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GamerBlipsDiversity Zombie
As seen in: The House of the Dead 2 (1998)
Disposition: Shambly
While plenty of games feature zombies with differing appearances, it’s difficult to think of a series with more variety and diversity crammed into its undead ranks than The House of the Dead. You’ve got bargain-basement shirtless zombies with half a face, gross swamp zombies covered in slime, semi-intelligent ax-toting zombies and giant, mutated boss zombies with chainsaws, superpowers and hearts on the outside. And that’s just in The House of the Dead 2, probably the most widely played edition of the series; the sequels ramp up the variety even more, giving us everything from giant zombie cops to infected nurses.
Combat Zombie
As seen in: Zombie Revenge (1999)
Disposition: Pugnacious
Creating Zombie Revenge as a House of the Dead-spinoff brawler was an interesting move, mainly because zombies are always thought of as creatures that you’d never want to get within 10 feet of, never mind punching distance. And because just making a brawler where your only enemies are mindless, lurching stupids would get boring in a hurry, Sega gave its zombies not only the gift of martial-arts prowess, but also the ability to use weapons, up to and including guns (which you could then take after beating them up/shooting them). It’s unorthodox, sure, but it’s still a lot more fun than trying to play Onechanbara (see last page).
Dancing Zombie
As seen in: Bust A Groove 2 (1999)
Disposition: Dreamy
According to the zombie dancer Bi-O’s backstory, he’s not actually undead – he’s just the unfortunate victim of an ax-to-the-head prank by his tantrum-prone son, the gasmask-wearing dancer Gas-O. He’s also kind of an evolutionary dead end, insofar as this list is concerned, because – with the exception of a brief scene from Stubbs the Zombie – no videogame zombie, to our knowledge has solved its problems through the art of dance. But whatever – Bi-O looks plenty dead to us, he does the robot with unusual flair and his stage is the deck of a haunted ship during a storm at sea, so we love him anyway.
Above: Not his actual stage
Samurai Zombie
As seen in: Onimusha: Warlords (2001)
Disposition: Cackly
Notable zombies come and go, but few are as instantly recognizable – or as enduring to their series – as the samurai zombies from Onimusha. Clad in rags and rice-paddy hats, they’re more than just the usual shambling flesh-eaters we were used to by this point – they can use swords with the skill of a warrior, suggesting a level of intelligence previously unheard of in undead cannon fodder. They went on to evolve even further in their own series, at one point growing four spider-like legs for added intimidation.
Squirrel Zombie
As seen in: Conker’s Bad Fur Day (2001)
Disposition: Hungry
Technically another evolutionary dead end, the squirrel zombies from Conker’s Bad Fur Day (and, later, Conker: Live and Reloaded) are one of the only instances of anthropomorphic animals rising from the grave with horrific disfigurements and are therefore two exciting aberrations in one. They're also fast and aggressive as hell, so if Conker isn’t quick on the draw with his shotgun, it’ll only take a few seconds before he can look forward to spending the rest of eternity moldering away in the stomachs of several dozen zombies.
Zombie Nurse
As seen in: Silent Hill 2 (2001)
Disposition: Sexy
No list of zombies and their evolutionary changes over the years would be complete without the nurses from Silent Hill, distinct for being just about the only undead horror that made players wonder whether they were supposed to beat it to death or awkwardly try to buy it a drink. Better still, if you read into the game’s backstory, you’ll find that they’re actually a projection of the protagonist’s sexual frustrations, which stemmed from his wife’s terminal illness, thereby giving the art-game crowd an excuse to ogle them just before braining them with a lead pipe.
That sounds really messed up, now that we actually wrote it out.
Flood Zombie
As seen in: Halo (2001)
Disposition: Pained
Although the Flood is arguably the worst part of every Halo game it appears in, it nonetheless has a unique way of spreading: autonomous spore-creatures that burrow into their hosts, take control and eventually transform them into walking, gelatinous incubators for other spores. They’re disgusting, horrific and uniformly a pain in the ass, but they’re an original take on what by now is arguably the most unoriginal baddie imaginable (except maybe for Nazis, because those actually exist), and if that doesn’t count as an evolution, we don’t know what does.
Redesigned Zombie
As seen in: Resident Evil (2002)
Disposition: Bitey
When Resident Evil got its lavish, GameCube-exclusive remake, of course the zombies had to be just as meticulously overhauled. The end results are some of the most terrifying creatures ever to stalk a TV screen, with diverse appearances, horrible grins and the ability to eventually come back to unlife as super-strong, super-fast “Crimson Heads” unless they’re burned or get their heads smashed in. The new treatment added some surprises to what had long been the defining portrayal of zombies, and succeeded in making the tired old creatures scary all over again.
