Zombies Ate My Neighbors

Zombies Ate My Neighbors
The cover art shows two male Zombies along with a female Zombie.
Developer(s)	LucasArts
Publisher(s)	Konami
Designer(s)	Mike Ebert
Platform(s)	Super NES, Sega Mega Drive, Virtual Console
Release	NA September, 1993 EU January 27, 1994
Genre(s)	Run and gun
Mode(s)	single player, Cooperative

Zombies Ate My Neighbors is a run and gun video game for the Super NES and Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis platforms. The game was produced by LucasArts as a comical tribute to both classic and schlocky horror films of the 1950s and 1960s.

A sequel entitled Ghoul Patrol was released in 1994, but was not as well received as its predecessor and no further sequels were produced. A similar game called Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia now out on the Xbox 360. It also contains references to Zombies Ate My Neighbors.

GamePro ranked Zombies Ate My Neighbors #9 in their "top ten games you never heard of" list in their 200th issue.

Recently, Zombies Ate My Neighbors was given a rating on ESRB's website, which means the game may appear on the Wii's Virtual Console.. It has since been listed on several gaming sites such as 1UP.com and IGN indicating an impending release. No official statement has been issued on a scheduled release date.

Gameplay

The player chooses between two teenage characters, Zeke and Julie, both of whom can be controlled in multiplayer mode. They navigate suburban neighborhoods, shopping malls, pyramids, and other areas, destroying a variety of horror-movie monsters, including vampires, werewolves, huge demonic babies, and the game's flagship, zombies. In each of the 48 stages (excluding the bonus levels) the goal is to rescue the surviving neighbors, at which point a magical door opens that will take the player to the next stage. However, if the player is not careful, any enemy in the game will kill the neighbors, preventing them from being saved. At least one neighbor must be saved from each level to progress to the next. The game is lost if all of the neighbors in a certain stage are killed or if the player(s) lose all of their lives. Scoring points earns players more neighbors to save and extra lives.

Weapons and Items

The player starts out with a standard default weapon, a water gun. Other more powerful weapons can be collected throughout the game, each with different effects on different enemies. For example, silverware would kill werewolves with one hit, a play on werewolves being vulnerable to silver. Some weapons included are footballs, Martian bubble guns, popsicles, weed-whackers, tomatoes, crosses and soda cans. Different weapons can also have different effects on the games terrain. One powerful weapon, the bazooka, can break through hedges, walls and doors as well as deliver tremendous damage, But has a firing recoil which throws the user several paces backwards. The strongest weapon in the game is the flamethrower found in the level Revenge of the Tongue.

The player also has a variety of secondary items available; these include inflatable clowns which act as decoys, Pandora's Boxes (smart bombs), speed boots and health kits. Most interesting are the monster potions, which give a variety of transformations depending on the potion's color. One potion can cause the player to become intangible like a ghost, enabling them to walk on water and straight through enemies to save the neighbors. Another can turn the player into a big purple Hulk-like monster who is indestructible and immensely strong, but unable to swim or use trampolines (this is a reference to the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde novel). Potions with a question mark will have a number of effects, at random. It can give the effects of the other potions, or heal or hurt the user, give the speed boots effect or even make them turn temporarily into a zombie, no longer controlled by the player but instead wandering aimlessly. If they come near a neighbor in this state they will attack and kill them.

Enemies

Zombies Ate My Neighbors has a diverse selection of enemies. Many of the game's enemies are imitations of famous horror movie monsters. Each monster is unique in its own respects, as evidenced by the descriptions below.

Normal enemies

• Doppelganger: Strange extra-terrestrial beings, Doppelgangers are alien impersonators. They spawn via strange plant-like pods near areas hit by meteors (a reference to Invasion of the Body Snatchers). These meteorites seem to offer the necessary nutrients to allow Doppelgangers to exist. With an identical apperance to the player-characters Zeke or Julie (which ever is present), they tend to multiply around the player and copy their movements.

