The Weekly WTF: Zombie Nation

The more decrepit of us can remember a time when zombies were cool. When these rotting bastards would get their groove on alongside Michael Jackson in music videos, and were still frightening and a little badass in movies. Today, though, we've been saturated with survival horror and zombie shooters and their ilk. The impact of the undead has been mitigated dramatically.

Don't worry though, gentlemen. Here's a little homage to Zombie Nation, a slice of 1990‘s crazy-ass that reminds us of a simpler time. A time when our festering friends could destroy buildings by rapid-firing eyeballs and/or vomiting on them.


Also, samurais. Because why the eff not?

This is the story of a crazy-ass alien, who crash-lands in the Nevada desert and proceeds to transmit X-rays which turn the people of the US into zombies. Just to complete its ‘being an ass' hat trick, this guy (he's melodramatically named ‘Darc Seed,' presumably to distract us from the fact that it's the most hideously cliched image of an alien imaginable) brings the Statue of Liberty to life. Huge, stomp-y, vengeful life. In short, all kinds of BS nobody needs on an overcast Monday morning is going down.

Darc Seed's shenanigans also give it control of ‘Shura,' a magical samurai sword. At this point, we don't pause to ask why a renegade, ray-shootin', no-effs-giving extraterrestrial mofo would want a mere sword, nor why we're suddenly naming inanimate objects like crazies do. We're simply thankful that the samurai leader, Namakubi, is on hand to reclaim the artifact and save the American people.

Our ol' buddy Nama is the protagonist here. He is, naturally, a huge flying disembodied ninja head. Which sure beats the usual tedious gray spaceship we're given to control in other shoot ‘em ups. In this sidescrolling affair, you ‘pilot' your balding samurai cranium through the city-based stages, firing corrosive vomit to destroy structures and enemies.

Try and get your squelching brain-parts around that last sentence, and you'll begin to appreciate the balls-out madness of Zombie Nation. How many arcade shooters have you play as a disembodied samurai head? One which is one shitty comb-over away from looking like someone's dickish uncle, at that? This one, that's how many.

Source of images: gamefabrique.