I really wished I would have picked up this game when it was cheaper. Not knowing what Me and Zombie Nation could have been keeps me up at night. Great video as always.
I bought this used (from a local video store I picked up many $5 bargains at) but it wouldn't boot. Returned for another title, which may have been Last Ninja...ugh! 🤪
Fun fact- in Japan this game was called Abarenbō Tengu and featured a floating Tengu (long nosed Japanese mythological creature) head. The plot and other sprites were pretty much the same tho.
Maybe this is what the world needs right now to solve all our problems - an ancient disembodied spectral head of a long forgotten samurai, blasting organic projectiles from every orifice. What I’m saying is it’s worth a _try._
They are selling the Japanese and American version of Zombie Nation in the eshop for the Switch. It’s an $11 alternative to purchasing the expensive cart.
So cool! This is another one of those that I remember the ads in magazines for it, but I never once saw it ANYWHERE. What a crazy premise, thanks for the rad review!
Definitely on of those game I wish I played as a kid, heck even now having a copy would be cool! I mean in essence it’s a side scrolling shooter. Normally you’re a ship or plane shooting similar objects. Sure that is fine but the themes here really make it stand out! You want to keeping going just to see what strange things they throw at you. This is the sort of thing that made NES games interesting. Despite hardware limits people were able to make fun and interesting titles. Too bad this one is a hidden gem 💎
There is a yokai in Japan that is the severed head of (evil, continually screaming, flies) dead samurai that is buried under a temple in Edo (Tokyo). A nearby bank is suing it for damages after an unusual number of workplace accidents. There is a youtube video about it.
@@BigOleWords I wish I could remember where it was. I have totally understated the craziness. EDIT: Taira no Masakado. I keep mad playlists. I found out about him in this video: ua-cam.com/video/3cLZRjTtekM/v-deo.htmlsi=1UzivXqJgtlLh1sb&t=408
The Cutting Room Floor lists regional differences between the US and Japanese versions. Besides the 生首 ("Namakubi", which means "freshly severed head") originally being a tengu mask as everyone else has already mentioned, the Medusa Statue of Liberty used to just look like a regular Statue of Liberty, and the autofire was added for the US version. Also, it looks like the game at one point was going to be called Darc Seed instead of Samurai Zombie Nation.
Interesting game - I do like it's uniqueness, colour palette and other characteristics. Looks like fun to me. Nice piece to have in the NES collection!
@@BigOleWords Sometimes i wonder why i have the hobbies I've CHOSEN. Golf, which is a strange form of paying to get incredibly angry and frustrated. And gaming/ collecting which is a life long quest to re-obtain items that I that i threw away as a child (boxes/manuals etc) or traded away for a sweet pog set . . The Power Ranger slammers sealed the deal. Lol
La versión japonesa de este juego es considerablemente diferente. Se llama Abarenbou Tengu y hace poco la relanzaron para la consola Switch, incluyendo la versión para el NES. Tengo que revisarla. Excelente video, muy buena review.
This is the 'Basketcase' of games. The kind of media that once you experience it, you discover an entire subculture of love for it. I'd never even heard of Basketcase when I accidentally watched it at an ex-girlfriends house at 2am. I still remember her sleeping next to me whilst I had insomnia and I felt like I'd discovered this beautiful mess of a movie. Only to then discover it has a strong cult following. Same happens when people play ZombieNation. It just has that perfect vibe. Offbeat; surreal; funny; strangely dark and mysterious. Definition of a cult classic. EDIT: Just remembered that there is an equivalent game on the SNES called Majyūō (King of Demons) that has a very similiar vibe to ZombieNation. I highly recommend it.
@@BigOleWords Just wanted to say that I recently found your stuff and I love it. I've been around the youtube space for over 10 years now and it's nice to see a newer creator who has taken up the old style of UA-cam review content. Watching your stuff makes me miss the golden age of youtube retro content
@@BigOleWords sooo I actually beat it first try on easy, never even played this before. Took a second to understand the game mechanics because they are quite odd. Been trying it on Hard, haven’t done it yet, but close. The hard difficulty is interesting, you would think the normal difficulty increase like more enemies, they do more damage, etc. But no! It’s basically the same game but the controls feel like your sliding on ice. Never seen that before.
