People dont hail George A. Romero for inventing the zombie, but rather for defining the contemporary rules that govern our cannibal ghouls lore. Night of the Living Dead broke ground, and then 1978s Dawn of the Dead reached up through that ground and grabbed horror fans by the ankles. A growling horde of Americans shambling through a shopping mall is enough to horrify anyone, and Romero capitalized on these social themes like a genius. Flash forward to 2006 and Dead Rising comes to Xbox 360, an everything-is-a-weapon zombie romp also set in a mall. The comparisons to Dead of the Dead were apparently enough to warrant a lawsuit, started by the MKR Group, who own the rights to Romeros film. Apparently the emboldened disclaimer on the games cover denying official ties to 70s film wasnt enough. The case was ultimately dropped in 2008, the same year it started, with a ruling that determined the similarities in question were driven by the wholly unprotectable concept of humans battling zombies in a mall during a zombie outbreak. Theres no way Dead Rising would exist without Dawn of the Dead having made the glaringly similar premise so iconic, but for that matter, we probably wouldnt have House of the Dead, Resident Evil or Left 4 Dead either. Technically speaking, every entertainment IP with a modern zombie bone in its body has risen from George A. Romeros low-budget loins, indirectly joining his undead legacy.