Zombie Mania Hits Punchbowl, PA.

Aspyr Media and Wideload Games today announced that the Xbox version of their upcoming Stubbs the Zombie game has gone gold. The game will hit stores in late October at a SRP of $49.99.

In this action-packed, gut-throwing Zombie game, players take on the role of Stubbs the Zombie. Before his premature death, Edward "Stubbs" Stubblefield was just another traveling salesman trying to get by during the Great Depression. His lifelong losing streak reached its logical conclusion when he was brutally murdered and ignominiously buried in a remote Pennsylvania field. Flash forward to 1959, on opening day of Punchbowl, PA "City of the Future" when Stubbs emerges from his grave and he is HUNGRY for brains.

In this game with lots of humorous twists and turns, players control Stubbs as he lurches through several environments in and around Punchbowl, PA, a perfect city free of crime and pollution and full of hovercars and helper-robots. Feed on the brains of the populace, which includes militia men, riot cops, prisoners and much, much more. Once attacked by Stubbs, they become Stubbs' minions and help him in his battles, which erupt everywhere from farms to police stations to the Punchbowl plaza.

Players can choose to play as Stubbs alone, or grab a friend named Grubbs for multiplayer co-op action. Grubbs was also once a traveling salesman who, through a series of unfortunate coincidences, ended up in the same unmarked grave as Stubbs. Heck, Grubbs even dons a similar suit to Stubbs and sustained the same fatal stomach injury. To double the brain-eating, arm-throwing, head-bowling, gut-tossing fun, players need to grab a friend and start feasting.

Stubbs has many "organic" (and not so organic) weapons at his disposal to help build his Zombie hordes. These include:

* Conversion - Death is not the end! When Stubbs kills an enemy, they become one of his zombie followers. These zombies will attack humans when possible and attempt to follow Stubbs in his crusade. Building and maintaining a horde of zombies is crucial to beating the game's biggest encounters.
* The Hand - Stubbs can detach his hand, throw it and control the hand as a separate character. The hand is faster than humans, can go places where Stubbs can't fit, is expendable (so it can be sent into certain death), and can possess human characters.
* Possession - Using his detached arm, Stubbs can possess human characters, giving him access to their weapons, speed, and other abilities.
* Gut Grenade - Stubbs can throw gut grenades, a ranged area-of-effect weapon. He can reach into his gut, pull out some viscera and lob it like a grenade to cause damage and stun opponents.
* Unholy Flatulence - Stubbs can unleash unholy flatulence, a local, last ditch area-of-effect attack, which will kill humans in the immediate vicinity.
* Zombie Strength - Stubbs' super-strength allows him to smash through boarded-up doors and lay waste to the humans cowering behind it with
powerful melee attacks.
* Bowling Heads -- Strike! Stubbs can bowl his head into enemies and strategically detonate it. After the head explodes, it turns anyone in the vicinity into zombies.

Jason's Comments: I want this game. I want to go all George Romero on some people in the game.