Inside Social Games

There have been a number of games that allow Facebook users to… bully, for lack of a better term, their buddies. One of the premiere examples (at least at the time) was KickMania! that had players punting friends as far as they could with, ahem, “explosive” results. Fuel Industries, in conjunction with Sony and Electric Farm Entertainment, have also recently moved down this friend-abusing route with a disturbingly indigestive title called Yack Attack.

No, sadly, “yack” does not refer to the animal (yak), but rather the slang synonym for vomiting…. The game is actually a tie-in with a new web series called “Woke Up Dead.” In the series, Drex, played by Jon Heder, is a college student that, well, becomes a zombie. Okay, perhaps the reasoning behind the barfing is not justified by this, but he’s a zombie. We’re lucky he’s not trying to eat us.

The game itself is exceedingly simple. Players pick a yacking victim from a list of their Facebook friends and line up their profile picture within a head-shaped frame. Then it’s time to load undead Drex with a little ammunition. This consists of everything from staplers to cameras, because, well, Drex apparently can’t eat human food anymore. Players continue to feed him until his stomach is at capacity, then time a power meter to see what sort of expelling force comes out.

The victim of the zombie yacking will hurdle backwards from the Drex’s projectile vomit with the objective being to send them flying as far as possible. Also, each item that you feed Drex has different levels of “explosive power” and “volume” that affects how far said victim will go, with some items combining to form a sort of reaction that can not only change the color of the yacking, but increase its force as well. Of course, the more you play, the more options are available.

As expected, each item to be fed costs an in-game currency, called Yackers. Unfortunately, they only seem to be attainable through completing offers, buying them, or inviting friends. The last option is perfectly viable, and the virtual currency model is certainly warranted, but not having an option to earn Yackers in the game itself is a little annoying and makes for a fairly short lived game experience for the average player.

Frankly, this is the biggest game play issue with the game. There really isn’t a whole lot of opportunity to get into the game before you’ve run out of your starting sum of currency. Moreover, while the game is intended to be a funny, the whole concept is still a bit nauseating, which really doesn’t help a new player hold interest for very long either. Unless they’re into zombies.

Overall, the game looks decent with well-polished artwork and sound, and while it hasn’t seen too many users yet, it does have the viral potential to spread like KickMania! once did. Furthermore, this will not be the last we see of Fuel either as the developer says it has some major projects with Electronic Arts slated for release in the next couple of weeks. Of these, Pogo Puppies, has all ready launched and is not doing too bad (roughly 90,000 monthly active users), so we will look forward to seeing what comes next.