Game Review: Zombies Ate My Neighbors

Zombies Ate My Neighbors was a game released in the early 1990s for the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis.  The basis for this game is that a zombie outbreak has come and that the zombies are, indeed, coming to eat your neighbors.  You play as one of two teenagers, one male and one female, who are trying not only to kill the zombies but also to, of course, save your neighbors from being eaten.

The game is pretty fun and has the graphics you'd expect from a Super Nintendo or Genesis (I have it for Genesis), if you have either of these systems and can pick up a copy of this game for cheap I'd recommend you do.  It's no Super Mario Bros. 3 or Shark! Shark! but it's also no ET the Extra Terrestrial.  That being said let's get to the meat.

The zombies are pretty well done with the technology available and do a decent job of moving like a zombie, acting like one and chasing you when they see you.  The one problem I have with the zombies is that they can be killed by a water gun, the game's main weapon. And water balloons.  There are some other cooler weapons you can get in the game like a bazooka but water is your main weapon.  Now, I know this is probably because of some Nintendo/Tipper Gore early 90's BS censorship and that the gameplay gives more of a feel that the water gun is just a regular gun and the water balloons are hand grenades.  Just one more reason to hate censorship in all its forms.

But at the same time I have to say: really?  A water gun?  The dead are rising from their graves (literally they pop out of the ground and chase you, it's pretty cool) and I'm supposed to believe that I can take them down with a Super Soaker?  Why even bother saving the guy in the pool?  He's the safest of all, and he's got a cocktail to boot!

Lastly, let me say that a lot of this game doesn't involve zombies:  there are monsters, axe wielding babies and dudes with hockey masks and chainsaws.  For a game about zombies eating my neighbors there are a lot of non zombies doing a lot of non eating to a lot of people who probably aren't really my neighbors (except in a Biblical sense).

Bottom line:  it's a fun game and there are some zombies in it.  If you have an SNES or a Genesis then go pick it up but I wouldn't buy a system just to play this game (I would, however, buy a system just for the mere reason that I don't have it yet).