Best Retro Zombie Games

Highlights

• Zombies have been a cultural phenomenon since the 20th century, with origins in Haitian folklore and popularized through books and films.
• Zombie video games have become popular due to their deadly and mindless nature, making them the perfect adversaries in various settings.
• Several retro zombie games, such as Beast Busters and Zombies Ate My Neighbors, have made significant contributions to the survival horror genre with their unique gameplay and humor.

Mythological reanimated dead creatures have been a pop culture staple since the 20th century. The flesh-eating foes show roots in Haitian folklore, typically a deceased person brought to life through magical practices. In the 20th century, Zombies were popularized particularly through the 1954 novel I Am Legend and the film Night of the Living Dead. As Zombie depictions in media grew, their origins altered with radiation, parasites, fungi, and science all being behind the rise of the undead. Come the advent of video games, Zombies were a perfect video game adversary: deadly, mindless, and applicable in any setting from fantasy to sci-fi.

While The Last of Us arguably set the gold standard of Zombie video games, many of its predecessors inspired and made that masterpiece possible. Below are some of the very best retro Zombie games.

7 Beast Busters

An Early Blend Of Horror & Light Gun Action

A good 7 years before Sega would make Zombies and Light Gun gameplay a winning combination, SNK released Beast Busters in 1989. Set in an ambiguous year 199X in a nameless metropolis, the player controls bounty hunters Johhny Justice, Sammy Stately, or Paul Patriot to contain an outbreak of the living dead. Originally released in the arcade with up to three players able to play co-operatively, this zombie-filled action adventure was the original undead on-rails shooter.

As an arcade title, Beast Busters would go on to be one of the most successful cabinets of 1990. The game would be available to home console gamers with ports to the Amiga and Atari ST in 1990.

6 Zombies Ate My Neighbors

A Flesh-Eating Twist On An Established Formula

A rare collaboration between LucasArts and Konami, Zombies Ate My Neighbors was released on the SNES and Sega Genesis in 1993. A familiar genre to the 16-bit era, this top-down run-and-gun game would take an established formula and fill it with humor and monsters. Players control Zeke or Julie as they must save their neighbors from marauding zombies. Included in the game are numerous horror film references from Hammer horror films to Friday the 13th. As unusual as it was inspired, Zombies Ate My Neighbors would win praise for its humorous take on the genre and brilliant cooperative mode.

Re-released across numerous platforms since its release, the game was ported to modern consoles in 2021 along with its sequel Ghoul Patrol.

5 Sweet Home

A Landmark & Influential Release Across Multiple Genres

A rare horror RPG hybrid that would be quite influential in its own right, Sweet Home was released on the Famicom in 1989. Based on the Kiyoshi Kurosawa film of the same name, this creative RPG would be so impactful it was considered better than the film by many critics. The player controls five playable characters as they navigate a mansion in search of valuable mural paintings within. Among the many randomly encountered enemies and traps are zombies the player must choose to fight or flee. Elements of the mansion setting and inventory management would serve as inspiration for future survival horror classics.

Not only did this game lay the foundations of survival horror to an extent, but the expansive backtracking and exploration of the mansion would prove a template for the later Metroidvania genre.

4 Ghouls ‘n Ghosts

Beloved Capcom Classic

The second game in arguably the hardest series of video games ever made by Capcom, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts arrived in arcades in 1988. Set three years after the original, players once again control Knight Arthur as he must make his way through haunting environments filled with the undead. The run-and-gun formula was never dressed up more creatively or given a more brutal level of difficulty than in this franchise. Ghouls n Ghosts is arguably the most accessible of the series and garnered universal praise on release, winning Game of the Year awards from several publications.

This arcade classic would be re-released on numerous home consoles at the time, including the Sega Genesis, Atari ST, and ZX Spectrum.

3 Night Slashers

Violent Beat ‘Em Up That Is Still Fun To Play

Data East’s gory answer to Final Fight and Streets of Rage, Night Slashers is a quintessential beat ‘em up laced with a horror aesthetic. Players are given three characters to control: Jake Hunter, an American cybernetic monster hunter, Christopher Smith, an English vampire hunter, and Hong Hua Zhao, a mystic Chinese martial artist. While violence was always assured in the genre, few ever got close to the gore unfolding across the stages of Night Slashers. Hordes of zombies are laid waste along with bosses including mad scientists, golems, and Dracula.

While briefly available on the Switch in 2020, an impending full remake has been advertised for modern platforms.

2 The House of the Dead

The Definitive Light Gun Horror Game

A tentpole in the ’90s zombie boom that would revive their presence in the popular culture, The House of the Dead would arrive in arcades in 1996. Sega’s golden arcade legacy would continue into 3D with consistent hits on the Model 2 arcade board. Daytona USA, Virtua Cop, and Virtua Fighter 2 would all launch on the Model 2, yet none were so distinct and celebrated as The House of the Dead. Players assume the roles of Thomas Rogan and G as they blast their way through zombie hordes at the Curien Mansion.

An imaginative and adult-aimed take on the light gun shooter, The House of the Dead would spawn a beloved franchise filled with frenetic gameplay and some quite hideous voice acting.

1 Resident Evil

The Quintessential Zombie Survival Horror Franchise

While many titles before would make steps and imprints on the genre, perhaps no title had a bigger impact on survival horror than the original Resident Evil. An inspired reworking of the Haunted House trope, players control Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield as they fight their way out of a zombie and monster-infested mansion. Resident Evil would birth tension and unease in video games like never before with its atmospheric fixed camera angles and limited resources in an unforgiving environment. Deep puzzles and inventory management left players with an unforgettable experience demanding the best of them.

Birthing an entire franchise and numerous successful sequels, the original game and its hammy FMVs and voice acting remain an assured chapter of video game history.

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