Zombies Ate My Neighbors

"Zombies usually stink"

Zombies Ate My Neighbors is an Action\Shooter developed by LucasArts. Before Resident Evil zombie hunting was, in my opinion a bit overrated. Most people out there praise this game, like the gaming magazines did back then when I was I young Nintendo funboy! But not me and although I see why this game is entertaining I also see why the fun fades away so fast…

Story: N/A

Graphics: 7/10

Notably the best aspect of this game since everything looks great. Medium sized cartoonish sprites full of detail, color and great animation. There is a great a variety of monsters and neighbors in need in the game, zombies, (of course!), walking toys, chainsaw wielding madmen, mummies, aliens, werewolves, sea men and generally every b-movie kind of creature and of course all the typical b-movie victims too, cheerleaders, tourists, etc. A nice variety in levels too which also have great design and are full of small details that enhance the scenery. A piece of nitpicking though, you'll be seeing the same places over and over since the game is veeery big and you might get a bit bored of seeing the same stuff all over again…

Sound: 4/10

Nothing really worth mentioning, apart from the… repetitive, boring and irritating music!!! I don't remember how many songs there are, (there aren't many), but since the levels are many and quite long and the music tracks aren't exactly masterpieces you'll soon get bored of them by the time you reach level 3. Sound effects on the other hand do their job ok.

Gameplay: 2/10

I just don't get how people like this game. The concept is simple and promising of good ol' school arcade fun and for an hour it really is fun! Avoid monsters or kill them with the large number of weapons available, collect keys to open doors and rescue your neighbors that wait for you in the 45 or so mazes. When you've saved all your neighbors or all neighbors are dead by monsters you move on to the next level and repeat with different monsters and a different level theme and again and again and on and on! The game is very long and its simple gameplay isn't addictive enough to keep you interested. Weapons although are many are for the most part useless and sometimes hard to use against certain fast moving dudes. The game is challenging but in a want-to-irritate-you kind of way. For example you start navigating through a vast maze to save a neighbor and when you do find him a monster kills him in front of your eyes. I don't know if this is bad programming or not, but I know its no fun at all. Yes there is some exploring involved in order to find keys and power-ups, lots of people to save and many mobs to kill, so??? Doing the same thing over and over in a game so large as this just isn't my thing…

Positives:
-Errr, the graphics only…

Negatives:
-Boring, irritating and extremely repetitive gameplay
-Boring music

Also Play:
Ghoul Patrol (SNES)
Soldiers Of Fortune, AKA The Chaos Engine (SNES & Mega Drive)

Overall: 4.3/10

Extremely long, repetitive and overrated. I still don't know why people like this but I strongly don't advice you to play it since there are far better games out there…

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 09/25/08

Game Release: Zombies Ate My Neighbors (US, September 1993)