Game zombies are redder, deader and better than ever, writes Joe Griffin

THE MOVIE zombie craze seems to have given way to vampires, but in videogames the walking dead refuse to shuffle quietly into the night.

Like cannibalistic undead monsters, movies and videogames seem to feed off one another, providing inspiration in equal measures. Would Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Deadhave been bankrolled without the success of the Resident Evilgames?

For that matter, movie zombies (like the sort-of zombies in 28 Days Later) didn't begin to sprint until after they'd been running around in games such as House of the Dead. Humorous zombies turned up on consoles long before Shaun of the Dead; and intelligent ones were game staples before George Romero's Land of the Dead.

Zombies are the perfect cannon fodder. While one might feel ambivalent about shooter games in which you kill soldiers (likely just a young private doing his job), zombies are already dead. In fact, most people would rather they are killed than continue a half-life as a brain-eating monster.

The rise of online gaming has been great for the genre; a horde of zombies is always a nice backdrop for online co-operative gameplay, as demonstrated in the likes of Left 4 Dead.

Zombies have also proven more versatile than they're given credit for. They've turned up as Nazis ( Wolfenstein, Call of Duty: World at Warand Call of Duty Zombies), Spanish sailors ( Uncharted: Drake's Fortune), nurses ( Half-Life 2), samurai ( Onimusha: Warlords), store Santas ( Secret of Mana), sentient warlords ( Risk: Factions) and cowboys ( Red Dead Redemption).

In fact, many gamers (including this writer) and game designers now hold a warped affection for zombies, and their image rehabilitation has already begun. One is even a heroic protagonist in Stubbs the Zombie. Another is a likeable dancer (albeit with an axe buried in his head) in Bust a Groove 2,and still another is a benevolent butler in MySims Agents.

Indeed, some of them are positively cuddly, like the villains in Plants vs Zombies. Sure, they are planning on (quote) "eating your brains", but they're also fun: They leave amusing notes (with terrible zombie penmanship), bounce on pogo sticks and even moonwalk.

Some have complained that videogame zombies have become too ubiquitous. But as long as developers maintain the creativity that they've shown for these creatures, I say let them eat brains!