If you owned any gaming platform at all since the early 80's, chances are you've personally fought a zombie or two. Or three. Or a whole horde of flesh-eating, mindless sacks of bile.
Big Brother may not have taken over in 1984, but zombies managed to find their way to the ZX Spectrum in a game called Zombie Zombie. The arcades caught on quicly with Beast Busters in 1989, featuring a zombie infested city and a light-gun.
Of all the zombie video games on the shelves, two in particular have gone on to worldwide acclaim: the House of the Dead arcade series and the groundbreaking Resident Evil franchise (both of which spawned movies in the later years). These two continue churning out the hits to this day, including Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, and the House of the Dead 2 and 3 double-pack.
A barrage of zombie video games have hit the market, from more comedic entries like Zombies Ate My Neighbors and Stubbs the Zombie, to just plain odd titles like Dead Head Fred (where you collect different heads wach with their own power.) Zombies even decided to get educational in 1999 with Typing of the Dead. This spinoff of House of the Dead works as a typing teacher - the quicker you write the word(s), the sooner the zombie in front of you will be despached.
The latest, and most interesting zombie video game entries include Dead Rising for the XBOX 360, Touch the Dead for the Nintendo DS, and the multiplayer Left 4 Dead on PC and XBOX 360.
Dead Rising takes much of its inspiration from George A. Romero's genre-defining film Dawn of the Dead, centering around the main character trapped in a zombie-filled mall. Touch the Dead makes good use of the touch screen, using the stylus to aim at zombies and blast away at their limbs. Left 4 Dead utiziles four player cooperative scenarios so everyone can get in on the mayhem.
Movie franchises have also been made into zombie video games, including the Evil Dead series (Evil Dead PC game, Hail to the King, A Fistful of Boomstick, and Regeneration.) A Zombi game was also made back in the late 80's and more recently Land of the Dead: The Road to Fiddlers Green was released on the PC.
Dead Island is slated for a 2008 release on the PC and Playstation 3, while the next light-gun shooter Zombie Massacre will be out in 2010 for the Nintendo Wii.
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