Customer Reviews

Zombie Nation NES

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This game... is weird. REALLY weird. I could try describing it, but I'm not it'll make any sense, even in context.

Essentially, the story is that the evil alien Darc Seed crash-landed in the Nevada desert, and turned the entire United States populace into zombies through magnetic rays (Because magnetism totally works like that). The Statue of Liberty then comes to life, and serves as Darc Seed's right-hand man. Then a samurai's severed head comes to life in Japan and flies over to the US to kick himself some zombie pitoot.

Did you get all that? Good, neither did I.

The game itself is an arcade shooter like R-Type or Gradius, except that you're a flying decapitated head that shoots eyeballs and brains out of his mouth, blowing up buildings and other structures is essential to move forward, lightning strikes at random, and in the second level, Huckleberry Finn appears (raft and all) to try to kill you. You have a life bar, unlike in most shooters of its day, but even so, you'll find that it's REALLY easy to die. I kid you not, this game is tough: I played it on easy, and still couldn't beat the second level boss.

If you enjoy challenging games witha unique presentation, I can't recommend Zombie Nation enough. If you dislike nonsense or the like, ignore this game.

Zombie Nation
Three Stars - A bad acid trip

Playing "Zombie Nation" is like playing through a bad acid trip. Much like Monster Party monster ring and its famous onion ring bosses, "Zombie Nation" is just non-sensical and completely bizarre. The game also uses both zombies and samuris, a combination not often seen However, the Samauri element does seem tact on, as the samarui is only the character you are playing and has nothing more to do with the zombies than cottage cheese.

Kind of like movies, sometimes you have to wonder what the throught process is that gets a game greenlit for production. Imagine this pitch:

"See, this alien called Darc Seed crashes into the Nevada desert, and he turns everyone into Zombies by shooting magnetic rays. With his rays he gives life to Statue of Liberty, who helps him conquer the world. So this decapitated Samurai head comes over from Japan to the United States as he is the only one who can defeat the alien and save the world! Oh, the Samurai head also shoots vomit." The answer: "Greenlit, put this baby in production! It's sure to make millions!"

Here is a quote from Wikipedia which gives further information.

"The player controls the giant levitating disembodied samurai head Namakubi (Japanese word denoting "sliced off heads"). The player can destroy structures and enemies by shooting rapid-fire eyeballs and vomit at them.[1] Enemies include zombie snipers, zeppelins, and lava monsters.[2] The player can upgrade his/her firepower by rescuing zombie hostages that leap out of structures when destroyed.[3]"

Still confused? Here is a section of the game manual.

""1999 - What appeared to be a harmless meteorite crashing into the Nevada desert turned out to be Darc Seed, and evil alien creature with horrible powers. By shooting strange magnetic rays, Darc Seed had turned the helpless nation into zombies and had brought the Stature of Liberty to life to do his dirty work. These rays has also given him control over many deadly weapons, but none more powerful than the legendary samurai sword, Shura. When the great head of the samurai, Namakubi, heard the sword had fallen into evil hands. He set off immediately for the United States. For only he possessed the strength and knowledge to recapture the magical sword and free the US from the evil clutches of Darc Seed.""

So essentially, this game is a shooter with an acid trip of a story, but instead of a spaceship or a character you're a giant disembodied severed Japanese head that shoots vomit and eyeballs at oncoming enemies. Woohoo, sign me up!

Other than the setting and the strange storyline, it's an overall run of the mill shooter, though you are able to select any stage from the beginning, like "Mega Man". I would say actually without the bizaare story and graphics there really isn't that much to distinguish this shooter from other far superior titles. The first boss is an evil Statue of Liberty. The sprites for the Japanese version of this game and the US release differ slightly.

If you [like shooters] are a huge fan of shooters and want a new title to play through or want to play a game with acid-trip leanings this is probably the game for you. Otherwise, pass this one by.

The video game website IGN rated this title as the 89th greatest game on their top 100 NES games of all time.

(For those looking for great unknown NES/Famicom games, you simply MUST play "Moon Crystal", a criminally unknown Famicom exclusive. The graphics are astounding with cutscenes that even outdo "Ninja Gaiden", amazing music, in depth gameplay, and a fantastic storyline. Absolutely amazing! Had this been released in the US for the NES, I feel it would be as revered as the other heavy hitters in the NES canon)