So this is the sight that greets you when the final boss bites the dust. Delightful. Zombie Raid is truly a game for the entire family to enjoy!
By the way, the game never makes it clear what happened to the castle, or how Edward got outside safely. Answer: a wizard did it.
And now, the final word from Mr. Windsor himself.
This epilogue is further proof of how awesome Edward is. Despite the fact that he's saved several hostages from a fate worse than death, destroyed (we assume) a creepy old castle filled with zombies, mummies and psychic mutants, met his best friend and killed him after he turns out to be a psychotic monster, and prevented Pal from taking over the world by decapitating him with a rifle...
... He still didn't fulfil his mission!
Unfortunately, despite the painfully obvious sequel hook of 'A new case must be waiting for me', Zombie Raid is the only game starring Edward, and it seems he's forever resigned to his destiny of being the star of a long-forgotten light gun shoot-em-up. Never forget- he's Edward Windsor. A miserable detective. After his epilogue, it starts to rain blood for some reason, bringing the game to an end.
In fairness, this is probably the best ending of all the games we've covered here. Even if it would scar young children for life.
We also get some credits, too! For what it's worth, the design team at American Sammy seems to consist of half American, half Japanese staff, which seems a bit strange for a company calling itself American Sammy. The Japanese coders probably came over from the Japanese arm of the company. Sorta like Sonic Team USA. Wait, why am I talking like I even know about this sort of thing?! Let's just cut right to the best part of the article- HIGH SCORE TABLE TIME!!
OK, so now we've finished the game, and the shock and awe induced by all the gore is gone, what can we say about Zombie Raid? Considering that this was American Sammy's first and only attempt at a light-gun shooter, this is a damn fine game. The experience is pretty much lost outside the arcade, though, and I've only ever seen it once- it was when I was very young, and I was too small to reach the gun... I made sure to remember the name, though, and rediscovered this gem through emulation. The game looks astounding, even if we ignore the gore, it plays just as it should, there's a load of cool secrets to find, and it's just plain ol' fun. The goofy sound bites are, of course, a bonus.
There's only two real flaws in the game- the first is that there are a worrying number of cheap hits, where you'll have no option other than to take damage. Examples include the second fight with Charles and Pal-Beast's flamethrower attack- there is simply no way of not being hit, which is a little unfair... However, bear in mind that I played the game on the default settings, and the default settings in most arcade games are something along the lines of "Make the player continue as much as possible" because, well, developers like to keep the arcade operators happy. This is also nullified by the wonderful invention that is emulation- free credits all around! Just don't do this with old-school shmups, though, because that's just not cricket. Play on one credit, you pussy!
Er, ahem. The other problem is the fact that there are a few sections that drag on for just that tiny little bit too long, such as the lab in Stage 5 and the first graveyard section in Stage 1. They only overstay their welcome by the tiniest amount, though, and the game makes sure that you're rewarded, either with an amusing/horrifying set-piece, or with a kick-ass boss to fight. It only really becomes monotonous if you play through it way too many times in a short period of time, or if you're clinically insane and need to get screenshots for a crappy review. Oh, wait, that's just me!
So, do your bit for monster hunters everywhere, and give this game a spin on MAME. Satisfaction guaranteed!
... As a little aside, you might be wondering- whatever happened to American Sammy? And what did they even do? A quick look on ye olde internets reveals that, well, they never really did too much. They started in San Francisco as an American subsidiary of Sammy Studios, moved to Illinois in 1991, and mostly distributed games from other companies in America, such as UPL's Task Force Harrier, Scarab's awful Survival Arts (they're sometimes called Sekarabe, so watch out for that) and Aicom's Vice: Project Doom for the NES. As for whether they ever developed games themselves, I honestly don't know- this game is the only one that can't be attributed to any other developer (I used to think Arkista's Ring was one of theirs, but it turns out it was NMK- thanks, GDRI!). Everything else consists of ports of other arcade games, and games made by other developers. Zombie Raid shows that they had potential to make some really cool games though... Which, naturally, is why they disappeared off the face of the earth pretty soon after its release. Bloody typical.
And now, it's that time, folks!
EXTENDED PLAY!
Zombie Raid Sound Pack
Just as with Judge Dredd, Zombie Raid has some absolutely amazing voice samples thrown in, ranging from Edward's impeccable cry of, "CHAAAAAARLES!" to Pal's threat of, "Today, I'm serving a special dish. It's YOU!" but there's a problem. The sound in Zombie Raid is a bit strange, and while the in-game sound effects (particularly gunfire) are loud enough, the music and voice samples are terribly quiet, meaning you can't hear them very well.
And that's why we've got this- a full, comprehensive collection of the voice files from Zombie Raid, including the hilariously bad death screams from all of the enemies. Unlike the Dredd article, I'm confident that this zip file has all of them, because the Test Menu handily contains every sound effect in the game, unlike the incomplete one from Judge Dredd. Since they're from the sound test, there's no background noise, no gristle, no fluff, just these utterly amazing sound bites. Enjoy!
And now, a first for our website- shoddy desktop wallpapers!
These are, without a doubt, the laziest wallpapers you'll ever find on any website ever. I haven't changed them in any way, haven't put them through any cool, avant-garde Photoshop filters, and I haven't even resized them. They're just bare-bones screenshots from the game, the first being from Stage 4's elevator scene, and the second being from the Bad Ending of the game. If you're using Windows rather than the oh-so-smug Apple alternative, you can save these directly to your WINDOWS folder, and you can pick 'em from the Desktop Properties option. No faffing about at all! I tested these on my laptop which has a 1024 x 768 resolution, and they looked pretty alright, so go nuts.
Finally, we would once again like to thank the mystery Zombie Raid master of arcade-history.com.
Who are you, mystery player? What other secrets do you know? Give us a name, and we'll thank you properly.
So, rest easy, zombie hunter. Put your rifle down, and have a nice cup of tea. The nightmare is over... For now.
You can switch the lights back on now, and go back to the index!
