Of all the more difficult games I’ve played in my time, few have kept me coming back in
the same way as Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Developed by LucasArts and Released in 1993
by Konami for the Super NES and Sega Genesis, what made this game a standout over others
at the time was its unique nod to the horror industry. This run-and-gun couch co-op monster
mash paid a special homage to classic hollywood horror films as well as more recent movies
for the time like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday The 13th, and Child’s Play. Each
level was packed with almost every horror movie monster trope you could think of, including
vampires, werewolves, giant demonic babies, squidmen, evil dolls, aliens, UFOs, giant
ants, blobs, eldritch sand worms, and of course- zombies. On top of that, it featured simple,
yet fun and engaging gameplay. Each level is basically a race to find and
save your neighbors before they are devoured by monsters, which proves to become harder
and harder as the monsters progressively become faster and stronger. It featured controls
that made sense and utilized the entire gamepad without becoming too complex. This was back
during the time when local couch multiplayer was the only kind of multiplayer and friends
would invite each other over to see if they could take on a game together. People. I’m
talking video game, rent-a-bad movie, pizza party sleepovers. These were good times.
It featured a spooky 16-bit soundtrack that was reminiscent of those classic B-horror
films that were so bad, they were kinda good. Also this may be the only game where you kill
zombies with water guns and find bazookas in cupboards. If there was ever a SNES title
that was the embodiment of that spooky and cheesy Halloween spirit, it would be this
game. While this game isn’t necessarily scary or terrifying, it does have its fair
share of high-tension, anxiety-inducing moments. And so, I thought what better way to celebrate
than with 20 Memorable Monsters, Moments and Levels in Zombies Ate My Neighbors.
These days, games often start with a tutorial period that take up a lot of time before you
actually get to playing the game. Zombies Ate My Neighbors was different. That moment
in the 2nd level when daytime gradually turns into night as you realize this isn’t one
of those games that wastes time on easy intros. If you’re not quick enough to react, a few
neighbors might just become dinner here.
That feeling you’d get
when you saw a neighbor’s location on your GPS and then heard a horrifying “NO!”
as the blip disappeared from the radar. Not only does it leave you feeling like you’ve
failed as a hero- it also means that neighbor will be lost in subsequent levels. That’s
right. If you fail to save a neighbor, you get one less neighbor the next round. And
you only get 10 to start with. If you can manage to keep all 10 neighbors
alive by the end of each level, the game rewards you with an extra life for yourself after
racking up a certain amount of points. However if any have been eaten, the game will instead
give you back one of those victims. If you lose all your lives or let the number of survivors
drop to zero, it’s game over. Thus, as much as these bystanders deserve
to die for just standing around amidst the current circumstances, seeing it happen is
never a good time. Keeping everyone alive proves to become almost impossible as the
game progresses. This cycle will continue until you’ve either beaten the game at Level
48 which let’s be honest, few people can actually say they’ve done without cheating-
or you’ve let all your neighbors get eaten.
This is the level where you can first hear maniacal laughter echoing somewhere in the
background. It’s when you realize where said laughter is coming from, that it suddenly
becomes a NOPE-fest very fast. These evil dolls don’t just throw axes across the room
unfairly taking out neighbors before you’re able to get to them- they’re a bitch to
kill and will walk around without a head for awhile- ON FIRE.
Alright… just beat the 3rd level- this game isn’t so hard. On to Level 4!!!! Oh. The
tone is immediately set with the drastic change in music. This game doesn’t give a f**k
about throwing chainsaw-wielding Jason-Leatherface hybrids your way early on. What makes it worse
is that these monsters had a tendency to chase you into more of them. It’s pretty much
impossible to not lose a life, let alone save all 10 neighbors in this labyrinth without
using the inflatable clowns and bazookas you picked up in the shopping mall stage before.
Wait- you did grab those… right?
In the Pyramid of Fear Level, the background soundtrack is grooving, and hidden passageways
connecting the dark corridors make this maze of sorts feel easily navigable- that is until
you realize that behind every sarcophagus scattered throughout, are mummies who hobble
towards you at an alarming pace. They don’t go down easy with holy water, and the stone
doors that permanently block passageways once you’ve walked through them don’t help
either.
“Titanic Toddler” as its name suggests, pits you against a gigantic baby. I know.
I know. Some of you are gonna say, “Well Blue, it’s just a giant baby. That’s not
frightening.” But think about it. Babies are already weird. Have you SEEN a baby? They
look like ALIENS. They’re low-key uncanny valley status. And the way they cry and whine
and scream and poop everywhere is a NO for me. Imagine a giant one 8 times the size of
an adult. Hungry. Screaming. Staring. Even if you don’t suffer from a strong fear of
babies, you can’t tell me that isn’t absolutely terrifying. This is where having a beast potion
comes in really handy. If you don’t have that, the level is sometimes forgiving enough
to spawn bazookas and extra first aid kits. But you can generally expect to get flattened
at least once or twice. You end up fighting a giant baby 3 times throughout the whole
game. Afterwards they turn into regular-sized babies. Which begs the question, what or who
made them titanic in the first place?
