75. Zombies Ate My Neighbors

(Snes/MD/Genesis/Wii Virtual, LucasArts, 1993)
Have a look at my profile, see what I like? Exploitation films. From girl gangs wielding switchblades to the finest in Italian horror, I love the cheap, uncheerful world of movies that were knocked out in a week for less than the cost of a bottle of Sunny Delight. Horror was big in the 50s, with every monster ever dreamt up crammed onto cinema screens up and down America. I shed a tear to think that I wasn't a part of that drive-in scene and never will be. Modern multiplexes leave me hollow.

Zombies is a game that takes all those old monster movie cliches and squeezes every single one of them into one of the finest games ever produced, One or two players take control of our heroes Zeke and Julie and must run their way through about 55 top-down levels, arming themselves with whatever they can find, fighting off hordes of the undead whilst rescuing tourists, babies, family pets and cute cheerleaders before the monsters can get to them.

The game features a huge variety of locations and monsters and provides a massive arsenal of household goods to defend yourself with: water pistols, soda cans, lawnmowers, silverware, ice lollies and even tomatoes can be used to fend off the zombies, killer dolls, werewolves, mermen, mummies and blobs intent on making this Zeke and Julie's final reel. A variety of items and potions can be find with various effects, inflatable clowns distract the enemy, Pandora's box clears the screen and one potion in particular turns our heroes into giant raging beasts, able to pound their way through ghoulies and the environment. Upon finding all the innocents, a portal opens to whisk Z+J off to the next level.

Zombies is just awesome. As playable today as it was on release, Zombies has slick, colourful graphics, spooky baddies, humorous weaponry and provides a tough challenge that is still difficult today. The soundtrack, by Joe McDermott and George Alistair Sanger, is one of my favourite soundtracks of all time and is a perfect 16-bit rendition of the spooky, guitar twanging tunes that accompanied many haunted house movies back in horror's golden age. "Evening of the undead" is one of my favourite pieces of VGM ever.

If I could only play ten games again for the rest of time, Zombies Ate My Neighbours would have a well deserved spot on the list. Its fast, it looks good, it sounds better, it has great co-op, it's witty, it's a solid challenge and it's still playable after nearly 17 years.
If you haven't yet, I implore you to play Zombies, it's all the proof you'll ever need that a game doesn't need DLC, celebrity endorsement, Hollywood voices, three different special editions or any other gimmicks, it can get by on being pure, unashamed fun.