Zombies Ate My Neighbors Review

Developed by LucasArts and published by the legendary Konami, Zombies Ate My Neighbors was an arcade-y shooter where a duo of characters had to save humans from inhuman creatures like the ones found in those super-old horror movies, from mummies and werewolves, to aliens and flesh-eating plants and, of course, lots of zombies. It was a moderate success, mainly because of relatively strong marketing, so pretty much everyone would have heard of it one way or another – but was it actually any good? Here’s a look back to the past to learn all about this spooky cult classic from the early ’90s.

Oh dear! Something happened and now 3D glasses-wearing, punk hair-sporting Zeke and generic tall girl with hair-in-a-ponytail Julie have to defend their neighbours from all kinds of horrors straight from the ’50s. This oozes with that special retro, b-movie vibe. It’s essentially a cartoon parody of the eras it takes its inspiration from, and that has affected everything from the in-between level transitions and stage names, the music and, of course, the monsters that the duo will have to fight against – and it all looks great.

It isn’t exactly the game that will make your SNES sweat, but it is super appealing visually, with its big and more-than-decently animated sprites, vibrantly coloured suburbs, shopping malls, haunted castles, and so on. The neighbours that need saving are quite the sight as well. Chubby, clueless tourists, babies, grumpy teachers, cheerleaders, and more await the rescuing touch of the two heroes.

As is the case with many video games that rely a bit too much on their style, there’s not exactly much meat on the bones of this. The basic premise revolves around the player character trying to find as many humans before the various bad things that are scattered around manage to reach them. Once all neighbours have been saved (the ones that survived, that is) an exit door appears, and one can now move on to the next level. Repeat that for more than 40 stages, and you have Zombies Ate My Neighbors. During this process, Zeke and Julie need to shoot whatever stands between them and those poor, defenceless, and, frankly, moronic humans.

Initially combat will be done via a simple push-the-trigger-and-shoot water gun (yup, water gun), but additional types of weapons will soon be found. If you are expecting shotguns and grenades, keep on waiting. This goes the very ’90s route of “funny” weaponry like soda cans, popsicles, weed whackers, and much more, with most taking some time to get to know what the heck they actually do. The bestiary is equally diverse, with all sorts of nasties populating each level, and frequently players will have to change the way they play, with one example being the first encounter with the title’s version of a chainsaw-wielding Jason Voorhees, who apart from being quite the tough nut, can create openings in the hedge maze he will be confronted in.

Is the whole thing fun? Yes! For how long? Not for more than an hour, sadly. Apart from minor flaws, like the scrolling inventory that has you pushing a button until the weapon you want finally appears, the main reason is how repetitive it soon turns out to be. After, say, level 10 or so, there’s little to differentiate stage A from B, as the changes are superficial, and apart from an increase in difficulty, most won’t really feel as if they are getting somewhere. It’s pretty much like playing Pac-Man; you play just for the fun of it, only there isn’t that much fun to be had here.

The levels themselves feel like a random take on a main theme. For example, there’s the suburbs theme, with houses that can be entered, the grass areas, the pool, and so on and so forth. Each ‘suburbs’ level is pretty much the same, only with enemies, neighbours, and items placed at different spots, along with some changes in the overall structure of the map. It’s the typical problem that many 16-bit titles had. Rather than increasing the difficulty sky-high to artificially prolong the game’s length like in the 8-bit era, here the developer “inflated” the experience by spreading the same content over 40 stages.