Mars Needs Cheerleaders is a level that is pretty self-explanatory. This one was just
as frightening as it was infuriating. The way the martians move is like how cockroaches
move. They’re so jittery and unpredictable, jolting in all directions shooting at you
and the neighbors you’re trying to save. And that wasn’t the unnerving part. It was
when you start getting stalked by the mothership which also moves in a jittery pattern. Sometimes
it would leave you alone, but it would always come back eventually. If you were somehow
able to dodge the saucer’s lightning and getting bubble zapped, you still had to avoid
getting tackled by football players who for some reason, are STILL playing on the field.
And let’s be honest, if this were a real-life scenario, we’d GIVE them the cheerleaders.
Lightning Bruiser is a term from TV Tropes. It basically means something that can hurt
you real bad, and move real fast. And half the enemies in the game are just that. Werewolves,
spiders, evil dolls, the squidmen when they're under water, all the bosses, the vampires,
even the MUMMIES are surprisingly fast and can make getting to certain victims nearly
impossible. While the standard zombies really are the walking dead, the rest of these enemies
are more of the sprinting variety. Fast-moving undead are akin to natural disasters- often
times you never stood a chance. Personally, I think the concept of slower moving zombies
is scarier, simply because with those, you actually had a shot at survival and death
here would come from human error.
The very startup menu to the game is memorable in itself. The hypnotic red and black circles
and the drull horror movie theremin really bring you into that dreaded post-apocalyptic
state-of-mind. And when you select an option, an evil laugh echoes in the background, almost
as if you’ve just signed a contract with The Devil. Someone is happy to see you sign
on to the upcoming terror. It really seals the thought that you’re getting yourself
into some trouble. That anticipation and subtle adrenaline boost that happens whenever you’re
about to embark on something potentially horrifying- it’s similar to right before you talk to
a ouija board. You know- cause we’ve all done that… right? Of course, we know now
that the scares here are more of a cheesy 90s variety, but as a kid, starting up this
game alone after bedtime was an experience.
The game features an interesting variety of random weapons made up of commonplace objects.
Certain items are even super-effective against specific enemies, like silverware and werewolves.
Then for the harder moments, you have the mystery potion which has a random side-effect.
One makes you sprint which can come in pretty handy when you need to catch certain neighbors
before they turn into werewolves in certain levels. One will temporarily make your character
ghostly and unable to be touched by monsters. One temporarily turns you into a beast that
is invulnerable to damage and can tear through monsters. And then there’s one that will
turn you into Mr. Hyde, who will take the game out of your control and actively hunt
down and kill neighbors or your partner if you’re in co-op mode. If you’re running
low on neighbors, this could very well mean game over.
There's all kinds of monsters roaming about, but the neighbors you have to rescue apparently
just don't seem to care. They’re too busy hanging out in pools, barbequing, jumping
on trampolines, or lecturing you on your failing grade to even react when a monster is nearby.
The only victim npc that seems even remotely normal is the soldier too scared out his wits
to pick up the nearby bazooka and defend himself. Other than that, they just continue with their
daily lives, smiling as if it’s normal to have monsters roaming outside. It’s like
if M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Happening” and a bad zombie movie had a weird birth child
and this was it. Imagining this same scenario in real life, it doesn’t seem you can even
trust your neighbors. Is there something in the air causing them to behave this way?
So if the chopping mall wasn’t enough to give you extreme pediophobia, perhaps Level
10, No Assembly Required, will do the trick. This was a stage I always dreaded. The entire
level is a factory full of demonic psycho dolls trying to kill you. No corner is safe
for very long, as the dolls tend to just break out of the countless storage crates that line
the factory and give chase immediately. Maniacal laughter seemed to be on a loop here. In this
particular scenario, it was really easy to use up lots of valuable resources and tons
of health to reach a neighbor. Sometimes, you just gotta cut your losses.
Level 16 introduces gargantuan ants. These insane insects will mimic your movements and
close in on you if you stop moving entirely. The most efficient way to get rid of them
is with a bazooka. What makes them a pain is that they can move precious gear away from
you AND crawl over walls. At least when a hockey mask cuts open a passageway to get
to you, you can use that same opening to escape. Ants are one the most cunning and predatory
species to exist in our world. It’s a serious stroke of luck by nature that they’re as
tiny as they are, otherwise they’d be at the top of the foodchain. Did I mention there
are red ants later on in the game? With these ants, you’re essentially trapped with them
unless you can find a group of hedges to blast a hole through. That is assuming you haven’t
wasted all your missiles on keeping them at bay.
