Zombie Madness – The Zombie cult  

The sight of a dead person with smelly rotting flesh, out stretched hands, hunting for human meat, repeatedly saying a particular word after a set interval and walking at the speed of turtle with two legs, should be a dead give away that you are in zombie land. The mindless living dead a.k.a Zombies have captured the imagination of many people around the world.

So before i move on to the essential part of this gaming blog, i though i’d provide some background information on the zombie culture as I found it very intresting indeed. I hope you do too.

The Zombie culture was first introduced in movies with 1938 production called ‘White zombie’ and was later popularized by the 1968 film ‘Night of the living dead’. Which in turn lead to other famous productions such as ‘The evil dead’, ‘Return of the living dead’, ‘Resident Evil’ and the 2003 release ‘28 days later’.

An interesting theory that came to mind while writing this article is the small possibility that Zombie characters could have been inspired by one of the most influential names in horror stories and horror movies – Frankenstein. Although Frankenstein is more popularly referred to as a ‘Monster’ rather than a ‘Zombie’, it is difficult to miss the striking similarities. The question is not if Frankenstein is a zombie or not, rather, is Frankenstein the father of all Zombies?  I’ll let you decide.

One of the most compelling reasons that led me to this theory while doing research on the topic was, the first Frankenstein movie with sound was released in 1931, titled ‘Frankenstein’. The sequel to the movie ‘The bride of Frankenstein’ was released in 1935. On the other hand, the first ever zombie movie ‘White Zombie’ was only released in 1938.

Frankenstein was born in 1818 through a novel written by Mary Shelley. However, the 1931 release of the movie ‘Frankenstein’ was modified from the original version of the novel. In contrast with the films adaptation, Frankenstein was not created out of dead body parts in the novel. There have also been references to the introduction of the word ‘zombie’ to American culture through the 1929 book ‘The Magic Island’ by W.B. Seabrook. The narrator describes his experience in Haiti, where Voodoo cults practiced the art of resurrection. This information adds another twist to the tale; could Frankenstein have been an inspiration from zombie tales?

Another interesting question that popped up was, if Frankenstein is not a zombie, then who is the most famous zombie of all time? Some rather strange names popped into my head when I asked myself that question I must admit. Could Jesus classify as a zombie? If he could then it would definitely make him the most famous. How about Eddie the head – the mascot of British heavy metal band ‘Iron Maiden’, Kenny from ‘South Park’, Michael Jackson in ‘Thriller’, Imhotep from ‘The Mummy’, or the girl in the well from the movie ‘The Ring’. Can you think of anymore?

I have tried to find a list of the most famous zombies of all time and could not find one. There are numerous others about top 10 zombie movies and such but none about an individual zombie. I urge you to please vote or suggest names so I can create a Top 10 list of famous zombies for my gaming blog.

This Zombie madness has not only found it’s way to the movie and music industries as mentioned above but also have a huge influence on the gaming industry. There have been numerous zombie shooting games made. Since I am writing this article with the games industry in mind and this is a gaming blog, I will post an elaborate article on the subject matter soon. The next article will contain insights on what regular zombie shooting games contain and features that can be included in them to improve game play : ) .

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Zombie madness – Top 10 zombie games 

Zombie shooting games have been around for around 25 years now. The first ever zombie shooting game was called ‘zombie zombie’ and was released in 1984. The game was published by Quicksilva on the ZX spectrum.

‘Zombie Zombie’ believe it or not was a sequel to a game called ‘Ant Attack’, where players fought of giant ants in a city. However, the most surprising part of ‘zombie zombie’ is that the game had no guns! Players had to kill zombies with an air cannon that blow it away with bursts of air or get the zombies to follow you, as you climb walls and jump off. The players could jump off walls with out getting hurt but zombies would smash to the ground. 

Zombie games have come a long way since then, with added graphics, new weapons, good AI, advanced game play, etc and have slowly become a very popular genre of video games. Therefore, zombie madness would like to dedicate this blog post to zombie shooting games (Flash) and some features that I think can be added to such games to improve your over all experience and game play.

[ Boss fights – Most of the flash zombie shooting games do not have a boss fight, rather just waves and waves of mindless zombies. I think it would be nice to have a super zombie come out after every 5 waves or so to make things interesting. The boss zombie can also have a percentage chance to drop some rare weapons that cannot other wise be purchased, etc.

[ Armor – Armor is a very vital feature of any shooting game in general. It would be nice to have some kind of armor that can be purchased to reduce damage taken, when the zombies get past the barricades. Armor should also be nice and shiny to provide a glow effect which makes your character look more menacing.

