It’d be good if someone developed The Boys as a game, right? Playing as Billy Butcher, knocking seven bells out of people until they explode? Well, Drunken Fist 2: Zombie Hangover is pretty damn close to looking like the anti-hero, and considering you can take off one of the offending undead’s heads with one punch, it’s the next best thing.
A follow-up to Drunken Fist, this time, we have a new protagonist in Drunken Fist 2: Zombie Hangover, who’s been on a month binge only to wake from his drunken stupor to discover that the world has been taken over by zombies. Slowly sobering up, but never to the point where he can rely on his cognitive abilities, our hero blunders through areas doing precisely what was described in the opening paragraph.
Unlike the predecessor, also published by Eastasiasoft, the controls are much more refined. They’re the same as before, but there’s a flow to movement this time, and it’s much easier to head in the right direction. Aside from a few camera techniques, Drunken Fist 2: Zombie Hangover doesn’t feel like you’re on a binge and is way more accessible, thus better, than the last outing.
Alas, while you’re processing the alcohol from the night before, one of the issues in Drunken Fist 2: Zombie Hangover is the lag. Deklazon could cheekily get away with, “But they’re drunk! Of course, there’ll be a delay in connecting a punch after you’ve pressed a button!”. Good one, but that doesn’t wash. There’s no button-mashing here as it doesn’t work. Instead, you have to time your attacks in anticipation of the enemy’s move; otherwise, you’ll end up on your arse.
While Ryu and Sub-Zero were mastering their katas, our hero was on the lash, so their moveset is very much winging it. Square will punch, cross will kick, circle for a sweep of the legs, and triangle will jump back when being attacked. There are no blocks or counters, so when going one-on-one, the jump is effective, but when swarmed, the camera auto-locks, and you can pretty much write off survival if there are more than four zombies attacking.
That’s not to say Drunken Fist 2: Zombie Hangover is difficult – it’s not. I finished it in one sitting with about two or three deaths – the latter happening on the last level, which was undoubtedly the hardest as some zombies have machine guns. A little unfair, methinks. Essentially, the only real tactic here other than timing the attacks is luring individuals away and taking them out one by one, or perhaps targeting the trigger arm of a zombie and hindering the threat.
Ending up on your arse isn’t exclusively from the ol’ fisticuffs either, as our hero here can’t hold their bladder and will frequently need to pee in the street, and you can slip on it. If I had been thorough in my Drunken Fist 2: Zombie Hangover review, I’d have ignored the command to pee and see what happened, but I didn’t. Does our hero explode? Piss himself? Or maybe nothing happens? Regardless, I’d leak the lizard in an attempt to slow down the zombie hordes, but in reality, it was an evolution of the gaming tea bag and that illustrious trophy of pissing on the face of your enemies. It really is the simple things in life…
The stages in Drunken Fist 2: Zombie Hangover are seamless, each defined by killing a certain number of zombies and then doing an irritating dance before moving on. There are a couple of extra zombies to kill, should you find any difficulty, and while these are optional, it’s well worth killing everything. The only time I didn’t do this was on the final level, where I left one alive as didn’t want to risk my progress again. Should you die, you’ll return to the stage rather than the beginning, thankfully.
Health is in abundance. There are several bonus melee weapons for one-hit-decapitation, plus some challenges such as having 20 enemies slip on your wee. I missed the latter on the first playthrough, but playing through again unlocked the platinum. So yeah, Drunken Fist 2: Zombie Hangover is pretty easy, but it’s one well worth playing – especially if you enjoyed the last one, as this is better. Whether or not you’ll return is debatable as the only incentive for playing other than the actual gameplay are the trophies, and they’re easy to get. There aren’t any additional modes or multiplayer. Despite all this, I very much enjoyed it, and it’s still one of the best ways to get sloshed, cause a bit of mayhem, and not have an actual hangover afterwards.
