The All Zombies Must Die! Avatar items are available on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace TODAY — if you haven’t seen the Zombie Pet, SWAT and Crazy Zombie Avatar costumes, and three zombie masks in action yet, check out the new video below.

The undead come in many shapes and sizes in All Zombies Must Die!; SWAT zombies, Crazy zombies, Mutant zombies, Jogger zombies. They all have their strengths and weaknesses, and everybody has their favourite.

Here’s the deal, then. To celebrate 1000 fans on our Facebook page, we’re running a special competition of sorts. We want you to design your own zombie type. Perhaps you’re envisaging a zombie clown, zombie politician or maybe a zombie Labrador. Whatever your idea, get a sketch of it committed to paper (or screen), and send it our way! If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you might like to offer a description with some habits, traits and skills for said zombie.

As well as having your work featured in a special community gallery for the entire world to see, we’ll be choosing the best zombie to appear in future All Zombies Must Die! content. Sometime soon, zombie slayers around the world could be killing YOUR zombie. Fancy that.

Post your designs straight to our Facebook page, or – if you prefer that Twitter malarky – Tweet ‘em to @doublesix or @JaminD6 – and we’ll sort them all out from there.

Here’s one I’ve done to get the ball rolling.

You can do better than that, of course — so get to work!

They’re a troublesome bunch, that zombie lot. They have no social skills, they’re not very pleasant on the eyes, they smell of rotting flesh and – to cap it all off – they’ll try and eat your brains.

That said, a domesticated member of the undead makes a rather loyal companion. The Classic Zombie pet – available now on the Xbox Live Marketplace for 320 MS points – will faithfully amble about next to your avatar without trying to bite anybody. Despite the fact it’s a zombie, you might find him rather cute.

Complimenting the zombie pet are two avatar costumes, allowing you to become one of the walking dead yourself. The Crazy and SWAT zombie dress-ups are also available on the marketplace today, for 240 MS points. The masks from each of these outfits can be bought individually, too, with a third Classic Zombie mask adding a third to your virtual wardrobe.

First things first: happy new year! 2012 is upon us, and with it, the release of All Zombies Must Die! on XBLA and – as of today – PSN. AZMD!, the Arcade RPG with item crafting, four player co-op and a hilarious script to tie it all together is available now for 800 Microsoft points or £7.99.

If you need something in the way of persuasion, here’s what some of the press have been saying:

“The light hearted and humorous tone of All Zombies Must Die! makes it a very fun game to play. Not to mention that it’s a fun title that even non-gamers might find themselves playing.” Just Push Start.

“All Zombies Must Die! provides the kind of retro gameplay with a modern lick of paint that the Xbox LIVE Arcade was designed for. It’s a perfectly formed videogame experience…” Electronic Theatre.

“AZMD looks to be a fun little title to burn the midnight oil with and in all honesty, it plays quite brilliantly”. Destructoid.

If sending the undead packing back to their graves sounds like your cup of tea, give the game a whirl!

Until next time…

If you’ve purchased one of the All Zombies Must Die! zombie companions for PlayStation Home, you might have noticed that your friends are unable to see your new pets. Fear not: we are working on the issue, and it should be remedied over the next couple of days. Apologies to anybody who has been affected by this problem.

All Zombies Must Die! has been awarded ‘game of the show’ by Final Boss Fight for this year’s MCM Expo – an accolade worth shouting from the rooftops given the quality of the other games on the show floor.

“So as you may or may not know, one of the very few gaming events to hit UK shores happened over the last weekend. The MCM Expo which turned out to be another great success in regards to attendance and the quality of games being shown off by developers. The list consisted of The Darkness 2, Skyrim, Street Fighter v Tekken, so on and so forth.

Now you may think that one of these games may have grabbed my “Best Game” at the show award, if you did then you would have been soooooooo wrong. That honor would go to Double Six for bringing over “ALL ZOMBIES MUST DIE”. A great XLBA and PSN title coming to our consoles in early 2012.”

Do read the rest of the article, which offers further justification for Final Boss Fight’s choice.

Taking some time out of scaring nervous attendees with his terrifying contact lens, Aaron made himself available on the MCM show floor to talk to Final Boss Fight about All Zombies Must Die!

Interview embedded below for your viewing pleasure.

At the MCM expo in London, it’s not strange to see spiky-haired warriors wielding swords bigger than they are, anthropomorphic beings dancing to J-Pop blaring out of portable speakers, and large bearded men dressed as school girls. It’s a celebration of comics, anime and games – and doublesix was there getting All Zombies Must Die! into the hands of as many people as possible.

Zombies, of course, go down rather well at such events, and we have a slew of photos to prove it. Check out a new post on the official All Zombies Must Die! site for a gallery of snaps from the show floor. Lots of good fan photos have been finding their way onto the AZMD Facebook page, too, most of which involve us trying to take a bite out of some poor attendee’s neck.

In addition to the public, a handful of journalists also got their hands on the game, including Final Boss Fight, The Average Gamer and Gamespot UK. The latter have their preview up on the interwebs already:

“The developer of All Zombies Must Die, Doublesix Games, has said its game is perfect for a Wednesday night in–when you invite your friends round and want to have some multiplayer fun. Playing the game at the developer’s MCM Expo stand, it’s clear to see why.”

Stay tuned for more from the MCM show floor over the coming days.

Two new previews have found their way onto the pages of This Is My Joystick.

The first is for Strike Suit Zero:

It might be early days, but Strike Suit Zero is already showing a lot of promise. Not a lot could be viewed during the demonstration, but if the development team manages to achieve everything they’ve set up to do, then it could end up being the first proper space combat game that is solely focused on the combat. Hell, even the story alone makes Strike Suit Zero a game worth keeping an eye on in the next few months.

And the second is for All Zombies Must Die!:

It’s easy to see just how creative Doublesix is from the time spent playing All Zombies Must Die! The game is full of small details that should set it apart from similar zombie games and twin stick shooters. In fact it’s a shame that it is not possible to play cooperatively online, but it still works like a charm in local play. This is definitely one game that zombie fans shouldn’t miss.

Oh, look! A new trailer for All Zombies Must Die! has found its way onto the interwebs. In this latest video, you can check out Jack, the gamer; Rachel, the girl; Brian, the geek; and Luxo, the alien, doing what they do best: killing zombies.