Check back soon
Once posts are published, you’ll see them here.
History of Zombies in Video Games
Zombies are everywhere in video games, they're the generic, run of the mill enemy for horror games, and anything eles really! Wether you be fighting them off on your first night in Minecraft or trying to survive a hoard of them in Blockhead they seem to be taking over! Let's look into their history in the virtual world.
Our story begins in 1984's Zombie Zombie on the ZX Spectrum, this is considered to be the first ever zombie game and even came with a disclaimer stating that the game was not supporting the occult! You don't get disclaimers like that in games these days! In the game the player is dropped in the middle of a city overrun by the undead, the player gets a rifle which shoots air to push the zombies away. The next major title comes in 1992 with Wolfenstein 3D, although not actaully a zombie game the game does include "the undead guard". With the rest of the game being about Nazis this would suggest that Call of Duty weren't the first to do Nazi Zombies! In 1993 id software struck again with Doom and the enemy known as "the zombieman".
1993 also saw LucasArts release Zombies Ate My Neighbours on the SEGA Master System, SEGA Genesis and the SNES. This game saw the player control either Zeke or Julie as they fought hoards of zombies in their neighbourhood! This game is considered a cult classic but was hit hard by censorship. The blood in the game had to be changed to purple goo and the chainsaw weilding maniacs became lumberjacks in the European release! Next up we find ourselves in 1996 and the release of Capcom's hugely famous Resident Evil. Released on the PlayStation 1 Resident Evil's success marked the huge growth of zombie games that we see today! Resident Evil grew massively over the years, spawning films, comics and action figures!
The same year the arcades saw their own hugely successful zombie franchise: House of the Dead released by SEGA! The franchise saw three sequels and the spin off game Typing of the Dead on the Dreamcast. Typing of the Dead taught players to type whilst you mow down hoards of zombies! There was also later to be spin offs of this on the mobile. Spin offs of a spin off! More and more zombie games followed, often falling into the same formula until we reach 2006 with the release of Dead Rising on the Xbox 360. This game took a more humerous approach to the survival horror genre established by Capcom's Resident Evil. Dead R ising was a huge success and saw two more sequels, and maybe more to come in the future.
In 2008 Valve released Left 4 Dead on the Xbox 360 which becomes a huge success! The game is notable for being the first game to effectively allow you to play as a zombie! Excactly one year after the release of Left 4 Dead Valve released the sequel: Left 4 Dead 2. Back to 2008 and we see the release of Call of Duty: World at War. Complete the game and Treyarch reward you with Nazi Zombies. This becomes hugely popular and Treyarch released three map packs for the game mode and it became a staple of the Treyarch Call of Dutys! 2008 saw yet another huge installment in video game zombie with Dead Space. This features zombies as humans, or Necromorphs, that have been infected by an alien virus.
2013 had The Last of Us, widely considered to be one of the greatest horror games ever made and an artistic triumph! These zombies made the tired zombie genre feel fresh again! But the zombies hit so many more corners of the gaming universe, on the mobile we find Plants vs Zombies which sold 300,000 copies in 9 days! This became one of the highest grossing mobile games of all time! The series later saw time on the Xbox 360 too! The WiiU saw ZombiU as a launch title, the game that originally made me want a WiiU! Although I never actually bought the game I have heard that apparently it's not the best zombie game. For even more zombie action you can find zombies in The Simpsons: Hit and Run zombies appear in the final stage of the game but don't worry, your brains are safe this time! What about TellTale games and The Escapists taking on the lore of The Walking Dead? The zombie has hit all corners of the video game industry and to think, it all started with a game on the ZX Spectrum from 1984!
