Two undead-themed titles appear on store shelves this month — Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ, a budget DS shoot’em up from Spanish studio EnjoyUp; and Left 4 Dead, a team-based, multi-platform first-person shooter from powerhouse developer Valve.

By the nature of this site, we have a preference for the former, but we’re not so blind as to miss the latter’s advantages, such as its much higher production values and rewarding cooperative gameplay. However, Left 4 Dead suffers one serious flaw — its fast zombies.

Before you dismiss this argument, read what Shaun of the Dead star and zombie expert Simon Pegg has to say about the “Slow vs. Fast” undead debate:

“The fast zombie is bereft of poetic subtlety. As monsters from the id, zombies win out over vampires and werewolves when it comes to the title of Most Potent Metaphorical Monster. Where their pointy-toothed cousins are all about sex and bestial savagery, the zombie trumps all by personifying our deepest fear: death.

Zombies are our destiny writ large. Slow and steady in their approach, weak, clumsy, often absurd, the zombie relentlessly closes in, unstoppable, intractable.”

While Zombie BBQ’s undead creep towards players, a stumbling but ever-present reminder of their mortality, Left 4 Dead’s zombies rush into rooms and sprint around corners without the weight of metaphor or subtlety.

Pegg continues:

“Speed simplifies the zombie, clarifying the threat and reducing any response to an emotional reflex. It’s the difference between someone shouting ‘Boo!’ and hearing the sound of the floorboards creaking in an upstairs room: a quick thrill at the expense of a more profound sense of dread.

The absence of rage or aggression in slow zombies makes them oddly sympathetic, a detail that enabled [director George Romero] to project depth on to their blankness, to create tragic anti-heroes; his were figures to be pitied, empathised with, even rooted for.

The moment they appear angry or petulant, the second they emit furious velociraptor screeches (as opposed to the correct mournful moans of longing), they cease to possess any ambiguity. They are simply mean.”

Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean that Zombie BBQ’s zombies are necessarily “more fun” than Left 4 Dead’s, which is probably the more important factor when playing a game; they just make for better zombies.

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• little red riding hoods zombie bbq
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• zombies
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