Zombies Ate My Neighbors is one of the best 16-bit games of all time. A heartfelt homage to classic B-movie horror films, available for the glorious Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. It was a super fun game that also featured one of the best cooperative modes of its era, perfect for an afternoon with friends, killing zombies and rescuing neighbors.
Zombies Ate My Neighbors was a wild ride through the cult cinema of past decades, putting you in the middle of a body-snatcher invasion with the same ease as taking you to Egypt to explore pyramids full of mummies and traps, or to fight cursed dolls in a shopping mall at Christmas. A unique game, practically without legacy.
Ghoul Patrol is the name of the only official sequel, available only for the Super Nintendo. Released in 1994, just a year later, it completely changed the gameplay mechanics and the original graphic style, looking much more childish, and much less authentic as a result. Boring and repetitive, it was forgotten. In recent years, games like Monster Madness have tried to recreate the mystique and mechanics of the original, always attempting to modernize the experience. None of these have managed to capture the spirit of what made ZAMN such a great game: the respect and knowledge of the archetypes and tropes it so candidly paid tribute to. In other words, a strange case where a classic game has left no legacy beyond a place in our memory.
That is until "Zombies Ate My Neighbors - The Sequel" arrived, which is not so much a sequel as an expansion. A hack, actually. Just a patch, but it adds a huge amount of content, remixing much of the best. This hack includes 55 new levels built from scratch, an alternative adventure for those who enjoy secrets, control improvements, a new enemy (killer tomatoes!) and various tweaks here and there. A new experience, mixing the old and known to deliver more of the best. A treat of nostalgia and guaranteed fun.
From ROMHacking you can download the patch. For it to work, you need to download Lunar IPS, find a compatible ROM, and apply the hack. Since it's a lot of work and I'm sure you wouldn't bother doing it yourself, here's a link with the patched ROM, ready to run on an emulator like Snes9x. You're welcome and enjoy!