[ Pets – pets are another feature that can be added to zombie shooting games to increase the skill level required to play the games. Controlling 2 characters should be fun and challenging. Pets also provide a huge window of opportunity to introduce a lot of new items, such as different kinds of pets like dogs, snakes, bats, monkeys, lion, etc. Game developers can also introduce armor for pets and other upgrades to them such as food and weapons for pets.

[ Potions – can also be added to the game to reduce the monotony of killing zombies. Potions again, can provide various benefits and opens doors for many opportunities to improve game play. Potions can be used to increase shooting speed, repel zombies away, become immune to attacks for a few seconds, etc.

[ Level Saving – I feel this is probably one of the most important features that should be added to all flash zombie shooting games and I am sure a lot of you will agree. Some zombie games take about 45 mins of gaming to reach anywhere close the end and without a save option it gets really hard to take a break or leave the game if something else comes up.

[ Bonus rounds – I feel that zombie shooting games also need bonus round every now and then, just to break the monotony. These rounds can be made different like using sniper rifles, switching to first person view, using rocket launchers, etc.

[ Zombie drops – Much like most mmorpg games, individual zombies should have a chance of dropping some weapons so it saves us cash from buying those weapons, or other stuff like ammo, potions, armor etc just to keep the player interested in killing.

[ Vehicles – Some zombie games could use vehicles as well, such as in last stand 2, the game developers can try and get vehicles such as trucks, tanks, bikes, etc. The vehicles could as a second line of defense after the zombies get through the barricades and also these vehicles could have special guns mounted on them.

[ Combo’s & rage – Certain types of rewards can be put in place for combo’s, such as accuracy; 5 head shots in a row and you can fire a rocket launcher. If the player gets 10 head shots in a row he could probably go into enraged mode and have the zombies run away from him for a change.

Well those are just a few ideas that could help improve game play for zombie games in my humble opinion. A lot of you may agree or disagree with these suggestions and some of you may even have a few more suggestion to add to the list, I would really like to hear about them.

Zombie madness has compiled a list of what I consider to be the top 10 zombie games out there. Please feel free to check them out if you have not played them before.

 Top 10 zombie games

10. Rombo 

 This is probably the only 3D zombie shooter flash zombie game out there. The graphics are not the best but at least it provides some variety from the usual zombie games. It kind of reminds of a very popular 3D game of the past – Wolfenstein 3D.

9. Zombie Grinder 60000

This is another cool zombie shooting game that has heavy metal tracks playing in the background while you kill zombies. This game is more on the fast side and very exciting to play.

8. Divine Intervention

A very cool zombie shooting game simply because it’s very fast paced and keeps you glued to the screen. Unlike most other zombie shooting games, the zombies in this game are hardcore. You need to spam bullets on them real hard and real quick to bring them down

7. Autumn War

A unique zombie game that is strategic and does not require much shooting skill but I would definitely recommend playing this game.

6. Pandemic II

Another zombie type game that is unlike most games you would have played. The objective is to create a disease and spread it globally destroying populations. It will take a while to get the hang of the game but quite entertaining over all.

5. Rabid

A zombie game with a lot of action. Kicking, punching and a whole lot of combo’s. It’s got decent graphics and cool game play. Zombie games are after all about mindless killing and therefore Rabid makes it to the number 5 position.

4. Endless zombie rampage 2

This is a very neat game with lots of zombies, weapons and mindless killing . The weapons in this game actually have a bit of recoil to keep it a little realistic. Over all it’s got some cool visuals and awesome game play.

3. Dead Frontier

Originally a MMO game, Dead frontier’s demo was released as a flash version. This game has some of the best graphics ever, awesome weapons and really good game play. A must play for zombie game lovers.

 2. SAS: Zombie Assault 2

This is another cool zombie shooting game. It has lots of zombie waves and weapon upgrades like never before. The game will have you addicted to it in no time. I would say this game requires you to have a lot of skill to play and reach the top levels.

1. The last stand 2

The last stand 2 is with out a shadow of doubt the most popular zombie shooting game out there. The last stand 1 was also very popular and inspired the sequel which turned out to be more successful than part 1. This game is kinda like the Matrix, you cannot be told how good it is, you will have to play it.

Some of the other cool zombie shooting games that did not make it to the top 10 zombie games list are Boxheads: the rooms, De-animator, Zombie Avenger, Zombie Invaders 2, Zombie Survival, and whole lot more. Go here to check out other cool zombie shooting games.

The list is in the drafting stages; therefore if you find any game that you feel needs to be on the list I will gladly review it and add it to the list.

After playing a ton of zombie games for a good amount of time to create this list, I could not ignore the blood and gore that these games contain. It reminded me of my topic of research for my graduation. Is it correct to blame video games for an increase in violent behaviour such as school shootings? I plan to discuss this topic in my next blog with a list of the top 10 video game related violence, top 10 violent games of all time and why video games are being used as a scape goat.

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