Zombies Ate My Neighbors



Zombies Ate My Neighbors is your classic Zombie game created by LucasArts and published by Konami. This game is basically a parody of Devil World/Dark Adventure, a previous Konami arcade game, and in turn had a Spiritual Successor in the form of Ghoul Patrol, which was significantly less popular. Also inspired a later game loosely on Greek Mythology called Hercs Adventures as well as the Xbox 360 game Monster Madness.

Zeke or Julie (or both in 2 player mode) enter a series of mazes. Each level is a punny-titled maze containing B-movie monsters, wacky weapons and up to ten neighbors to rescue.

A movie based loosely on the game is currently in production. Seriously.

This game provides examples of:
 * Abnormal Ammo: Where else can you kill a giant worm with kitchen plates, or destroy a UFO with soda cans?
 * Affectionate Parody: Of pretty much every classic horror trope.
 * Ambidextrous Sprite: When Zeke is facing left or right, the blue lens of his 3D glasses is always the one closer to the camera.
 * Ancient Tomb
 * Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Two words: Titanic Toddler.
 * Also Giant snakes boss, Dr. Tongue's Giant spider form, and the level where giant ants are the normal enemies.
 * Attack of the Killer Whatever
 * Black Blood: the blood is replaced with purple ooze.
 * Bonus Level: About six of them, accessed by collecting a ? square in a level.
 * Bubble Gun
 * Chainsaw Good: Level 4. The chainsaw maniacs/lumberjacks in general.
 * Clown Car Grave
 * Combat Tentacles: Level 1-B.
 * Continuing Is Painful: Passwords don't preserve your weapons or lives.
 * Cool Shades: See Rule of Cool below.
 * Creepy Doll: The killer doll enemies; some marketing genius had the idea to give them axes, too...
 * Darker and Edgier: The sequel took itself far more seriously and wasn't as arcade-fun as the first.
 * Your mileage may vary. Ghoul Patrol was focused much more on being more of an action/platformer as opposed to an arcade action game. There are many difference between the two, but the basic gameplay is still the same.
 * Developer's Room: The credits level take place in LucasArts' office.
 * Easter Egg: See Shout-Out below.
 * Every Ten Thousand Points: You get a bonus neighbor. If you don't have any dead neighbors, you get a extra life.
 * Everything's Deader with Zombies
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The level "Ants". Guess what the standard enemies there are.
 * Fake Difficulty: On occasion, you will find victims that are impossible to save, even with Sprint Shoes.
 * Final Death: Once neighbors die, they don't come back. However, you can gain Bonus Neighbors once your score is high enough.
 * Game Breaking Bug: It's possible for the cheerleader after the first fight with Doctor Tongue to disappear before you collect her, making the game unwinnable.
 * Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: It's All There in the Manual that Dr. Tongue is the Big Bad of the game, but was any player expecting to first fight him in a non-descript attic level?
 * Guide Dang It: Some weapons are obvious choices for certain enemies. Some - like the Bubble Gun vs. Giant Ants - not so much.
 * Although the manual does point this out and many other monster weaknesses, so it's mostly Read the Freaking Manual. The best weapon in the game, the Flamethrower, is a Guide Dang It in itself since it's in a very obscure place and can be Lost Forever if you bypass it.
 * Absolutely nothing tells you that the last form of Dr. Tongue is weak against plates; although once you found that out, it starts making more sense why Level 41 had so many plates strewn around the level to begin with.
 * Hockey Mask and Chainsaw
 * Infant Immortality: Averted, oddly enough. Not only are babies one of the kinds of Victims, but you also fight a Giant Baby as a boss three times. Defeating the latter merely turns it back to normal, though.
 * Infinity+1 Sword: The Flamethrower. Able to quickly destroy just about any monster. Good luck finding it in the one level it's located in.
 * In Name Only: Ghoul Patrol was reworked into a sequel for Zombies to cash in on the game's popularity. It ended up killing the franchise.
 * It's worth pointing out that Zombies Ate My Neighbors was not an immediate success in the first place and, like the cult movies that inspired the game in the first place, it's popularity had to build over time. Ghoul Patrol gets a lot of shit for what it is, some of it more justified than others, but calling it a franchise killer isn't really accurate (Ghoul Patrol wasn't even advertised as much as the first game itself). It would have had to come out in the early-to-mid 2000s and disappointed everyone before it could've really killed the franchise.
 * There is also a song called Zombies Ate My Neighbors on the radio. Sadly, no video game references.
 * A metalcore group named themselves after the game as well.
 * Inventory Management Puzzle: Too Awesome to Use? No, you'll waste too much health and time if you don't use it. You like to stockpile weapons? Good luck finding the plates when you need them right now!
 * Lightning Bruiser: The giant babies.
 * Lost Forever: The Flamethrower.
 * Mars Needs Cheerleaders
 * Monster Mash
 * Night of the Living Mooks
 * Nintendo Hard: One of the ROM hacks of the game decided you need between 1-3 tourist couples that each turn into a pair of werewolves 15 seconds after the start of the level in most of the levels. Have fun with those speed shoes.
 * Nonstandard Game Over: Don't let all of your neighbors die!
 * One-Hit Kill: Most enemies have a weapon they're particularly weak against.
 * Poison Mushroom: One of the mystery potion's side effects is to turn you into Mr. Hyde, who will actively hunt down and kill neighbors. Or your partner in a 2 player mode.
 * RuleOfTotallyRadical: Zeke inexplicably wears a pair of 3D glasses throughout the whole game
 * Sequential Boss: The final battle with Dr. Tongue has him first transform into a spider, then a giant head.
 * Shout-Out: Entering BCDF as an opening password sent you straight to the Day of the Tentacle bonus level, themed after the video game of the same name.
 * Sprint Shoes
 * There's No B in Movie: Pretty much the premise of the game.
 * Transformation Sequence: Big purple beasts in Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Grim Reapers in Ghoul Patrol.
 * Ungrateful Bitch/No Hero Discount/No Sympathy: No matter how often you rescue them from mortal danger, the teachers will always give you an "F"! OH NOES!
 * Unwinnable By Mistake: Very rare, but it is possible to get yourself stuck by running out of ammo for all your guns and wasting all the keys and not having a bazooka or potion to blast the doors down.