Zombies have become too cool

Zombies and video games go hand in hand. Of course, I'm sure that were I writing about soap, I'd say that it went hand in hand with our favourite past time. But just stick with me here.

While it's hard for me to pin down when I first went up against the living dead in a game, it's even harder for me to say when the whole thing started. I'm sure there's some text adventure game out there that begat everything, so we'll leave it be.

What I'm talking about is this bizarre Zombie renaissance we're going through right now. It's as if everyone at the same time figured out that our brain eating friends are cool and hip.

Left4Dead's rise to fame must have something to do with it. What was once a fun little game from Valve has become the new game from Valve, makers of Half Life (you have to say this bit with a big, musle-y voice). It's their big Christmas game, and many a folk are going nuts for it.

So suddenly, despite years of being awesome, Zombies have made a coincidental return to fame? I doubt it.

In both GTA 4 and World of Warcraft, players were turned into walking corpses as Blizzard and Rockstar got into the Halloween spirit. Just announced recently was that Call of Duty: World at War will be bringing along a zombie mode, turning the sincerity of a WWII game on its head and sending it into embarassing directions. When you're trying to pack an emotional punch with a cinematic shooter like the CoD series, don't throw in a zombie infestation mode. Or at least dress it up enough to seperate the two products. Besides, would I rather kill zombie Nazi's with some rusty old gun, or blow up terrorists with modern day smart bombs? For me, the answer is pretty clear.

What else is coming our way? Well there's downloadable titles Zombies!! and Animales de la Muerte, Litle Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ, and Dead Rising's Wii port. I'm sure I've already missed a dozen or so, but you get the picture.

When Resident Evil, a series that's succeeded from an established formula, changes its ways and rids itself of the now passe zombie, we need to know that the times have changed.

Let's hope we get over this lack of originality bump by next Halloween. Let's see a Power Rangers spoof in World of Warcraft instead. Or maybe you can dress up in fatigues from competing MMO's, a Conan-looking Dwarf would be pretty swank. and much appreciated by the female dwarf community.