Review: Zombies Ate My Neighbors

Originally Posted December 18, 2008 at adamgameapprentice.blogspot.com:

I'd like to start doing two posts a week, roughly - one will contain something that I've already written, and one will be original for that week. My "Original" post for today will be a review of an older game that you may or may not have heard of called "Zombies Ate My Neighbors."

Obviously, with a title like that, it isn't a game that takes itself very seriously. The game an SNES and Genesis arcade-style top-down action game in which you play as one of two functionally-identical kids, a boy or a girl. Armed with a water gun, popsicles, soda cans, crosses, Martian Bubble Guns, and the like, you fight off hordes of undead and other monsters in an attempt to defeat the poorly-developed Dr. Tongue.

Honestly, this game is almost exactly what it tries to be - an enjoyable arcade-style action game that you can pick up, play for a while and have some fun, then come back to it later, or that you can play for a long time and attempt to beat. However, because this game isn't in an arcade, it has several flaws. One thing: It's too hard. The game starts fairly easy, and has health packs that you can pick up and use later, but the difficulty in later levels is over-the-top. The evil dolls, chainsaw murderers, and (oh god) sand worms are especially vicious, not to mention hard-to-avoid. Not only that, but if you continue from a password, you lose all your special items and weapons. Simply put, this game needs a couple of things to make it work - the option of lower difficulty, and save files. Don't get me wrong, I love a good challenging game, but without the option to save effectively, and without the possibility of a lower difficulty, it just isn't fun.

The plot in this game is almost entirely explained in the instruction manual. One change that could be made there would be to have the standard "intro plot" of most arcade games, where if you just leave the controller lying there the plot rolls before you start the game. That would be nice. Additionally, some sort of after-level plot (complete with cheesy narrating?) would be nice, if not after every level, then after every five or so. This game was practically tailor-made for the cheesy plot of a B-movie - the level names and general tone of the game are basically a playable B-movie, after all - so it's a pity that one wasn't included.
Another thing about this game is the length. Again, don't get me wrong, I love a good long game, but the challenge and annoyance of passwords makes this game feel like it drags on. I think that this problem would be mostly fixed by adding in very brief bits of cheesy plot, lower difficulty, and a better save option.

There are several things that this game does do right. The biggest thing that this game gets right that kills many action games is variety. Variety of enemies, variety of weapons, variety of power-ups, variety of level design - this game gets it right. The enemies are many and varied, the power-ups (like the inflatable clown decoys! Brilliant! If annoying-sounding) are fantastic, and the weapons are inspired. The level design is also very well-done (if challenging) - big thumbs-up to whoever did the level design for this game. The neighborhood, warehouse, shopping mall, hedge maze, and all the other levels all feel different and great. The pacing, similarly, is well done, largely because of the variety of things - though interjecting bits of plot between levels would add to it.

One other thing to complain about is having to wander around to find the last hostage. The radar is nice, but the levels are annoyingly large at times, and it's often very difficult to get to the hostages before the undead do. It's hard to find a solution here - making it less linear would be one way to do it, but I love the large stages. One solution might be to let you leave a level after you rescue, say half or three-quarters of the hostages - you can progress without having to scour the level for the path to get to the last hostage, but you lose some points that you would have gotten. Or at least giving you an item that lets you do this - maybe once every couple of levels you get another "get out of this level free" item? I think making the levels at least a bit more linear would help, or have the radar be more helpful (when there's tons of obstacles in my way, knowing which general direction to go isn't a great help).

There's not much to say about the graphics - they are pretty good for the SNES/Genesis, and fit the atmosphere.
The sound is also quite good - though there are effects that are annoying, and BGM's that really get on my nerves. That said, everything fits the tone of the game, so that's something. Slightly less annoying music and sound effects would be great, or at least the ability to change their relative volume.

Basically, this game needs a bit polish for it to shine, but it is already quite a good game, considering when it was made. An update would include difficulty levels, save files, some sort of option to get out of a level without wandering around it, slightly more linear levels - or at least some better way to tell where to go, slightly different sound, and bits of plot here and there. Then it would be the game that it tried to be, pretty much perfectly, at least to me - a quirky, retro-feeling fun little action game with an undead theme. It still wouldn't make anyone's "best games of all time" list, probably, but it would be fun for those who like the genre, and a solid little game - maybe an 8. Not especially outstanding, but certainly worth playing, and worth beating if you get some solid enjoyment out of it.