Werewolves Of London (ZX Spectrum, Amstrad, C64)

Werewolves Of London (ZX Spectrum, C64, Amstrad) :

Cursed by a family of Gypsy yuppies, this game has you hunting down every last member of that family and killing them, in a bid to cure yourself of an evil, lycanthropic affliction that sees you become a werewolf by night! You have to munch your way through London to get to them..but be careful of the police as the more you kill, the more will be after you!

You can collect various items to help you in your quest and if you eat people as a werewolf, you can find some useful stuff like train tickets which will let you into the Underground, or keys to let you enter the park. Members of the family of fiends who cursed you can be found by keeping an eye out on the bottom of the screen. A cross will flash when they are near and they are easily distinguishable from the other randoms walking around as they are always clad in black.

Inevitably, you'll end up in jail before you find all eight of your enemies. The key to success is to store items in your cell that will help you escape, like a file to open the window or a torch to see in the dark sewers. A manhole cover lifter gets you into these smelly tunnels so best keep an eye out for that too!

There's loads of fun to be had prowling around London's parks, sewers, rooftops and Underground, preying on helpless civilians and armed police alike! Finding a family member always induces a slight panic as you strive to get them before they escape and legging it from the policeman with the keys who locks you up can also be a right laugh ....

The game can be a bit glitchy in places, and suffers quite a bit from slowdown when a lots happening on screen. Unfortunately, the original Spectrum release also came with a bug which meant the game couldn't be completed. But thanks to the wonders of modern science, a bug fixed version can now be obtained from World Of Spectrum meaning you can finally be free of the curse after all these years! Hurrah!

You can get the fixed version here...

But yeah, it's still well worth a go....you'd have to be howling at the moon to not try it at least! 

Shadowman (PC, N64, PS1)

Shadowman (N64, PS1, PC) :

The Nintendo 64 was often wrongly regarded as a machine for kids, whilst the PS1 was the choice for the older gamers. People complained that there were no decent games for the mature player on Nintendo's machine, and the general cuteness of it's games put a lot of people off...but then along came Shadowman, a game based on a comic by Valiant!

Described by a few magazines as "Zelda's Evil Twin", Shadowman had plenty of swearing and gory, gruesome bits! It saw you play the part of Mike LeRoi, an unwilling latest addition to the line of Shadowmen...a group of Voodoo warriors blessed by the dark gods with supernatural powers, which they used to protect their tribes from threats crossing over from the undead plains known as Deadside.

The latest threat to the world is a chap calling himself Legion, who has gathered up a group of serial killers and built a huge place called Asylum in Deadside, which will enable all manner of nasties to creep over the divide into Liveside. As Shadowman, Mike is able to travel between both worlds, and must collect Dark Souls, evil energy that Legion plans to give to his many minions to make them powerful. As you collect these souls, you gain more power which helps in the fight against evil..

You collect lots of different weapons, some of which have both a Liveside and Deadside equivalent. A cool feature is being able to wield a different weapon in each hand, giving you more ways to battle the baddies! The game does play a lot like some twisted Ocarina Of Time and you can tackle it in a similar non-linear fashion so long as you have the right equipment to make it past certain obstacles.

The boss battles are great fun, and see you making trips back to some nasty, dark Liveside locations...the fight with Avery Marx as he stalks you in the dark with night vision goggles being a personal favourite! All in all, it makes for an atmospheric, freaky game that I personally think is a must-have for any N64 collector..

The game is also available on PS1 and PC, but having never played either of those versions, I can't say whether they're any better or worse....

The game did get a PS2 sequel, Shadowman - 2econd Coming which was okay but not a patch on the first. It seemed to lose a lot of the atmosphere of the first game but I suppose it's still worth checking that out too..which I may just do at some point in the future, right here on the blog!

Zombies Ate My Neighbors (SNES, Megadrive/Genesis)

Zombies Ate My Neighbors (SNES, Megadrive/ Genesis) :

Or just plain Zombies in the UK.....this is a perfect game for Halloween! You fill the shoes of either Zeke or Julie as they take to the streets to battle all manner of horrors that for reasons unknown, have suddenly decided to launch an all-out attack on humanity! Using everything you can lay your hands on, you fight your way through waves of pretty much every classic movie monster (oh, and giant babies!) until a final confrontation with the evil Dr. Tongue who seems to be the mastermind behind this evil uprising....

The game is filled with references to classic B-movies, and if you know your stuff you'll know what weapons work best on what creatures...(Silver kitchenware against werewolves, Fire extinguishers against the Blob-type things, etc.)... Various potions can be used too, turning you into a monster that can break through walls or giving you invulnerability for a while. It's a huge load of fun, especially if you find someone else to play it with as one of you can sometimes get transformed into a zombie or a monster and lose all control as you chase down your buddy!

Weirdly, there a few differences between versions...the US version has no blood in it, and any red stuff has been turned to purple gloop! But, it does have chainsaw wielding lumberjacks which the PAL version deems too violent and replaces the chainsaws with axes (which are obviously, way less violent!?!?!?) Oh, and Americans seem to be fine with eating neighbours too! Anyway, go give it a try if you've yet to sample it's spooky superb-ness! And we'll try to forget about it's horrible sequel-that-wasn't-really-a-sequel, Ghoul Patrol....