• Evil Doll: Resembling Chucky doll of the Child's Play series, Evil Dolls spawn either from cardboard boxes in factories assembly lines or out of bags of toys in supermarkets. They move quickly, wielding small axes, either swinging or throwing them at the player. They are easily killed with soda cans.

• Fire Demon: Sometimes, upon being killed, an Evil Doll transforms into a Fire Demon. Fire Demons are one of the tougher normal enemies. The bonus level entitled "Someplace Very Warm" is inhabited solely by Fire Demons.

• Giant Black Ant: Giant Black Ants are the fourth toughest normal enemy. They are fast and have the ability to climb over walls and can also carry items away before the player is able to retrieve them. They are easily killed with space guns.

• Giant Red Ant: A more powerful version of the Giant Black Ant, Giant Red Ants appear only in two stages. Giant Red Ants are considered to be the second-toughest normal enemy and the fastest enemy in the entire game. They are most easily killed with space guns.

• Jelly Blob: Jelly Blobs are animate masses of red goo spawning from toxic wastelands. They are an homage to The Blob, and like it, can only be killed by cold - namely, fire extinguishers or popsicles.

• Martian: Big-brained aliens from Mars, Martians are very quick and carry Martian Bubble Guns. A single Water Gun shot will cause a Martian to teleport elsewhere; unless they are attacked with a tomato, they will never be truly "killed." Even destroying the Martian Spaceship will not stop the Martians from respawning.

• Mummy: Mummies are an all-around average enemy. Soda Cans are useful (one-hit kill) but often it is easier to utilize the Water Gun.

• Mushroom Man: Spawning from extra-terrestrial weeds, Mushroom Men are living fungi. They are very short creatures, and not considerably tough.

• Pod Plant: Always found surrounded by extra-terrestrial weeds, Pod Plants are the toughest normal enemy. They are purple in color and have several tube-like projections jutting out from their upper side. From a distance, Pod Plants appear to be inanimate. However, whenever the player steps too close to one, it will spew plant juices from its tubes which have incredible range. The Water Gun is ineffective against the Pod Plant and will actually feed it, causing the weed around it to grow faster.

• Spider: They are the smallest enemies in the game and are able to quickly surround the player.

• Squidman: The Zombies Ate My Neighbors version of the creature from the Black Lagoon, Squidmen are the only enemies in the entire game that can swim underwater. Therefore, they are the only enemy that can damage the player while swimming or kill an innertube using neighbor.

• Tentacle: Tentacles appear only in Level One's bonus level, Day of the Tentacle and the credit level, Monsters Among Us. They do not spawn on-screen, but rather appear sporadically as the player moves around the stage. These weird creatures move around surprisingly quickly when attacking.

• Werewolf: Werewolves are the third toughest normal enemy though a single hit with silverware will destroy them. They either appear like other enemies (spawning randomly) or in certain levels containing Werewolf-Tourist Victims. The Werewolf-Tourist Victims always appear in threes and individually turn into Werewolves after certain time intervals.

• Zombie: Zombies are among the weakest enemies, dying with a single hit of any offensive weapon. They spawn usually in groups on-screen by climbing up through the ground, as if already buried. Only male zombies are featured in the game.

Semi-Bosses

• Stanley Decker the Chainsaw Maniac: A combination of Jason Voorhees of Friday the 13th and Leatherface of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. He can cut through walls and hedges with its chainsaw and has a large amount of health.

• Flying Head: This unique enemy is a play on the final boss of the game and appears only in the Credit Level, Monsters Among Us. Rather than basing its appearance off a Horror Movie Monster, it is drawn to resemble an average person.

• Martian Spaceship: This massive craft flies around the level constantly attempting to shock the player with electricity bolts. Destroying it is not necessary, but doing so will net over 14,400 points.

