What Is the Back Story to Nazi Zombies?

Launch

• "Nazi Zombies" debuted in the "Wolfenstein" game launched in 1992, but gained additional followers when it appeared in "Call of Duty: World at War" developed by Treyarch in 2008. Gamers could access the "Nazi Zombies" game as a bonus level on successful completion of the "Call of Duty" campaign mode. Other players could join in the zombie game, even if they hadn't completed the "Call of Duty" campaign, as long as one player had unlocked it. Due to the popularity of the zombie bonus level, Treyarch made it available to all players, regardless of the game level they had reached, in its next "Call of Duty" update.

Characters

• The Nazi Zombies represent a fusion of two ideas. The term Nazi comes from the German name of the political group led by Adolf Hitler and is a short version of Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei. Zombies, in popular mythology, are reanimated dead people who have been brought to life by means of magic, or sometimes fictional technology. Like Nazis, zombies usually have a scary characterization. The Nazi Zombies game features German, Japanese, American and Russian characters who you use to attack the zombies. At the lower levels of the game these are fictional characters, but Treyarch added real-life characters in later versions. Former American presidents, Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy appear in Call of Duty: Black OPs where they have to survive a zombie attack on the Pentagon.

Maps

• The game is played with a map, and the first map released was "Nacht der Untoten" or "Night of the Undead." At the time of publication, eight maps exist. Five of the maps use Nazi zombies, but the third map, "Shi No Numa" features Imperial Japanese Army zombies, and the "Five" map features American zombies, while "Ascension" has Russians. Apart from different characters and settings, each map offers players different capabilities and weapons.

Stories

• The first two maps are set in a house and an asylum. From the third map on, added information is given and the stories are more elaborate. For example, in "Der Riese" or "The Giant" map, you hear about the creation of zombies and how Dr. Edward Richthofen inadvertently created the Hellhounds by putting a dog named Fluffy in a teleporter. The properties of fictional chemical element 115, discovered in a meteor, play a crucial part throughout the game as it is the power behind the Nazi weapon technology.