As a general rule I stay far away from the Community Games – er, excuse me, Indie Games section on Xbox Live. While there are a scant few gems to be found on there, it’s rife with Geometry Wars clones, insipid beer games, and various other ways to waste your Microsoft points. While making the rounds online one fine day I was introduced to the rather peculiarly-titled I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1 fresh from Dishwasher creator, James Silva. While reluctant at first to check out a game that is simply a mockery of the industry it was released in, I was soon quite eager to take part in this massive act of trolling. After all, Silva would know trolling, fresh from the 1-point review he wrote for The Dishwasher. I was quite surprised with a dual-stick shooter that brought an impish grin to my face…for a while.

I MAED A GAM3 W1TH ZOMBIES 1N IT!!!1 is a typical Geometry Wars-inspired dual-stick shooter that is just like the other countless clones that you can purchase via the Indie Games section of the Xbox Live Arcade. What sets it apart is that it will only set you back a dollar and it does not try to hide what it is. From the shameless sarcasm employed in the psuedo-lolcat/l33tspeak titling to the price, it’s quite clear that developer Silva has a very dry sense of humor. In fact, it even annoys me a bit that he had to make such a pretentious title. I sure didn’t write it out each time you see it here.

Start up the game and controlling it is simple. Manuever and shoot via both analog sticks while fending off waves of zombies that continually advance toward you, along with various other shapes and figures that will occasionally appear depending on how far you have progressed through the 13-minute long game.  It’s an entire game based on how long you might sit down with Geometry Wars until you get bored and pop in a game with some more substance. In fact, the game is quite humdrum. You avoid the zombies and enemies, shoot them, clear a path through them to avoid some more, and continue until you die. There’s one thing that sets this game apart from the others.

An original song is playing over the sound effects, complete with lyrics flashing behind you on the playfield. It’s not just any song, either. It’s a song glorifying the fact that Silva did, in fact, make a game with zombies in it. The song is a catchy little bugger, and the singing is particularly bad, but you are driven to keep listening anyway. If you do grow tired of simply playing the game as you likely will, you’ll find yourself sticking around for the song. It’s a very strange phenomena, but after playing through the game for a few minutes you’ll become so entranced with the silly song that you will have no choice but to fight through your boredom and keep listening. However, that’s really the game’s main attraction. It’s not particularly amazing in any way, shape, or form, and to tout it as the gaming press has done is absolutely bonkers to me. Sure it’s fun for about five minutes, and subsequent playthroughs remind me that I am glad I received a review copy.

So how do you score such a strange little diversion? You’ll either love its snarky attitude or you’ll be appalled that you spent a dollar to basically listen to a song. Just between me and you – save your dollar and download the song on Ska Software’s blog. You’ll find many other games with so much more substance that deserve your points more than this, though if you have an extra 80 points to spend it’s not the worst community game you could buy. I suggest going with Johnny Platform’s Biscuit Romp, which is a whole lot more fun.