Zombie Nation

Zombies seem to have become the norm in our culture today; from movies to books, in anime and music, and on to games. There is no escaping those moaning, shuffling, rotting corpses. George A. Romero was the first true zombie master to scare us from the cinema, back in 1968, with Night of the Living Dead and has continued to make us re-do zombie apocalypse plans over and over again with each film released. Max Brooks doesn’t help either, with his Zombie Survival Guide Handbook, which every zombie fan needs to survive the moaning horde, whenever that day may be. We have read from their point of view with Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion, they have helped failing marriages in Married with Zombies, and helped set up a zombie killing business in Flip this Zombie, both written well by Jesse Petersen. And recently, Robert Kirkman’s zombie filled comic book, The Walking Dead, has become a great, successful TV show with another series on the way and a game in the works with Telltale! Fingers crossed it becomes a bloodfest success.

The zombie genre has been around for many years in the gaming industry and the most popular are the Resident Evil series. Making us think twice about owning big houses and Dobermans, Resident Evil now seems to be more about the action than the zombie. The traditional zombie has been tossed onto a bonfire and a new breed has risen up. It feels like Capcom has gotten bored with their mindless creations and gone more to the science side. The Left 4 Dead series from Valve offers more to the gamer in using team work and survival skills to get to the chopper or the nearest safe house. Instead of shufflers we are pitted against the rage zombies from British zombie film, 28 Days Later. Faster and meaner then your average moaner.

The latest zombie game to shuffle back onto our gaming radar is Dead Island. Set on the island of Banoi in the South Pacific, you are forced to defend yourself by any means necessary against the zombie outbreak that has broken out in this remote tropical paradise. Cut off from the outside world, what weapons will you chose to fight and survive with? More Dead Rising combat than Resident Evil, players need wit and tactics to outsmart the walking dead by using anything they can get their hands on. For those who have been under a rock lately, the announcement trailer is below and you have to admit, it looks astounding.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o2gPstZ5oA[/youtube]

I hope zombies stay in the media. Be it from the serious and deadly zombie films of Romero or the comical killings of Simon Pegg and co in Shaun of the Dead, everyone needs to embrace these rotting corpses because zombies have feelings too. Watch the movies, play the games, read the books and get a survival plan drafted up. Because if I come head-to-head with you and you’re in the way of me getting in that chopper, I may have to use an axe on your ass. Happy hunting!