Infectonator

""What if you are the one who caused the zombie apocalypse? Can you destroy the world in just 60 seconds?""

- The synopsis of the first game, Infectonator! 60 Second Edition, from the producers' homepage.

Infectonator! is a series of (currently) three turn-based strategy Web Games (with one spin-off with slightly different premises), all based upon making chain reactions and getting upgrades. The twist? It's all about making zombie apocalypses! Yes, you are a Mad Scientist hell bent on turning the world into a wasteland (and in one case ruining Christmas), and all you have is a deadly virus that can turn people into zombies.

The first entry, 60 Second Edition, released on December 4, 2009, had you try to infect and zombify as many people as possible in a single minute. Breaks were allowed for making upgrades, but once you ran out of time, that was it.

The second entry, Christmas Edition, was the same, but instead of 60 seconds, you had 25 days until Christmas, and each turn took a day. Also, you got to kill Santa.

Where the series really got off the ground, however, was when World Dominator got released. Not only did you get as many days as you'd need, but you could now attack actual cities and/or villages, as well as recruit actual celebrities to your undead legion! This added realism may have a factor in making those poor humans' anguish and suffering a lot more satisfying.

The third game released was Necronator, best described as "Infectonator meets Warcraft"; while a large part of the interface and controls in World Dominator remain, the setting and gameplay is completely changed to Medieval times, with you commanding a Necromancer who tries to take over the world with his undead. Unlike the other games, units are built over time from a preset building with income slowly provided, instead of being created from an infectious chain reaction. However, zombies and the original "infection" chain reaction ability from the first three games remain.

Necronator 2 was the fourth game in the series, It abandoned the gameplay of World Dominator for a complete strategy feel while improving the aesthetics and gameplay of its predecessor. The zombies and infection abilites are still present in a greatly nerfed form, however, the main draw is the multiple campaigns and huge variety of playable units and races.

Infectonator 2is the latest game in the series and returns to the formula of the original game. It retains most of the game-play of the original World Dominator while improving the visuals and tightening the core elements that made the original successful.

Tropes (applies to all games, but mostly World Dominator):

 * Apocalypse How: Your goal in two of the games is to cause a Class 3A apocalypse.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: "Tokyo has been attacked! 211 people have been killed today, 113 people have been infected and turned into zombies, and a car was destroyed!"
 * Attract Mode: The title screen shows the carnage to be expected in the game. Of course, it's blocked by an ad, so you have to close it to watch.
 * Bribing Your Way to Victory: In Infectonator 2, a small donation gets you nigh-invincible heroes and devastating support options.
 * The Cameo: World Dominator has several that start out as "heroes", but can be recruited to your army. Some change identities, too! (Spiderman -> Venom, for example)
 * Disaster Dominoes: The zombie pandemic tends to follow this pattern.
 * Enemy Chatter: You can see the people chatting away while wandering before you drop the virus on them ("It's a nice day, isn't it?"), or after ("OMG! ZOMBIEEEEEEESSSS!"). Improved in World Dominator, where the chatter comes in several languages, corresponding to the most likely area they would be spoken.
 * The dialogue is randomized among NPCs, though, so you can get hilarious instances like Spider-Man desperately asking "Where is cop??"
 * Enemy Mime: They turn into the same zombies as everyone else, unfortunately.
 * Global Currency: No matter where in the world you are, the money that spills from the bodies of the dead always comes in coins, money bags, and gems.
 * Level Grinding: With the extended timeframe of World Dominator, "easy mode" involves repeatedly playing the starting villages until you have enough money to buy enough upgrades to trash the population (and loot) dense cities over and over again, until all is not but cinders. And then you hop to the next landmass and do it all over again...
 * Ludicrous Gibs
 * Mad Scientist: You, the player.
 * Monster Clown: Zombie Ronald McDonald. Zombie... Ronald... McDonald.
 * Mood Whiplash: So you've got the nice jingles of some ordinary day in life, all melodious and---wait, did Jimmy turn into a zombie?! PANIC MUSIC! PANIC MUSIC!
 * Mighty Glacier: The Tank.
 * Mooks: Humans, naturally.
 * Elite Mooks: The special agents and Hero Units, who cannot be infected directly, but must be wailed upon by your zombies.
 * Our Zombies Are Different: Type P
 * Prequel: Necronator is a prequel to the series.
 * Rewarding Vandalism: You get bonus money for destroying a certain amount of settlements. The more you destroy, the bigger the payout.
 * Saving Christmas: Inverted in Christmas Edition; The goal is to ruin the holidays.
 * Shout-Out: Various towns/units. Among them are Raccoon Hill, Silent City, Northern Water Tribe, Boomer Santa, Rambo gets turned into a Tank, Spider-Man is protecting NYC, and when summoned, Michael Jackson does the Thriller.
 * Take Over the World: In World Dominator.
 * Take Your Time: The chaos doesn't start until the people start to turn green, you know!
 * In every game after Christmas Edition no matter how long you take conquering the world or how much damage you've done, nobody will ever wise and up and try to stop you.
 * Time Stands Still: In WorldDom, Zombie Michael Jackson does this briefly while introducing new zombies to the (8-Bit) tune of "Thriller". In later stages, it's actually the best way to ensure you pick up all the money dropped mid-way through a level.
 * A Winner Is You
 * Zombie Apocalypse: Your job in all of the games is to unleash one of these upon whatever your objective is.