People love being scared around this time of year and what’s scarier than flesh hungry zombies chasing you? You could brave the masses and check out Sixth Street this Halloween or you could spend night curled up on your couch fighting zombies till the sun comes up.

 

Plants Vs. Zombies

“Plants Vs. Zombies” is by far the weirdest game on our list, and one of the weirdest games ever. You lead an army of sun-powered plants in a full on war against invading zombies. The brilliant minds at PopCap Games, the people that brought us Bejewled and Peggle, thought this one up and set forth to put emphasis on the defense part of the tower defense genre. The game has players planting various plants in front of their house. Each plant has its own unique ability and power that can be used to fight off the incoming zombies. Some shoot seeds while others do things like explode or block off certain pathways. The resulting mayhem is fun and can be very challenging. To top it all off there are currently versions available for Windows, Mac, and you can even get it on your iPhone.

Zombies Ate My Neighbors

In 1993 my mother wasn’t ready for my little five-year-old eyes see anything that had anything to do with zombies, but boy did I want to play this game. Released for the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo, the game was designed to spoof classic horror movies, letting players take on the role of either Zeke or Julie. Both characters look like they where ripped right out of an episode of “Saved By The Bell” and are armed to the teeth with a wide array of weapons ranging from water guns and soda cans to tomatoes and weed whackers. The game has 54 levels for you to traverse doing everything you can to save your neighbors from the zombie apocalypse. If you’ve never experienced this zombie-hunting classic, I highly recommend tracking down a copy of this 16-bit classic.

Dead Rising

Last year one of the guys working at The Huddle asked where the best place to be during the zombie apocalypse would be and I didn’t have an answer for him. But the most fun place? The mall. George Romero explored the idea in Dawn of the Dead, and then it was revisited in Zach Snyder’s 2004 remake. But in 2006, we actually got to play it. “Dead Rising” puts you in control of Frank West, a snarky photojournalist, searching a small town mall for the biggest story of his career. In the process he uncovers thousands of zombies inhabiting the mall and he has to fight his way through the hordes and survive for 72 hours. In the process you get to kill zombies in the silliest ways imaginable. Nothing is too crazy for Frank: guns, frying pans, sledgehammers, shopping carts, and showerheads. It gets crazy! And fun! And you can pick it up new for around $20.

Resident Evil

You would be hard pressed to find a modern action video game that hasn’t found some form of inspiration from the “Resident Evil” franchise. The series, which features five main games and around 15 different spin-offs, follows the story of a few special agents sent to Raccoon City to find information about the Umbrella Corporation’s T-Virus. It’s complicated stuff, but long story short, zombies have invaded the city and are ready to scare you half to death. The games are heavy on anticipation and love to cash in on cheap scares. The story is fairly intriguing, but blasting away zombies is what keeps us coming back for more.