Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse [Xbox]

How far can one joke go? Pretty far, it turns out, if the joke involves digging teeth into the soft skulls of the citizenry. Stubbs the Zombie is a sort of full conversion of Halo; Master Chief has become a rotting old cat named Edward "Stubbs" Stubblefield and the Covenant are the cops and townspeople of Punchbowl, PA. And while the game reveals the Halo engine to be aging as well as a dead body, it masks the decay with the pure fun of zombification.

Stubbs wakes from his deathly slumber in Punchbowl, a city that has hit the future 50 years early. Cars hover, robots perform menial tasks, and crime is largely a thing of the past. So why the well-trained police force? Let's say they're remnants of the old society, with nothing better to do than hunt Stubbs.

First things first: when faced with a load of cops, create an army. In true zombie style, creating the undead is a remarkably simple process. Eat a person's brains, and they'll rise a few seconds later. Even swiping them in the face a few times or pulling off an arm will do the trick. But braineating is ideal, as it also provides Stubbs with health and powerups.

That power is terribly useful, as Stubbs has more abilities than the average zombie. His flatulence, for one, stuns any human unlucky enough to catch a whiff. His guts can be tossed as explosives, and even Stubbs' head can roll like a gruesome, deadly bowling ball. In a whimsical "pull my finger" follow-up to the flatulence attack, Stubbs' left hand can roam free. Grab a person's head and they become a meat puppet for a short time, providing Stubbs with more conventional firepower.

Having said all that, Stubbs sounds unique and pretty cool. And it is, for a while. But the great moments seen in the first hour are almost identical to those seen in the last. There's some vehicle combat and a poorly executed dance sequence, and even some pretty amusing co-op play. But Stubbs never gets beyond that first gag (take that how you will) of biting into the squishy, spurting brains of helpless folk. Read that phrase 20 times. If it's still appealing the last time, buy the game. Otherwise, think twice.

Not that the small group of core components means Stubbs is entirely basic. Cops and rednecks quickly arrive with more powerful weaponry, making Stubbs and his lurching followers more vulnerable. A sort of strategy emerges, in which players make zombies to use as cover and fodder. The most satisfying moments in the game are those where a few cop zombies distract a human long enough for Stubbs to nick around behind him and chow down. It's just like in the movies, and it's fun every time.

More remarkable than the attempt at fun zombie combat, however, is that the Halo engine feels as dated as Paris Hilton. Stubbs himself gets lots of attention, and fellow zombies are almost as impressive. But they all seem to slide rather than shuffle. Halo has always felt a little floaty... when jumping, Stubbs looks like a sail in flight. And though the entire game is predicated upon physical interaction, there's rarely a sense that anything has weight or momentum. Even the large floating vehicles can be toppled by a breeze, or so it seems.

The city is also too empty to really sell the idea of a futuristic paradise. Wideload Games seemed to think that making huge buildings in some retro-futuristic style would compensate, but the towering environments only make plain that you can never quite assemble the massive zombie army you desire.

And though the soundtrack is excellent and much of the dialogue very, very funny, the game is riddled with audio issues. As in most free-roaming games, be prepared to hear plenty of repetitive dialogue. Wideload has created some great lines to be screamed by the zombie fodder, but inside of two hours they'll all be familiar. And the stereo panning of sounds is terrible, with sounds jumping all over the place as Stubbs turns around.

Thankfully, the game's humor and action overcomes the technical glitches. The brain-crunching animations are so much fun that, coupled with the peoples' cries for help, it's easy to get lost in Punchbowl, even as you realize that there's not much there. The co-op mode is a little icing on the cake, but it's sad to see such a skimpy multiplayer outing. Obviously, the scenario is ripe for all sorts of team-based cop-on-zombie action. All our misgivings about the solo campaign could be forgotten if only there was a way to recreate George Romero's greatest hits. Hopefully, that'll come around next time, and on the 360 to boot.