The mere name of Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ out-American McGees American McGee, whose attempts to make edgy fairy tales using Alice in Wonderland and the Brother Grimm begin with the act of appending his name onto the title. If only he'd instead used the words "zombie BBQ".

This little DS shooter packs a real whallop when you first see the name. I have to admit, if it wasn't for the title, I wouldn't have given it a second look. Why is Little Red Riding Hood fighting zombies? And is she really having a BBQ or is that just a little black humor about her wielding a flamethrower? Wait, hold on a sec. Little Red Riding Hood with a flamethrower? This I have to see.

That's pretty much how it goes. Whoever came up with the title probably deserves more credit for however many copies sell than the guys who actually made the game. The developers are a Spanish studio called EnjoyUp, whose only previous effort was a split-screen time travel game that never made it to North America. This time around, their game is a simple scrolling shoot-em-up for the Nintendo DS. Little Red Riding Hood (or the anime dude inexplicably included, since who would want to play him?) slides left and right at the bottom of the screen and you tap on cartoon zombies to shoot at them.

And that's pretty much it. You can additional weapons. Zombie cats chase undead fish across the screen and drop health. Early on, you go to fight the witch who's kidnapped Hansel and Gretel, but it turns out Gretel ate both her and Hansel, whose leg she wields as a weapon. So you fight a giant zombie version of Gretel instead. Then you go to Italy to recruit Pinocchio. That's as far as I've gotten. The back of the box promises an encounter with the three little pigs.

It's simple enough, and about what you'd expect for a game with a $19.99 price tag. But it's a bit puzzling that there's no replayability, no way to jump to previous levels, and no reason to do so anyway, since there isn't even a scoring system. You can apparently unlock an option to re-play boss battles and try a timed assault mode, but this is clearly a budget shoot-em-up that's going to lean heavily on the appeal of the title without delivering much in the way of gameplay.