Game #1252: Zombie Ate My Neighbors and Ghoul Patrol

 I never liked my neighbors anyways.

 Well, seems Konami found their groove with their retro-rereleases, as it's time for Zombie Ate My Neighbors and Ghoul Patrol to make their comeback now. Both games are pretty similar, in fact, Ghoul Patrol became a sequel mid development, so they are duology.

 Both games are presented with minimal alterations. The intro for ZAMN was axed, which is a minor loss in my opinion, but it did ruffle some feathers. There's no rewind, no cheats and no enhancements, although there's a weird save slot you can use by using a new option, 'Save and Quit'. This is true for both games. A big point for contention, for me, is that you can't customize controls. This means that A shoots, Y uses an item, while B and X are used to cycle through weapons and items respectively. It feels awkward, but there's some logic to it, the buttons on the vertical line cycle through stuff, while the ones on the horizontal line use them.

 It's kind of a missed opportunity, 'cause cycling through items and weapons in both games can be a hassle, particularly when harassed by endless waves of enemies, so they could've put both sets of should buttons to task, but alas... and it's even worse, 'cause Ghoul Patrol adds two new functions, Jump and Slide... to the shoulder buttons. Being able to customize controls would've been a godsend.

 So, Zombies Ate My Neighbors... in broad strokes, it's an isometrical very arcade-like action game in which you must save your 10 neighbors before they are eaten by zombies.... or murdered by Jason/Leatherhead love childs, giant ants, giant worms, martians, vampires, werewolves, killer dolls, killer plants, mermen and fire sprites, and I'm probably forgetting about something. The game is made up of 48 levels, plus a few secret levels, and the end goal is always the same: Turn on your radar and find the neighbors before the enemies do.

 The game is relentless, enemies don't stop coming, and if they get all neighbors it's game over. For every neighbor you don't find, the amount of neighbors for the next level is reduced, and in a way, it could help you, as having only one neighbor to find is much faster... but then again, you're closer to losing.

 There are a TON of different weapons and items, and certain enemies are weak to specific weapons, which is rather neat.... if only you could cycle through them using more than one button. Searching for the right weapon while chased by a monster can be a pain in the butt.

 Another major item are keys, which are used to open up doors. But hey, if you're missing a key, bazookas can blow up doors and walls! They are also really strong against ants and most enemies, really. Since enemies are endless but resources are limited... it's always interesting decided when to fight and when to run, when to use keys and when to use the bazooka!

 Besides getting unfairly hard, the password system sucks, because it doesn't retain your inventory and you're back to a single health pack and 120 rounds of the weakest weapon. The new save system helps alleviate this, however. Collision detection is sometimes a bit wonky too, particularly when blowing up some walls or when trying to pick up some neighbors.

 Overall, Zombies Ate My Neighbors is a very fun, but very challenging game. The huge variety of stages, monsters and weapons keeps things interesting all the time, and I'm sure it's much better in multiplayer.

 Ghoul Patrol is a bit tamer. While the art-style is still on the cartoony side, it's much less colorful and the enemies look a bit more serious. There are less stages, less enemies and less weapons too. There are new bosses, but they are insanely hard since they take a ton of punishment... unless you save up your Grim Reaper potions to lay waste to them.

 Gameplay-wise, it's pretty much identical, except that now you can slide, useful to get away from monsters, and jump, which barely factors into the game at all... at least until the last set of stages, set in Medieval Castles and Caves, in which you have to jump through bottomless pits. And it feels super wonky, without the Quit & Save feature, this would've been downright cruel. The radar is gone, now you must chase after scream bubbles to find the neighbors, which is a bit weird. The environments too, now for the second set of stages you visit feudal Japan and then you go to Pirate moats because.... reasons?

 Ghoul Patrol usually gets a lot of flak, but it's not bad, it's just that Zombies Ate My Neighbors is bigger, better and more iconic... and it doesn't have janky platforming shoed-in.

 While it has a few shortcomings, I really enjoyed this little package. If you can't play these games in any other way, it gets the job done, and the save feature, while less than ideal, is a welcome addition.

 7.0