What Do Smart Zombies Want? Apps For Better Brains!

I’m not sure what kind of geeky conversations go on in your households, but a common lament in my house is the lack of quality zombie apps on the market. Rather than listening to this diatribe yet again, I suggested that my son write it all down. Here’s his take on the state of the zombie app market, along with his idea of the perfect zombie app.

Do you have a strange obsession with the undead? I certainly do, but when I look for apps that are zombie related, they’re always either violent or boring. A solution? An app that is

• Educational. If you’re going to be on an app, may as well get more brains.
• Entertaining. I despise boring apps, especially educational ones.
• Non-Gory. Zombies don’t have to splatter blood even if they need a little brain hors d’oeuvre every once in a while.

So how could this be combined, while making it attractive to geeky kids?  Maybe something like this.

The app could ask this question: You’re trapped in a pet store. You have locked the zombies in the back room, but need that space. In order to get in without getting attacked, you need to do some quick thinking.

Each zombie used to have a pet. The number of pets each zombie had are: 3, 2, 0, 5, 10, 6, 4, 1, 9, and 10.

What is the mean number of pets formerly owned by the zombies? What is the modal number of pets owned by the zombies, and what is the median number of pets?

A: Mean: 5, Median: 4.5, Mode: 10

B: Mean: 8, Median: 6, Mode: 0

C: Mean: 0, Median: 6, Mode: 8

Say you answered A.

A: is correct. The average number of pets owned by zombies is 5. The middle number of pets owned by zombies is 4.5, and the most common number of pets is 10.

Then a game screen would come up. It would look like a whack-a-mole stand, except at the top it said Whack-un-dead.

Hands would start to rise from the ground, like the moles in whack-a-mole, and you could tap to hit them.

Say you answered B or C:

Hands would start to come from the corners of the screen and make the screen look like it was cracking. Then a scream. The question would come up again with the wrong answer you just guessed marked by an X that looks like it was made by finger nails.

Sounds pretty cool right? I’ve looked for apps in the past. One was called Math Zombie. I thought this would be perfect. I opened the app, and it turned out just to be a math game that had nothing at all to do with zombies. I then tried an app called Zombie Farm. It turned out to be fun, non-gory, but not educational. Then Zombie Pizza. I thought this would be good with fractions and things. It was, again, fun, non-gory, but taught absolutely nothing. I’ve searched just zombie in general in the app store, and the ones that come up are often violent. Some of these other games do have valuable skills to offer though, like hand eye coordination, faster reaction times, and strategy. But they don’t have just plain skills out in the open. Maybe someday this is will be a reality, but for now, good look finding an app  that’s not soaked in red, entertaining enough to raise the dead, and helps build your BBRRAAAIIIIINNNSSS!!!!!!!

—Missing-Limb Tim

So, GeekMom readers, can you help a Geekling out?  Does anyone have a worthwhile zombie app to recommend for a discriminating tween?