Anime vs. Evil: Apocalypse Review – A Janky Shooter That’s All About the Girls
Look, I’ve played a lot of weird games in my time. But Anime vs. Evil: Apocalypse? This one’s a special kind of mess. It’s a third-person shooter where you fight polygon-induced zombie monsters as anime girls, and honestly, the whole thing feels like it was stitched together from spare parts. I’ve been playing it on Switch, and I’ve got thoughts. Let’s dig into the carnage.
What’s the Story?
Honestly? Don’t bother. There’s some nonsense about a girl and her friend surviving a world taken over by “mystical polygonal magic.” You run around, find survivors, and beat a final boss to get a “good ending” or a “bad ending.” The cutscenes exist, I guess, but they feel like an afterthought. The voice acting is so robotic I’m 90% sure it was generated by a text-to-speech program. There are eight playable girls to unlock, and the only reason to care about the story is to get them all. That’s it.
Gameplay – The Good, The Bad, and The Spongey
So you start each stage with a random gun. Machine gun is the only one that doesn’t suck. Everything else—shotguns, pistols, whatever—is a trap. Restart until you get the good one. You also need to find a melee weapon on the map because starting empty-handed is stupid. The levels are huge sandboxes, but they feel empty and padded. You run from point A to point B, kill a bunch of zombies to get gate codes, then fight a dragon. The dragons are awful. Tanky, annoying, and one hit can delete your progress because death sends you back to the start of the whole stage. I spent 30 minutes on a level, then got killed by a boss in 60 seconds. Not fun.
Side missions? They’re all the same: kill X enemies in Y seconds. Some are required for gates, so you can’t skip them. The problem is that zombies stop spawning if you’ve killed the ones far away, so you fail the timer. Then you restart the mission. Over and over. It’s busywork designed to pad playtime.
Survival Mode is where I spent most of my time. Waves of enemies come at you, but instead of throwing more bodies at you, they just make the zombies bullet sponges. Later waves take entire magazines to kill one guy. That’s not difficulty—that’s artificial inflation. Free Mode exists, but it’s just Story Mode without objectives. Pointless.
Character Customization – The Real Star
This is the one thing the game gets right. You can tweak height, thigh size, chest size, hair color, outfit colors—everything. Put a girl in the skimpiest outfit you can find, max out the sliders, and she’s hilarious. The changes even show up in cutscenes, which is a nice touch. Each girl has a few unique outfits, but you have to buy them with in-game cash. Doesn’t change gameplay at all, which is fine. It’s purely cosmetic, and it’s the only part of the game that feels polished.
Graphics and Sound – Asset Flip City
The visual style is weird. It’s like Claymation meets anime, and the zombies look appropriately goofy. But the environments are generic. I’m 99% sure this is an asset flip. The music is atmospheric but completely forgettable. Sound effects are passable. The voice acting is the worst part—stilted, emotionless, and obviously AI. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Also, some of the purchased outfits don’t render correctly in-game. Not a good look.
Price – Just No
This thing costs $24.99. For that price, you get about four hours of content. The DLC unlocks a “Hentai mode” with nudity and clothing damage, but it’s optional and doesn’t fix the core problems. If you catch this on a deep sale—like under $10—sure, it’s a dumb fun time. Full price? Absolutely not. There are better shooters for less money.
- Pros: Deep character customization, satisfying basic gunplay loop, multiple game modes and endings
- Cons: Repetitive missions, AI voice acting, spongy enemies on harder difficulties, price is too high, feels like an asset flip
Final Verdict
Look, I had some fun. Shooting zombies as a custom anime girl is mindless stress relief. But the jank, the padding, and the price tag make this a hard sell. If you’re desperate for an Anime vs. Evil: Apocalypse walkthrough? Just rush to the gates and ignore everything else. Otherwise, wait for a deep discount or play literally anything else.