Oh yes, I remember now. This was that rom I checked to see what the heck it was, and after playing it for 10 seconds was left with more questions than answers. Like most of our generation, I skip title openings to start the gameplay. I'm the reason games don't come with instruction manuals anymore.
Heres the scenario: Wednesday night, evening, late: 1 guy: Hey, let's take some mushrooms tonight. 2nd guy: I cant I have to write a story theme for a video game for work tomorrow. 1 guy: Bro, you can take mushrooms and write a story for that game. 2nd guy: What should I name it?
I know about this game since yesterday and today I've been looking for some review or analysis... now I need to play it hard. Feels like it was made for me by my drug addict doppelganger from the dark timeline
I've played this a lot on emulation, I always thought it looked cool but immediately die not far into the first level and I cannot tell what is killing me.
This game loks badass. I gotta put some time into it. I have everdrive so I have 99 save states so I can manage difficulty by saving each time I make it to a new level. I don't save state every 54 seconds I limit myself to once per stage, so it is just a time saver and not a cheat. and this way I can have one separate save state for each stage so after I have done it I can jump onto any stage I want inthe future.
Rented this as a kid and couldn’t pass the first or second level and while I was impressed I never gave it another try. I find that strange seeing as how I played abadox way too much and that game is stupid difficult also.
Objectively a bad shooter if you're comparing it to something from Konami or Compile or Capcom. Shallow weapon system, big clumsy player sprite with weird momentum to it, sloppy enemy placement, etc. Damn, it is a spectacle, though. Weird in so many ways. The level select screen has the longest music track in the game, and one of the longest on the system. Over seven minutes. Why? So it's bad, but I love it anyway. I've cleared it without dying on both difficulties, even.
Just wish that I was talented enough to beat a shmup. I can beat hard games, puzzle games and platformers. But give me an easy shmup and I will rage quit so hard.
I really wished I would have picked up this game when it was cheaper.
Not knowing what Me and Zombie Nation could have been keeps me up at night.
Great video as always.
Hahaha “not knowing what me and Zombie Nation could have been keeps me up at night” is my favorite response!
I bought this used (from a local video store I picked up many $5 bargains at) but it wouldn't boot. Returned for another title, which may have been Last Ninja...ugh! 🤪
Fun fact- in Japan this game was called Abarenbō Tengu and featured a floating Tengu (long nosed Japanese mythological creature) head. The plot and other sprites were pretty much the same tho.
I like it!
He looks like Carl from Aqua Teens
Continue? Well yes, absolutely! I never want to stop doing that ever!
-Jontron
Statue Of Liberty trying to kill me?
Check.
Alien in a coma tries to kill me?
Check.
A Tony Soprano head as a weapon?
Check!
lol
Hahaha
Maybe this is what the world needs right now to solve all our problems - an ancient disembodied spectral head of a long forgotten samurai, blasting organic projectiles from every orifice.
What I’m saying is it’s worth a _try._
Namakubi 2024!
I always thought that was John Lovitz's character from the cult cartoon classic "The Critic" on the cover. lol
Hahah I can see it!
@@BigOleWords I'll bet you can't not see it now. ;)
The railroad sign came from somebody's Christmas garden
They are selling the Japanese and American version of Zombie Nation in the eshop for the Switch. It’s an $11 alternative to purchasing the expensive cart.
Very cool :)
This game is so trippy looking. Almost everything on screen is animated in some way, in all sorts of colors.
Yeah they really went for it!
So cool! This is another one of those that I remember the ads in magazines for it, but I never once saw it ANYWHERE. What a crazy premise, thanks for the rad review!
That’s awesome you’d even heard of it! I would’ve been all over this as a kid.
This looks quite nice. I love the color palette with this one and the attention to detail in everything.
The coders got a lot of colors on there and lots of moving objects with minimal flicker props!
The way the buildings break down reminds me of rampage.
For sure
Got this years ago and felt the game programmers pushed the limits of the NES with all the animations and lack of slowdown. Super hard game too
That’s something I didn’t mention but you’re right, how they avoided any slowdown is pretty impressive!
Definitely on of those game I wish I played as a kid, heck even now having a copy would be cool! I mean in essence it’s a side scrolling shooter. Normally you’re a ship or plane shooting similar objects. Sure that is fine but the themes here really make it stand out! You want to keeping going just to see what strange things they throw at you.
This is the sort of thing that made NES games interesting. Despite hardware limits people were able to make fun and interesting titles. Too bad this one is a hidden gem 💎
All that is true!
