A port of Abarenbou Tengu
1999. What appeared to be a harmless meteorite crashing in the Nevada desert has turned out to be Darc Seed, an evil alien creature with horrible powers. By shooting strange magnetic rays, Darc Seed had turned the helpless nation into zombies and had brought the Statue of Liberty to life to do his dirty work. These rays had also given him control over many deadly weapons, but none were more powerful than the legendary samurai sword, Shura. When the great head of the samurai, Namakubi, heard that the sword had fallen into evil hands, he set off immediately for the United States. For only he possessed the strength and knowledge needed to recapture the magical sword and free the U.S. from the evil clutches of Darc Seed.
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what the fuck
If Zombie Nation was released at any other time it would be a completely unremarkable horizontal shmup. It doesn't control that well and is fairly boring.
However, it's due to the fact that it's an NES game it attracts attention. Sure, SEGA and many later consoles had more horror-themed games, but for NES it was pretty rare, and to see a game where you play as a decapitated head shooting buildings and eating people was a hell of a surprise.
Zombie Nation is quite bad and pretty much worth playing only for its presentation. In fact, first level is probably the best one, as you spit bullets all over a giant city decimating buildings and making people fall off roofs only to consume them for power-ups. Later levels become more and more abstract and feel way less interesting due to that.
The game doesn't have much in terms of power-ups, just a linear progression. Its movement also kinda sucks with your character being able to slide across predetermined rows as opposed to having full movement. Like, if you just lightly tap down, your Head won't go down for a pixel, but rather a full row.
If this were a game about a helicopter, it would be forgotten entirely. It would be one of those games that I'd play and as time comes to write about it I'd need to look at my history to see its name. It lives and dies on its concept, but thankfully the concept is very fun and playful. I'd recommend a playthrough.
However, it's due to the fact that it's an NES game it attracts attention. Sure, SEGA and many later consoles had more horror-themed games, but for NES it was pretty rare, and to see a game where you play as a decapitated head shooting buildings and eating people was a hell of a surprise.
Zombie Nation is quite bad and pretty much worth playing only for its presentation. In fact, first level is probably the best one, as you spit bullets all over a giant city decimating buildings and making people fall off roofs only to consume them for power-ups. Later levels become more and more abstract and feel way less interesting due to that.
The game doesn't have much in terms of power-ups, just a linear progression. Its movement also kinda sucks with your character being able to slide across predetermined rows as opposed to having full movement. Like, if you just lightly tap down, your Head won't go down for a pixel, but rather a full row.
If this were a game about a helicopter, it would be forgotten entirely. It would be one of those games that I'd play and as time comes to write about it I'd need to look at my history to see its name. It lives and dies on its concept, but thankfully the concept is very fun and playful. I'd recommend a playthrough.
In Zombie Nation (Or Abarenbou Tengu), you play as a giant floating head who destroys buildings and the US military. The only obstacles in your way are giant buff men, Medusa and aliens. You shoot out giant eyeballs, and vomit out of your mouth to attack. For many this is where the description of Zombie Nation stops. It's position as a weird "Too japanese" game on the NES stands above any actual discussion to have about the game.
In all fairness to many who don't see it as anymore than just an amusing footnote in the NES library, I get it man! I did not start this game for a while because a quick shmup with a weirdo presence doesn't take any importance over other games I'm interested in playing. It was 12am, I was getting ready for bed, but I wanted to play a game so I booted up Zombie Nation and MAN! I kind of loved it?
Beyond it's concept that will immediately stick in my head until the day I die, Zombie Nation has such a perfect hangoutitude to it. It's music is great and worth bopping along to. It's fast paced boss battle music belongs alongside the absolute best of obscure NES OST's. It's pixel art is great, as expected by any late-era NES title, but it stands out in particular with it's huge pillars of fire, beautiful boss sprites (to be fair, a lot of NES games have beautiful boss sprites in dark rooms but still absolutely suck, looking at Totally Rad here) and it's tinier details like it's start screen and it's health bar look brilliant (Those are some sick looking skeletons man).
It's gameplay might be hard to praise as highly as it's other elements, but it works. The presentation elevates the gameplay far higher than it has any actual right to. The debris flying off of buildings as you destroy them makes every shot feel more powerful. Explosions are huge, and it's giant health bar allows the player to keep track of their health despite the ensuing chaos on screen. Fighting against a waterfalls current as snakes try to attack you, or flying over giant goop monsters who you can't kill, the game has some real interesting ideas here. I'm by no means any sort of STG enthusiast, I've only really played a few NES titles (Abadox, 1943, half of Xexyz) but it is a genre I hope to dabble in more eventually (R-Type Final, ZeroRanger and DoDonpachi in particular stand outs as personal must-plays) and I can tell it doesn't live up to any sort of genre standards you would hope to see.
Zombie Nation excels at exactly what it sets out to do. It's a shooting game you can just hang out with, open up with the hopes of getting a little further (man it is real hard at times, but I wasn't deterred), and get out with the game having left some sort of impression on you. It's stylish, and it works real well. It's a game we might talk about as kusoge, or a game we laugh at derisively, but I loved my time with this. It's worth spending time with outside of it's unique premise.
