Zombies seem to have made a cult resurgence of late, perhaps best illustrated with the news that Amazon is progressing plans to develop an original Zombies vs. Gladiators movie.
Then there’s Zombies, Run!, a Kickstarter project we covered last year before making it into app format back in March for iOS devices. The premise? Put simply, you keep fit by running away from zombies.
The player takes the role of a zombie apocalypse survivor who carries out missions to gather supplies, with the drama playing out in fully scripted audio. The game rewards success in missions by giving the player access to further segments of the unfolding story – and all this takes place in the real world, with the user physically running as they hear the zombie noises get closer.
Now, Android users can also shed their flab by outpacing the great undead.
The app went live on Google Play yesterday, but it hits at a rather punchy $7.99 (£5.49), which is the same price it landed on Apple’s App Store for. Sure, it’s steep, but if you’re looking for a novel way to spice up your runs, what better way than steering clear of flesh-eating monsters?
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The company behind the app, Six to Start, raised a total of $72,627 from 3,464 backers on Kickstarter, which helped it hit the App Store earlier this year.
With the launch of the Android app, players can – for the first time – view and share their runs online using the free ZombieLink service, complete with maps, full run history, and the ability to replay zombie chases so you can monitor your pace in relation to how close the zombies are. This feature will be rolled out to iOS devices later this month.
What does the app give you? Well…
- More than 30 missions, each lasting 20-30 minutes
- It can be played anywhere in the world, at any speed – from walking to jogging to running, and even on a treadmill
- Custom training and mission packs will be available for purchase to help novice and expert runners alike
- Distance, time, pace, are recorded for each run and can be viewed online for free
- The app allows players to listen to their own music and playlists while running
“We’ve had literally thousands of emails and tweets asking for Zombies, Run! to come to Android and Windows Phone, so we’re incredibly excited with these launches and the new features we’ve included, like Live Tiles for Windows Phone and improved text-to-speech for Android,” says Adrian Hon, CEO at Six to Start. “Our free ZombieLink service also puts us a step ahead of the competition with chase and music tracking, and full run annotation.”
So, as Hon notes, the app will also be launching for Windows Phone devices later this month, we’re told with five exclusive missions bundled.
We’re also told that more updates will be rolling out later this summer across all apps, including a beginner 5K training add-on, an interval training add-on, and extra free and paid mission packs. So, it seems that zombie fitness could turn into something of an industry.
Yes, $7.99 is quiet pricey for an app, but I suspect that folk will want to pay for this, even on Android. The tactic has paid off so far, with more than 100,000 downloads on iOS.
Image Credit: Mavis | Flickr
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