Thanks for introducing me to yet another amazing NES game! Your collection just keeps on impressing!
That is delightfully twisted in every possible way!
That’s a perfect description!
There is a yokai in Japan that is the severed head of (evil, continually screaming, flies) dead samurai that is buried under a temple in Edo (Tokyo). A nearby bank is suing it for damages after an unusual number of workplace accidents. There is a youtube video about it.
Say what?!?
@@BigOleWords I wish I could remember where it was. I have totally understated the craziness.
EDIT: Taira no Masakado. I keep mad playlists. I found out about him in this video:
ua-cam.com/video/3cLZRjTtekM/v-deo.htmlsi=1UzivXqJgtlLh1sb&t=408
The Cutting Room Floor lists regional differences between the US and Japanese versions. Besides the 生首 ("Namakubi", which means "freshly severed head") originally being a tengu mask as everyone else has already mentioned, the Medusa Statue of Liberty used to just look like a regular Statue of Liberty, and the autofire was added for the US version. Also, it looks like the game at one point was going to be called Darc Seed instead of Samurai Zombie Nation.
This has to be one of the strangest games ever made! Congrats on having it in your collection, it is pretty fun!👊
Carl from Aqua Teens deserves his own game
Hey real quick, does this game feature a magic sword? Shura does.
I definitely do think it's a hidden gem! I talked about it recently: ua-cam.com/video/6yfLPfafx1c/v-deo.html
Interesting game - I do like it's uniqueness, colour palette and other characteristics. Looks like fun to me. Nice piece to have in the NES collection!
Wish I had it
Some major flexes in this video! Hope you got those carts at a time when they reasonable, lol
Many moons ago, but even then they were still pretty damn expensive. What a hobby! ;)
@@BigOleWords Sometimes i wonder why i have the hobbies I've CHOSEN. Golf, which is a strange form of paying to get incredibly angry and frustrated. And gaming/ collecting which is a life long quest to re-obtain items that I that i threw away as a child (boxes/manuals etc) or traded away for a sweet pog set . . The Power Ranger slammers sealed the deal. Lol
@@chrisd6287 hahaha
La versión japonesa de este juego es considerablemente diferente. Se llama Abarenbou Tengu y hace poco la relanzaron para la consola Switch, incluyendo la versión para el NES. Tengo que revisarla. Excelente video, muy buena review.
¡Oye, muchas gracias!
Never heard of this! Def something I'll keep an eye out for and maybe do a review of! Def subbing!
It’s probably more bizarre than good, but definitely worth trying!
It's such a weird concept and almost feels like an unlicensed game.
Oh man that’s a harsh burn on Zombie Nation!
I absolutely love the concept of this game.
This is the 'Basketcase' of games. The kind of media that once you experience it, you discover an entire subculture of love for it.
I'd never even heard of Basketcase when I accidentally watched it at an ex-girlfriends house at 2am. I still remember her sleeping next to me whilst I had insomnia and I felt like I'd discovered this beautiful mess of a movie. Only to then discover it has a strong cult following. Same happens when people play ZombieNation. It just has that perfect vibe. Offbeat; surreal; funny; strangely dark and mysterious.
Definition of a cult classic.
EDIT: Just remembered that there is an equivalent game on the SNES called Majyūō (King of Demons) that has a very similiar vibe to ZombieNation. I highly recommend it.
Hell yeah, Basketcase rules! That’s an excellent parallel to the camp/grotesqueness of Zombie Nation :)
@@BigOleWords Just wanted to say that I recently found your stuff and I love it. I've been around the youtube space for over 10 years now and it's nice to see a newer creator who has taken up the old style of UA-cam review content. Watching your stuff makes me miss the golden age of youtube retro content
@@novelezra Hey thanks so much!
why is the health mesaured in Abobos?
Hahahaha. You win!
Jesus that price!
Zombie National predicted what 1999 was going to like so well!
I’ll play this, on my everdrive ofcourse 🤪
The samurai head is whatever fixes Y2K :)
@@BigOleWords I hope they make a second game with a dragon claw to fix gas prices
Great review mate
Thanks mane!
Another great video! This game looks nutty as hell lol.
Tis quite nutty!
The prices for both American and Japanese cartridge went to the sky the last years. Looks like Meldac release just a few copies and that´s all.
Oh man that’s a bummer!
