Invasion Of The Zombie Monsters (ZX Spectrum / MSX / Amstrad)

Invasion Of The Zombie Monsters (ZX Spectrum, MSX, Amstrad CPC) :

If you've been away from the Spectrum scene for a few years, you may be unaware that it still has a healthy amount of games being released for it each year! The next game on my list was released in 2010, and although originally only available to buy, thanks to it's generous creators you can now play it for free...and play it you should!

Young Ned is indulging in a bit of smoochy-smoochy with his girlfriend in the back seat of his car, when it suddenly gets struck by lightning! But this is no ordinary storm, and the lightning brings with it an evil shadow creature...who kidnaps Ned's girlie and reveals plans to conquer the world with an army of zombies!! What the shadow doesn't know though, is that in times of great danger Ned receives the wondrous "Moonshine" power, gaining energy and power bolts from the moon's rays! Off he goes to stop this evil fiend and get back his lady....

Presentation in this game is excellent, and if you didn't know any better you'd really think you were playing a big-budget release from back in the day! A funky tune and cool intro sequence start things off, and when you start the game proper you can expect colourful graphics and some great gameplay too!

It owes a lot to Capcom's Ghosts 'n' Goblins series, but is no worse for that! You traverse the platforms and pitfalls, battling zombies, monsters and killer plants and at the end of each level you'll face a boss, which you'll need to beat to progress to the next groovy level! Your bolts of energy can be made more powerful by picking up power ups along the way, of course...

Do yourself a favour and go find and play this gem right now! It's also available for the MSX (which has slightly groovier graphics) and Amstrad CPC so if that's more your scene, go play it on that!!!

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ADDENDUM

I've only just discovered (actually after this re-post went live) that a sequel to this game was actually in development at Relevo!

According to a post on their Twitter account, the game would have featured Ned collecting candy and being able to use different costumes to solve puzzles!

Apparently they also toyed with the idea of making Linda the main character of the game, but it was ultimately discontinued...

A shame then that it's unlikely we'll see the sequel, but hopefully one day they might use some sort of dark necromancy to resurrect the idea and the franchise can live again!!