In all fairness to many who don't see it as anymore than just an amusing footnote in the NES library, I get it man! I did not start this game for a while because a quick shmup with a weirdo presence doesn't take any importance over other games I'm interested in playing. It was 12am, I was getting ready for bed, but I wanted to play a game so I booted up Zombie Nation and MAN! I kind of loved it?
Beyond it's concept that will immediately stick in my head until the day I die, Zombie Nation has such a perfect hangoutitude to it. It's music is great and worth bopping along to. It's fast paced boss battle music belongs alongside the absolute best of obscure NES OST's. It's pixel art is great, as expected by any late-era NES title, but it stands out in particular with it's huge pillars of fire, beautiful boss sprites (to be fair, a lot of NES games have beautiful boss sprites in dark rooms but still absolutely suck, looking at Totally Rad here) and it's tinier details like it's start screen and it's health bar look brilliant (Those are some sick looking skeletons man).
It's gameplay might be hard to praise as highly as it's other elements, but it works. The presentation elevates the gameplay far higher than it has any actual right to. The debris flying off of buildings as you destroy them makes every shot feel more powerful. Explosions are huge, and it's giant health bar allows the player to keep track of their health despite the ensuing chaos on screen. Fighting against a waterfalls current as snakes try to attack you, or flying over giant goop monsters who you can't kill, the game has some real interesting ideas here. I'm by no means any sort of STG enthusiast, I've only really played a few NES titles (Abadox, 1943, half of Xexyz) but it is a genre I hope to dabble in more eventually (R-Type Final, ZeroRanger and DoDonpachi in particular stand outs as personal must-plays) and I can tell it doesn't live up to any sort of genre standards you would hope to see.
Zombie Nation excels at exactly what it sets out to do. It's a shooting game you can just hang out with, open up with the hopes of getting a little further (man it is real hard at times, but I wasn't deterred), and get out with the game having left some sort of impression on you. It's stylish, and it works real well. It's a game we might talk about as kusoge, or a game we laugh at derisively, but I loved my time with this. It's worth spending time with outside of it's unique premise.
This game feels like a fever dream.
Una delle cose peggiori che abbia mai visto, si salva solo l'estetica degli stage e dei boss, il resto è caos allo stato puro
(This is the 34th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)
Zombie Nation, released initially on December 14th 1990 for the NES, is one of the weirdest shoot 'em ups you will play in your life time, because the character you play is the severed head of a samurai traveling to the USA to stop a meteor called "Darc Seed" from destroying the USA completely. The reason why he does that is because Darc Seed has the ability to control a powerful samurai sword.
So you control this severed head called Namakubi and vomit projectiles on jets, buildings, turrets, people, whatever gets in your way. Yes, really. It's such a weird premise but actually not a turn-off on its own.
What was actually the bigger turn-off for me here was that, all told, the gameplay is just not that fun and game doesn't impress in any area apart from its weirdness. The music is alright, the graphics meh and the level design essentially very average. You don't really get to find any fun new abilities or power ups, there are no secrets to uncover and the enemy variety is low. You pretty much do the same thing over and over again in each level with very limited options. To top it off, the later levels include so many projectiles on the screen at once that the game can't handle it and starts lagging.
OVERALL
Suffice to say, this game is not worthy of a suggestion if you're looking for a fun game. It might be worth checking out if you want to take a look at a very weird game at least. Despite my opinion, I think it's funny and worth a mention that the damn "St. Petersburg Times" (now Tampa Bay Times) ranked Zombie Nation tied for 10th among the best games ever list in 1992. That's some weird taste they got over there.
Zombie Nation, released initially on December 14th 1990 for the NES, is one of the weirdest shoot 'em ups you will play in your life time, because the character you play is the severed head of a samurai traveling to the USA to stop a meteor called "Darc Seed" from destroying the USA completely. The reason why he does that is because Darc Seed has the ability to control a powerful samurai sword.
So you control this severed head called Namakubi and vomit projectiles on jets, buildings, turrets, people, whatever gets in your way. Yes, really. It's such a weird premise but actually not a turn-off on its own.
What was actually the bigger turn-off for me here was that, all told, the gameplay is just not that fun and game doesn't impress in any area apart from its weirdness. The music is alright, the graphics meh and the level design essentially very average. You don't really get to find any fun new abilities or power ups, there are no secrets to uncover and the enemy variety is low. You pretty much do the same thing over and over again in each level with very limited options. To top it off, the later levels include so many projectiles on the screen at once that the game can't handle it and starts lagging.
OVERALL
Suffice to say, this game is not worthy of a suggestion if you're looking for a fun game. It might be worth checking out if you want to take a look at a very weird game at least. Despite my opinion, I think it's funny and worth a mention that the damn "St. Petersburg Times" (now Tampa Bay Times) ranked Zombie Nation tied for 10th among the best games ever list in 1992. That's some weird taste they got over there.