Collection essentials #287: Zombies Ate My Neighbors (SNES)

Here’s a fun action game with a top-down perspective that really stands out among its contemporaries. As the great title suggests, Zombies Ate My Neighbors is about zombies and similar horror-themed creatures invading your neighborhood, in a world that may be partially horror-themed but is also a bit silly and cartoony. As one or both of the young neighborhood heroes, your goal is to rescue the neighbors found in each level, with occasional boss encounters.

This is not a simple and straightforward action game. Gameplay involves collecting a lot of resources, with a wide variety of weapons and items to find, and you really need to effectively utilize them if you want to make it far. The game gets to be quite challenging before long, with nasty enemies that don’t die easily. Fortunately you don’t need to actually defeat them all to progress. The levels feature a variety of contemporary settings which have to be navigated differently due to different elements found in each. 

Zombies Ate My Neighbors particularly shines as a great two-player co-op game. The action and ability to strategize makes this an ideal type of game to play with a friend. Not to mention it’s just more fun with a friend to witness the cool and/or goofy stuff the game throws at you. 

I was pretty young when I first heard of this game, but it was a while before I actually got to play it. One of my favorite individual gaming memories is one time circa 2012 when I was playing this game together with a friend. We cleared a level, but as we stepped into the exit of the level, an enemy hit us to take away our last life point. The game still counted the level as beaten, and we wondered what would happen next. As the next level started and we spawned with zero hit points, we instantly dropped dead. It was hilarious!

A criticism I have with this game is the password system. This game is pretty darn long for its kind, so you’re more than likely going to want to use one. But the passwords don’t save your weapons and items, and having enough resources to deal with bosses is absolutely crucial. So this already-hard game is made extremely daunting to actually beat, since you have to replay so darn much if you get a game over at the final boss.. I haven’t made a serious attempt at doing it myself…yet.

Seemingly everyone who played Zombies Ate My Neighbors regards it highly. It will always be a solid two-player co-op choice. Not many games, retro or otherwise, are like it. There was a modern port of it made to modern platforms a few short years back, so there’s not much excuse not to check it out if it might be your thing. 

And with that, I’m finally done covering (for now) SNES games. No other console is going to have this many essentials. I hope I’ve conveyed well how deep and rich the console’s library is, and of course it includes quite a few other notable games that didn’t make my list for one reason or another, but would certainly make some other people’s lists. Whether you’re a child of the ‘90s or not, the SNES is worth a look for anyone who enjoys video gaming. Stay tuned as Nintendo gets a rest for a while as I start sharing games that came on discs instead of cartridges for the first time.