• Tonguenstein: An representation of Frankenstein's monster surrounded in an aura of electrical energy, these enemies are hodgepodges of various human parts assembled and reanimated by Dr. Tongue. Tonguensteins are only found in Dr. Tongue's laboratories, and so their numbers are few. Use the cross to kill these while remaining unharmed by their electric attacks.

• Titanic Toddler: A 40 foot tall baby that returns it to normal size when defeated, creating an extra victim and a skeleton key. They move incredibly fast, trample the players flat, and scald them with their bottles. They are usually found in large open areas. 4-5 Pandoras Boxes will shrink it, providing an extra neighbor.

• Snakeoids: Giant sandworms similar to those found in the movie Tremors. All one can see is a bump in the dirt moving around, until it attacks.

• Vampire: Vlad Belmont by name, these semi-bosses are not as tough as Chainsaw Maniacs or Tonguensteins but their defensive and offensive maneuvers are the most advanced of any enemy. They can turn into bats and fly around the level, following the game character. They can also dispatch a bat which can turn corners. They can even disappear temporarily and reappear in a different location. The last name Belmont is a reference to the generational Vampire hunters of the Castlevania series. Crosses and Pandora Boxes are the best weapon here.

Bosses

Dr Tongue is the only boss the player fights in the game, but he makes two appearances, once in level 36 and once in the final level. In both appearances he takes a potion. During his first appearance, the potion only teleports him away; the second time, it turns him into a giant spider. The spider continuously covers the ground in webs, spawns normal spiders and moves randomly across the screen at great speed.

He takes another form once the spider is defeated; a giant floating head that spews floods of tongues on the player. As he takes more damage, his shape deteriorates in four different stages, making his movements more erratic and his design more damaged.

Victims

Zombies Ate My Neighbors also has diverse cast of "neighbors", including tourists, explorers, babies, cheerleaders, dogs, and even more. Each level has a maximum of ten neighbors, but if they all die without the player saving even one throughout the stage, the game is over. Every victim is vulnerable to the various monsters in some way throughout the game.

In-game references

The game makes several references to horror movies, including An American Werewolf in London, Child's Play, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Mars Needs Women, Dracula, Night of the Living Dead, Friday the 13th, Them!, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Day of the Triffids, and Tremors, as well as the classical novel Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

The final villain of the game is named "Dr. Tongue," first referenced in the level "Dr. Tongue's Castle of Terror". This is perhaps an homage to George A. Romero's Day of the Dead. The first zombie shown in the film was given the nickname "Dr. Tongue" during production because he is missing his jaw and has a protruding tongue. The name could also be based on the character of the same name portrayed by John Candy on the 1970s-80s TV series SCTV.

One of the levels is called "Where the Red Fern Growls", and is a parody of Wilson Rawls' novel Where the Red Fern Grows. It may also be a reference to the red weed from The War of the Worlds. Additional parodies include "Mars Needs Cheerleaders," a reference to the Sci-Fi film "Mars Needs Women," and "Seven Meals For Seven Zombies," which is a parody of Seven Brides For Seven Brothers.

Another level is called "The Day the Earth Ran Away" which is a reference to the classic sci-fi movie The Day the Earth Stood Still There is also a level called "Dances with Werewolves", which is a parody of the movie Dances with Wolves,

There is another level called "Martians Go Home," which is reference to the Fredric Brown story of the same name and the 1990 film adaptation.

A hidden bonus level, Day of the Tentacle, is a reference to the LucasArts adventure game of the same name. This is an example of an Easter egg.

Censorship

Due to the theme of the game, it was subject to some censorship. In some countries the name was considered unsuitable, and so it was renamed simply Zombies. The chainsaw-wielding lunatics were replaced with lumberjacks with axes, and levels such as "Chainsaw Hedgemaze Mayhem" were renamed to suit.

External links

• Maniac Zombies – a Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Ghoul Patrol and Maniac Mansion fansite
• Zombies Ate My Neighbors at MobyGames