I have never heard of this game until now. Graphics are actually farely decent. The Statue of Liberty is impressive.
Yeah for sure. It’s not the most fun, but it may be the most interesting!
Well I know what I’m playing tonight, picked this up a few months ago and haven’t had a chance to beat it yet
Good luck, it’s a beast!
@@BigOleWords sooo I actually beat it first try on easy, never even played this before. Took a second to understand the game mechanics because they are quite odd. Been trying it on Hard, haven’t done it yet, but close. The hard difficulty is interesting, you would think the normal difficulty increase like more enemies, they do more damage, etc. But no! It’s basically the same game but the controls feel like your sliding on ice. Never seen that before.
Oh yes, I remember now. This was that rom I checked to see what the heck it was, and after playing it for 10 seconds was left with more questions than answers.
Like most of our generation, I skip title openings to start the gameplay. I'm the reason games don't come with instruction manuals anymore.
Honestly I’ve played it a ton and am still super confused by it
Very fun game! Got my loose copy on ebay back in 1999 for 10 bucks!!!
Ive been trying to find this game but forgot the name. I rented it in the early 90s
How dare you? I've wanted this cartridge for years!! lol
Hahaha
Heres the scenario:
Wednesday night, evening, late:
1 guy: Hey, let's take some mushrooms tonight.
2nd guy: I cant I have to write a story theme for a video game for work tomorrow.
1 guy: Bro, you can take mushrooms and write a story for that game.
2nd guy: What should I name it?
Japanese version the flying head is a tengu instead of a slightly bold human head.
Whoa, neat!
Did you notice it was the "HEAD" zombie HAHHAA. Also, Kaze in JHaopanese means wind or air
Zing! And I did not know that!
I know about this game since yesterday and today I've been looking for some review or analysis... now I need to play it hard. Feels like it was made for me by my drug addict doppelganger from the dark timeline
Be warned, it is very very difficult!
I've played this a lot on emulation, I always thought it looked cool but immediately die not far into the first level and I cannot tell what is killing me.
It’s pretty damn brutal
This game is such fun insanity.
Yes it is!
I should have bought it when it was only $50.
Grrr!
Same!
This game loks badass. I gotta put some time into it. I have everdrive so I have 99 save states so I can manage difficulty by saving each time I make it to a new level. I don't save state every 54 seconds I limit myself to once per stage, so it is just a time saver and not a cheat. and this way I can have one separate save state for each stage so after I have done it I can jump onto any stage I want inthe future.
Hmmm that’d still be very hard to do with Zombie Nation. I feel like you go from zero to dead in seconds!
Rented this as a kid and couldn’t pass the first or second level and while I was impressed I never gave it another try. I find that strange seeing as how I played abadox way too much and that game is stupid difficult also.
Abadox is another contender for strangest NES title!
BOW: Check it out!
Me: (Goes to eBay) NO
Haha yeah it’s become pretty pricy. I think it’s on the switch now though :)
What he says wen died?
No idea!
I only have played this one through emulation.
That counts just as much!
😂 guess floating heads of long dead samurai don't care much about collateral damage. I think he screwed stuff up worse than the alien
Right?! Nothing about this game makes any sense.
Do a s.c.a.t. nes review 1 day?? Its my fav nes shooter and its my yt profile pic lol
It’s on my list!
Such a weird game....cmon switch with the zombie nation remaster
Fun game but not worth what idiots think it is lol
Id be ok with a repro id never pay what this goes for lol
Yep, it’s become stupid pricy
Objectively a bad shooter if you're comparing it to something from Konami or Compile or Capcom. Shallow weapon system, big clumsy player sprite with weird momentum to it, sloppy enemy placement, etc. Damn, it is a spectacle, though. Weird in so many ways. The level select screen has the longest music track in the game, and one of the longest on the system. Over seven minutes. Why?
So it's bad, but I love it anyway. I've cleared it without dying on both difficulties, even.
Haha I didn’t notice it was 7 minutes long. Neat!
Just wish that I was talented enough to beat a shmup. I can beat hard games, puzzle games and platformers. But give me an easy shmup and I will rage quit so hard.
Yeah I’m terrible at all of them without exception!
I refused to play thus because it appeared to be anti-American...
Kernkraft 400. What a lame song.
Haha yeah I thought about mentioning it but couldn’t figure out how to do so without actually playing the song :)