacks. Many of these upgrades can be obtained by completing scenarios such as defeating bosses or going through an area not pausing.

This content adds excellent replay value to the game, giving reward for persistent play, with the promise of a helping hand for progress and in game score.

The Walking Vegetables: Radical Edition is quite simply a blast. I’m not going to lie it is a bit of a slog feast, but it is rewarding if only for the level of enjoyment in the game’s gameplay, sheer brilliance.

Add to that local 2-player couch play fun, a classic 80’s B-Movie retro feel, and you truly have a winner, which is easy to play, but very hard to master, with plenty fun, and giggles to be had on the way.