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Zombies Ate My Neighbors

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Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Cover art of the Sega Genesis release
The cover art shows two male Zombies along with a female Zombie, the photos are taken from the movie Dawn of the Dead.
Developer(s)LucasArts
Publisher(s)Konami
Designer(s)Mike Ebert
Platform(s)Super NES, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Virtual Console
ReleaseNA 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 recieved as its predecessor, and thus no further sequels were produced.

Zombies Ate my Neighbors is listed on ESRB's website, meaning that the game has been given a rating and will appear on the Wii's Virtual Console soon.

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.

SNES Screen Shots

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Weapons and Items

The player starts out with a standard default weapon, a water gun. Other more powerfull weapons can be collected thoughout 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 footballs, Martian bubble guns, popsicles, lawnmowers, tomatoes, crosses and soda cans. Different weapons can also have diffrent effects on the games terrain. One powerful weapon, the bazooka, can break through hedges, walls and doors as well as deliver tremedous damage, But has a firing recoil which throws the user several paces backwards. The strongest weapon in the game is 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 games enemies are imitations of famous horror movie monsters. Each monster is unique in their own respects, as the descriptions below show.

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. They are as weak as Zombies and tend to copy the player's movements, stand still or move very slowly, making them very easy prey.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Giant Red Ant: A more powerful version of the Giant Black Ant, Giant Red Ants appear only in two stages. Giant Red Ants hold the record of the second-toughest normal enemy and the fastest enemy in the entire game.
  • 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, these guys are very quick and carry Martian Bubble Guns. A single Water Gun shot will cause a Martian to teleport elsewhere, so 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 just to go with the Water Gun.
  • Mushroom Man: Spawning from extra-terrestrial weeds, Mushroom Men are living fungi. They are very short creatures but are 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 tiniest enemies in the game and thus are difficult to kill.
  • 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.

Semi-Bosses

  • 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 auroa 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.
  • 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, and are usually found in large open areas.
  • 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 an ironic reference to the generational Vampire hunters of the Castlevania series.

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 but 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Trivia

  • The acronym for Zombies Ate My Neighbors (ZAMN) is what some deem a "Perfect Alphabetical Average." It consists of a Z, the final letter in the English alphabet, an A, the first letter in the English alphabet, and M and N, the two middle letters of the English alphabet.
  • While the "Zombies Ate My Neighbors" franchise dissolved after the sequel, LucasArts would release a game for the PlayStation called Herc's Adventures that was set in the world of ancient Greece and has a similar format to the ZAMN games.
  • The strategy of jumping over trampolines is used in the popular zombie spoof movie Shaun of the Dead as an homage to this game.
  • As of 2006 an independent horror movie is in the works that is called Zombies Are My Neighbors. The title is an homage to Zombies Ate My Neighbors. However, the plot is unrelated to the game. [citation needed]
  • The bonus level "Day of the Tentacle" can be accessed with the password "BCDF" - the first four letters of the vowel-less password input screen. Upon completion, level 1 begins, where the bazooka shots acquired in the bonus level can be used to access it one more time.
  • True Lies for the Super NES has been compared to ZAMN due to the level perspective and gameplay. It differs in that it is only one player and does not contain a horror theme.
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