No one, who plays video games at least, is a stranger to the zombie apocalypse. Whether it’s directly from one of the thousands of zombie games out on the market, or even from the popular zombie mod present in the Call of Duty series, many gamers have experienced the awesome fun present inside the virtual zombie outbreaks of the gaming world. As the popularity behind these cannibalistic walking corpses continue to grow in pop culture, we thought about some of the popular gaming franchises that could benefit from having zombies modes. Here are few popular ones that make the most sense.
Super Mario Bros.
Everyone’s favorite plumber is jumping from platform to platform and then smashing the heads of….zombies? Hell yes! Forget those Goombas and Koopa Troppas, Mario and Luigi are off to stomp out walking cadavers. Racing to save Princess Peach from an undead Bowser could prove to be the best of Mario’s exploits. Just imagine the fun of Mario turning into a walker, then chasing after the mushroom kingdom via multiplayer. The endless possibilities of the Mario universe could prove to be fruitful for Nintendo. So as Mario Maker gets set to launch next year, we only hope the Big N hears our pleas and incorporates zombies into the most beloved gaming franchise of all time.
Assassin’s Creed
Random people you meet turn out to be your uncle Mario and even more randomly, everyone seems to be a Templar. The idea of zombies actually came out of some of the time periods mentioned in the Assassin’s Creed franchise. In fact, the black death influenced a lot of theories of reincarnation in its most disgusting state. So why not copy the Red Dead Redemption formula? Picture Ezio traveling across Europe and arriving at a shanty town that ends up housing hordes of zombies? While you stealth around and jump from ledge to ledge, you’ll encounter these undead enemies by the hundreds and use that fluid combat system for another sweet purpose: zombie extermination.
The Elder Scrolls
Who’s to say the Dragonborn can’t take on zombies? Skyrim, loved for its immersive and large amount of gameplay, remains a haven for some of the most beautiful and creative mods of all time. That and Elder Scrolls Online. Whether it was the Hello kitty helmet mod, or the Minecraft block mod, Skyrim has become the staple game people think of when it comes to fan-made content. It’s surprising that there hasn’t been a zombie mod created for any of the Elder Scrolls games…at least from our recollection. Even if it was just an addition of zombies to the random enemies you encounter, they could make any challenge for the Dragonborn more difficult. From undead dragons to undead trolls, the Dragonborn is in need of stranger foes, and luckily for us, zombies are the largest thing in pop culture when it comes to monsters.
The Batman Arkham Series
The Arkham series is notorious for its awesome detective gameplay–and even more famously–for the most fluid combat of all time. While Batman has faced a lot of strange deformed foes in his exploits, he has never encountered zombies. Think about Bruce Wayne trying to discover the cause of a zombie outbreak using his super detective abilities and awesome fighting talents. You could choose to sneak around a pack of zombies or jump from zombie to zombie by punching them in the face. Batman has beat up the scum of Gotham for too long, it is time for the Caped Crusader to take on another challenge.
Madden Football
I imagine those who have played Mutant League Football will understand the overwhelming joy an NFL-on-Zombie football match. While serious zombie modes would be much more difficult to pull off than its undead, arcade-like counterpart, the concept is relatively the same. Some might say that would be easy, but imagine some World War Z-type zombies coming at you from the line of scrimmage. Fast-moving and hard-hitting zombies would be insane and entertaining to say the least. Plus it’d be cool to zombify some of the NFL’s best players. A undead Peyton Manning throwing to a crippling Wes Welker would make for a lot of laughs and random limb removal, on the zombies side of course.
Halo
Infected modes have been around since Halo 2 . Zombies are still an interesting concept though for the Halo universe. What’s to stop the covenant from developing a method for resurrecting their dead, only to be killed by Master Chief over and over again? While the flood mimic this idea and take over biological hosts: Why not include a level of difficulty in Halo that allows all enemies to resurrect themselves? Horde modes basically started in Halo: ODST. 343 Studios is fond of creating quirky movements for their grunts, so we could only hope that one day, in our idea for a zombie horde mode in Halo, that the resurrected supersoldiers would start reenacting the “Thriller” dance for show.
Shadows of Mordor
Though recently launched, it is one of the most talked about games of 2014 so far. Shadows of Mordor has quickly become a favorite in many gamers eyes. Sure, Tolkien has never indulged in zombie folklore, but it wouldn’t be far-fetched to see undead orcs in the world of Shadows of Mordor. A quick bit of trivia for you folks playing at home: The lead writer of the game is Christian Cantamessa, writer and designer of Red Dead Redemption, the ultimate zombie edition game. Using the same strategy, Tailon could take on hordes of the undead in an expansion to the already existing platform. With hugely dynamic combat and the unique nemesis system, we can only imagine the fun “captain” zombies could become if they kill you and lead the hordes towards your position.
The Sims Franchise
As much as we love The Sims just the way it is, wouldn’t it be dope if there was a bit of Minecraft flavor thrown in there? Imagine you were controlling your avatar, go off to work, come home for a nice dinner, and then be randomly attacked by the zombie pandemic? These are all the sick thoughts that many of us have while playing simulation games. But since 2000, The Sims has been a staple in the gaming industry. This gigantic, world simulator provides the perfect amount of humor and creative freedom that people seek. A Walking Dead simulation pack would serve as great DLC. We’d want just the same amount of humor and drama that goes into your house burning down in the game, except now, in that burning house are hundreds of zombies. Or, if you are the adventurous type, you could try to charm your zombie attacker and marry them!
