Meridian brings Alive 4 Ever Returns to the iPhone, a top-down zombie shooter. The game offers some RPG elements as you have four characters to choose from, each with their favorite weapons and particular skills. As you level up you gain points to be put into abilities as well as new skills at certain levels. There are around 40 stages that you can then run through trying to rack up as many points as possible as well as a survival battle and a horde battle mode. Survival is more like a non-stop time attack while horde comes in waves. Each stage in the game has a specific objective and a challenge. By completing the objective you unlock the next stage while completing the challenge nets you some gear.

The game is very robust for an iPhone game and could easily stand on its own on any platform. The controls are decent. You’ve got a two-stick setup on screen left for movement, right for shooting. There are also some action buttons that pop up when you can do something or if you’ve got an alternate weapon like grenades. They’re in the lower corners of the screen so your hands won’t get in the way while playing.

The controls are large enough to use comfortably but will get in the way of gameplay from time to time when you move your character to into the lower corners of the level, but it’s usually easy enough to get out from under your own thumb and back into the center of the screen again.

The graphics are pretty good as well even if they are dark at time. There are multiple types of zombies including animals as well as humanoid and some require different tactics as they will explode or shoot back. However, the graphics are so dark at times that it might cause your demise as you won’t see a raven gnawing on you.

The game is challenging and the horde and survival battles are quite difficult. But they’re a great way to earn XP and money to beef up your characters and buy new weapons. That means you can use them to get your characters to a level where they are strong enough to survive for a longer time and to do better in the standard stages. Characters can go up to level 50 it seems or perhaps even higher which would be a lot of playing.

The game also offers multiplayer over either Wi-fi or Bluetooth. The Wi-Fi is local area only but it could still be cool if you have a friend with an iPhone and the game.

Overall, Alive 4 Ever Returns is a very good zombie shooter, especially considering it’s on the iPhone. I do believe that game could certainly find some success on the downloadable platforms like Steam, XBLA and PSN and hope they consider those options in the future.