Zombie Infection (Gameloft)

Zombie Infection (not to be confused with the 3D game of the same name and by the same company) is a 2D shoot 'em up game for Java ME mobile phones and Android created by Gameloft in late 2008, when it still was a good development team. The game had a sequel named Zombie Infection 2 and a 3D version made for iOS which is similar to Resident Evil 5. The game can be played on emulators for Java games. It was re-released in the late 2010s as part of the Gameloft Classics series of compilations of old Gameloft Java games.

Plot
The year is 2011 and New York is hit by a wave of terrorist attacks. The U.S. Government wasn't able to hold all the terrorism, so private security forces emerged such as the Freedom Fighters. You control the staff from a live TV program named Inside Action, and must survive a zombie outbreak in NY. Sooner or later, it becomes clear that the Freedom Fighters may be related with the outbreak and that Inside Action may unknowingly be related too.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Despite the 1MB file size (since it was for old Java phones) you can expect everything from a good shoot 'em up.
 * 2) Fast paced, captivating and addicting battle system for both melee and gun weapons. You can dismember zombies or kill them in quick sucession for a bigger score.
 * 3) Speaking about the score system, you can use your points to buy weapons and itens. Another way to earn points is to film certain places of the map and enemies. Filming not only is challenging, but also is a collectible if you are a completionist.
 * 4) You will play as three characters, each of them with their own attributes and capacities.
 * 5) Good graphical quality with great scenery variation and attention to detail.
 * 6) The game has side-quests and enemy variety, something rare on old Java games due to the aforementioned size limitation.
 * 7) Despite being a mobile game, designed to be played on a phone in short doses, the high-end version is not so short. The campaign mode can take more than a hour to complete if you do everything, and after you beat the game, you unlock a hard mode which is really hard.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The game has an extremely convoluted and messed up story for all the wrong reasons: to make the protagonists get separated at the beginning and some (really uninteresting) cliché plot twists about who is the bad guy. The game ends with way too many plotholes, unanswered questions and loose ends.
 * 2) *The three protagonists also are cliché characters that you would find in a cheap action movie, and despite each of them having a proper background, it is not developed in-game.
 * 3) In the most of the game, you cannot choose with which character you will play, even on the segments that they are together.
 * 4) The game has a sequel that didn't fixed none of the above and, contrary to the first game, also had repetitive graphics.
 * 5) * The low-end version is heavily unpolished; the story is very short and some weapons and gameplay mechanics are missing.