Left 4 Dead 8 Bit

It seems of a new thing to make modern “simplistic” games into a retro-refit. Previously on GameAbuser we’ve seen terminal/DOS styled Portal – that you can now download – that took the pure gameplay of what made Portal so good and stripped it down into ASCII art style that just makes a true re-imagining of the game.

There is now a “NES de-make” of Left 4 Dead in development by Eric Ruth. Check out the video of this 256 x 240 16 colors and 4 sound channel soundtrack wonder.

Recreating the 5 maps of all 4 campaigns, the game looks to play like any traditional top-down shooter. It’s an interesting take and looks simple enough to be fairly popular and even a good idea for an iPhone game, but one thing that did become very apparent that Rob Bricken, of Topless Robot, pointed out was the lack of zombies. Rob is correct in saying the main game was all about the number of zombies, and baring in mind the game was developed from a Counter-Strike AI mod that equipped a whole bunch of AIs with a knife and a running towards you, it is about the numbers, the excitement and those moments where you shout “Oh crap! They are all around me!” So the lack of zombies does feel it’s short of what it could be.

This is an early demo, granted, and the guy has only completed the No Mercy campaign and the majority the core code so now is a good time to give constructive criticism so here is what I’d like to see in the final product.

• More zombies, lots more
• Randomization on possible fronts (so zombie placement, weapon drops) to keep in line with Left 4 Dead’s current Director AI
• More than 4 players and/or the ability to network up
• Darker rooms using only a limited light source
• Boomers call in large squads of zombies when they puke on you rather than just hurt

Aside from that the graphics do look cool and fit right in to that NES-esq feel and the sound track does fit nicely with the game. But all this idea to make it NES-esq doesn’t mean that it has to be overall. As I mentioned, this would sell very well if ported to the iPhone (I would totally buy a copy) as it has a square view with room for controls, and all you need by the looks of it is D-pad and two buttons (shoot and switch).

If Eric tweaks this game a little then I’m sure it will be a great little romp!

[ hat-tip: Topless Robot ]

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