Zombie Rollerz: The Last Ship Review: Taking Meaningful Risks | The Gamerheads Podcast

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2

Also on: PC (Steam) Nintendo Switch

Price: $14.99

Turn left! No, right! Pick up that survivor! Roll over that zombie horde!

CRUNCH

Oh, sorry. I was just finishing up a run in Zombie Rollerz: The Last Ship, the latest survivor-like to hit the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. But does it have what it takes to survive the growing horde of games in the genre?

Short answer: Yes. While Zombie Rollerz: The Last Ship shares plenty of DNA with games like Vampire Survivors, particularly in that I’m not directly attacking enemies and instead focus on steering my ship while my crew handles the turrets, there’s far more planning and management involved here than I initially expected. That added layer of strategy gives Zombie Rollerz a distinctly different feel from many others in the genre.

When I first start, my ship, or Ark as the game calls it, is pretty basic. Though calling it a ship isn’t exactly accurate. Sure, it has the hull of one, but it’s mounted on massive spiked wheels. Naturally, that gave me the impression I’d be able to roll right over the zombie horde littering the battlefield. Eh, not quite. My vehicle is surprisingly flimsy, and collisions with anything, whether zombies or environmental obstacles, do real damage.

The game unfolds within a confined area, and my minimap highlights various points of interest nearby that might be worth checking out, most of them marked with question marks. There isn’t really much of a story here. I’m essentially rolling around in this wooden cart, mowing down zombies. But honestly, I don’t need much more than that. Zombie Rollerz: The Last Ship firmly embraces the survivors-like genre, where the real focus is on movement, exploration, and unlocking new abilities to make the next run even better.

Zombie Rollerz: The Last Ship measures success much like other games in the genre: survive long enough, and move on. Early runs start me off with a five-minute survival goal, but as I progress, later levels demand I last even longer.

But each run also feeds into a larger progression system through something called The Road. The better I perform, the more rewards I unlock after each attempt. These can include trinkets, new turrets, captains, gadgets, and even Ark components, giving every run a sense that I’m steadily expanding my options for the battles ahead.

When I unlock trinkets, I collect them by finding gacha balls scattered across the battlefield during each run. These trinkets enhance my weapons in various ways. For example, the Orb of Poison gives my attacks a ten percent chance to poison zombies for ten seconds, dealing four damage per second.

There are a lot of trinkets to discover, and whenever I open a gacha ball, I’m usually asked to choose between two different options. Since these effects stack, it’s absolutely in my best interest to pay attention to what I’m picking. But if I’m being honest, there were plenty of moments where I completely lost track of what I already had equipped.

Sure, I can pause the game and dig through my list of acquired trinkets, but even then, the sheer number of items can start to feel overwhelming. At times, it left me less focused on strategy and more inundated by just how much I was juggling.

Turrets are essentially my weapons. I start with only a basic machine gun, but as I progress through The Road, I gradually unlock stronger options. This is where Zombie Rollerz starts leaning more heavily into planning and management, because I can swap out my starting turret before each run based on what I’ve unlocked.

My Ark has six available slots, though at first, I can only equip a weapon in the front position through the management screen. That limitation makes my early choices feel especially important. Thankfully, as I explore during a run, any new turrets I find can still be installed through the pause menu, giving me opportunities to adapt my build on the fly.

Captains provide another strategic layer by granting additional abilities and passive skills that can benefit the rest of my crew. Unlike some upgrades I discover mid-run, captains are selected exclusively through the management screen before setting out, making them an important part of how I prepare for my next attempt.

I found gadgets to be some of the most important components I could equip through the management screen. My go-to was a “friendly” zombie horde, which unleashes an army of undead to fight alongside me against the enemies on screen.

These abilities operate on a cooldown timer, which not only prevents me from spamming them, but also forces me to think carefully about when to deploy them. That extra layer of timing made gadgets feel less like a bonus and more like a crucial part of surviving tougher moments.

Finally, there are Ark components, which let me swap out parts of my vehicle with new upgrades I unlock. One of my favorites was the meat grinder, a spiked roller mounted to the front of my Ark that looks incredibly cool and, when upgraded during a run, essentially becomes an additional weapon.

Of course, there’s still a tradeoff. Smashing zombies with it may feel satisfying, but every collision also damages the component itself, which means I still have to be careful not to over-rely on it.

That’s the broader progression system, but every item I discover during a run starts at level one. This is where the in-run currency system comes into play. Destroying zombie camps and strongholds rewards me with bolts, gears, and rarer materials that I can spend on improving my turrets or strengthening my Ark.

Zombie Rollerz asks me to think strategically. Do I invest heavily in a specific weapon, or do I focus on making my Ark more durable overall?

I’ll admit, at first, I was a little disappointed by this system. I’m so used to RPGs where progression often revolves around steadily gearing up characters or ships over time. But the more I leaned into Zombie Rollerz’s approach and started planning my runs more carefully, the more I appreciated it.

Because every run resets those upgrades, my strategy becomes heavily influenced by what I find and what I choose to prioritize. That design makes each run feel more unique, rather than simply repeating the same build every time.

The crew system is probably the management mechanic I struggled with the most. First, I need to upgrade my Ark just to hold more survivors, and I can’t tell you how awful I felt spotting stranded people calling out for help only to realize I didn’t have the space to save them.

And here’s the twist: if those survivors get killed by the zombies, they don’t just disappear. They transform into stronger undead creatures, essentially taking revenge on my poor planning.

I can assign specific roles to each crew member, but once my Ark starts taking serious damage, things can spiral fast. Crew members begin to bleed out, and while the game does warn me when someone is dying, there were multiple times when by the time I reacted and tried to get my medic involved, it was already too late.

And things only get worse from there. If my medic dies, suddenly I’m forced to reshuffle roles among my surviving crew just to stay functional. What starts as basic management can quickly turn into crisis control.

Zombie Rollerz: The Last Ship catches on to my tricks. Oh, I only need to survive for twenty minutes? Easy. I’ll just clear out an area, bunker down, and wait it out.

Yeah, not happening.

The game refuses to let me get too comfortable. Massive zombie hordes eventually come rushing in, forcing me to stay mobile or risk being completely overrun. Then there are sandstorms, which gradually create an increasingly confined circular safe zone. Until I kill enough zombies, that storm keeps closing in, squeezing me tighter and tighter until I either fight back or get swallowed by the storm itself.

Zombie Rollerz can absolutely feel chill at times, but never too chill. It constantly reminds me that there are real consequences to my decisions, and that sense of pressure is something I appreciate. It helps Zombie Rollerz: The Last Ship stand out from other survivors-like games that can sometimes feel a little too comfortable once I figure out a game’s rhythm.

Final Grade: A-

In an increasingly crowded survivors-like genre, Zombie Rollerz: The Last Ship does quite a bit to stand out. Its robust management systems, particularly the ability to customize my Ark, add far more strategy than I expected. Once I adjusted to its leveling structure, which prioritizes growth within each individual run over permanent vehicle progression, the experience became much more rewarding.

That design choice made every run feel distinct and unique, shaped by the pickups I found and how I chose to spend my in-game currency. Managing my crew and keeping them alive adds a layer of pressure to what might otherwise feel like a more relaxed experience.

And that’s what I love most about Zombie Rollerz: The Last Ship. It takes meaningful risks within a crowded genre, and I appreciate how willing it is to introduce fresh ideas rather than simply relying on familiar ones.

Review code provided by Zing Games