The standard npc isn’t all that threatening. One squirt of holy water and they’re done.
They do pace slightly faster once they’ve spotted you, but for the most part, they’re
not too much to worry about. It’s when they start spawning in high numbers and you’re
stuck in between switching out your weapons. The game features an interesting switching
mechanic in that you can only scroll forwards through your inventory, which means if you’ve
managed to collect a large arsenal, getting to that weapon you need in a pinch will be
a high-stress situation.
You’re not safe on land or in the water. Level 18 takes you to a beach roaming with
green monsters resembling The Creature From The Black Lagoon. These rabid creatures behave
much like werewolves, hopping across the map to your location, monster claws at the ready.
In water, they appear as a patch of green bubbles speeding towards you. While they generally
tend to target the player, they will occasionally hop out of the water and land directly on
top of a neighbor to claw them down, long before you’re able to jump out of the water
and save them yourself. Knowing your neighbors could be wiped out at any moment makes this
level one of the more high-tension experiences.
Throughout the castle you need to fend off zombies, werewolves, blobs, body-snatchers,
poisonous fungal weeds, mummies, and even a Frankenstein monster. If that wasn’t enough,
this level also had a vampire. Unless you had a healthy stock of crucifixes, this transforming
bat would follow you throughout the whole map, adding an extra layer of difficulty to
staying alive.
In Level 36: Monster Phobia, you find yourself face-to-face with Dr. Tongue, who drinks a
potion that transforms him into a gargantuan spider! If you haven’t collected any beast
potions up to this point, this boss is usually where the road ends. The giant spider leaves
webbing all over the floor, making your character move at a snail’s pace. What’s more, the
spider jolts around sporadically, kiting you while unleashing a barrage of milky venom
bolts. Truly, it doesn’t look like the developers meant for players to get past this point without
a beast potion.
Level 39: Destroy All Vampires, leaves you at the mercy of several blood-sucking demons
who target you from the beginning. Luckily there are several crucifix bundles scattered
throughout the map, though they’re just enough to keep you protected rather than slay
these demons. Of course, this wouldn’t truly be Zombies Ate My Neighbors, without swamp
beasts, werewolves, and a Frankenstein monster roaming around as well.
The final boss of the game is none other than Dr. Tongue himself. After defeating his spider
form, he will drink one last potion transforming himself into a giant head that shoots bolt
of red goo at you. They look similar to the blobs seen before, and they’re likely bolts
of his toxic blood- which who knows, might be the same thing, either way its gross. As
it takes damage, the head will progressively decay and melt away. Eventually, it will start
flinging its eyeballs at you, leaving behind glowing yellow sockets of rage. By the last
moment, Dr. Tongue has rotted away to a miserably tortured existence, and finishing off this
grotesque melting head is something players will waste no time with.
This game is solid. It has an excellent co-op experience, tons of that arcade-like replay
value, and maintains a cartoony 90s sense of humor in the grim reality it has set up.
The only real drawback of Zombies Ate My Neighbors is that it can get extremely difficult. Level
20 is an early shining example of that. When I was a kid, Invasion of The Snakeoids was
usually the threshold. Once I’d get to this level, my survival rate would drop to zero.
I remember the first time I ever got to this level. It seemed pretty simple. No observable
monsters roaming around to crowd or kill the neighbors. Then you get to thinking, where
are the neighbors? But before that can be answered, a rumbling below the dirt suddenly
roams around the map- and it isn’t Bugs Bunny. The Snakeoids reveal themselves ala
Tremors-style. Even with bazookas, these eldritch beasts moved so unpredictably and retreated
back into the ground so quickly that hitting them was difficult. To gain access to the
neighbors, you’d have to kill these behemoths for a skull key. Early on, beating this level
became a personal challenge and just like many other games of the time, the secrets
to getting past it weren’t on the internet or as readily available in a guide book. You
had to get the metadata through word of mouth or through experience as you repeatedly laddered
your way up to new high scores. Preparing for a level like this was time-consuming and
hard work, but that’s what made it so engaging and fun at the same time. The developers didn’t
expect that it would be easy, or kill the experience by giving you free hints or tutorials.
They gave you credit as a gamer and when you finally did overcome that obstacle, it was
truly rewarding and a real childhood experience.
Zombies Ate My Neighbors is a classic cocktail of all things spooky. It manages to include
fighting the undead without taking itself too seriously and really takes advantage of
that frightful cheesiness that makes up cult horror culture. It’s drenched with references
and nods to many works of sci-fi and horror in fiction and maintains a retro charm. There’ve
already been a few attempts at remaking a game like this, and with the rise of indie
game development and an increasing disinterest in AAA trends, it’s only a matter of time
until we see a true spiritual-successor. Until that happens, you can get your spooky monster
mash fix from Zombies Ate My Neighbors. It’s got that classic Halloween vibe all year-round.