Zombies Ate My Neighbors

Zombies Ate My Neighbors was developed by Lucas Arts, published by Konami, and released around the middle of 1993 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.  It's a top-down shooter with simple enough controls. 

The story is very simple, zombies are attacking and you (as either Zeke or Julie) have to save their neighborhood by collecting all of the neighbors.  There is actually a more over arching story with an evil doctor who caused the zombies, but you don't really get into that with the game in the first bit.

So I started the game with Zeke and you begin in a backyard with a water pistol.  All the levels are effectively the same, you run around squirting zombies and collecting neighbors.  You apparently live around a large number of idiots because they won't actually try and flee the zombies.  After collecting all the neighbors (or all the rest if some are killed by the zombies) a magically door appears with a blinking "Exit" sign on it (in case you didn't know).  You get sort of an arbitrary number of points for defeating zombies and saving neighbors (the Teacher you gives you an F- is only worth around 100 but the Cheerleader is worth 1000).

The weapons and enemies are what really make the game different.  Like I said, you start off with only a water gun (with a limit number of ammo to boot) but you get a lot of other weapons, each that (sort of) resembles a "normal" shooter weapon.  In the first level you get a fire extinguisher (equivalent to the flame thrower) and soda (grenades).  The second level, Evening of the Undead, introduces two of the most powerful weapons (excluding the instant kill Pandora's Box): the bazooka and the monster potion.  They both give the ability to break through weakened walls and are some of the only ways to defeat the chainsaw guys (who appear later). 

The zombies also expand as you get further into the game.  The first two levels only have the basic ones that die with a single water gun shot.  In the third level, Terror on Aisle Five, you must run around a mall and are introduced to the evil toys, which are Chucky-like dolls with meat cleavers.  The level after that, you run into these big guys with chainsaws... CHAINSAWS!  You are a kid with a water gun, how are you suppose to kill a guy with a chainsaw.  Is he related to the Witcked Witch of the West, does he melt?  No!  Even the most powerful weapon you have at this point, the bazooka, doesn't kill him in one shot: it takes eight shots!  EIGHT!

Anyways...

Beyond the chainsaw guys, the game is a lot simpler to get further in than Back to the Future was (in a relatively short amount of time, I got through the first four levels, even taking the time to screw around and try collect everything).  And so that was my second game of the year, I shall continue on tomorrow with anothr game and continue moving further up the line of consoles.  Adios for today though.