If Cotton makes the list then how about Deathsmiles?
If Cotton makes the list then how about Deathsmiles?
It may well be.Originally Posted by FoxNtd
If this was for Christmas instead of Halloween, Deathsmiles II would be all over it.
#10: Folklore (PS3)
Many of the games in this little countdown are here for their loose connection to Halloween through settings and horror themes. Folklore, though, an early PS3 action RPG, is centered around Samhain, the very cultural root of our Halloween. Taking place in the Irish village of Doolin, where the veil between our world and the netherworld is weak. A young girl named Ellen has come in search of her long-presumed-dead mother, and a cynical reporter named Keats has turned up on an anonymous tip about strange happenings in town. As both characters, you must meet the faerie folk of Doolin, and scour the netherworld during the heightened magic of Samhain to get to the bottom of their respective mysteries.
The game takes place in chapters, and you can choose to play as either character's chapter first, then at the end continue that story or switch characters to begin where you left off in his or her story. Basically, you could play Ellen's first six chapters, play Keats' first two, then pick up at Ellen's seventh and so on. This allows the story to play out from different perspectives with differing events, but does end up allowing for a lot of retreading familiar ground. Both characters have distinct personalities, and are pretty likable. Gameplay wise, though, there is little functional difference in abilities save Keats' Transcension ability and Ellen's upgradeable cloak.
The core mechanics of the game revolve around fighting the various folk of the netherworld and capturing their souls to wield as attacks, much in the way you do in the Castlevania: Sorrow games with Soma Cruz. Capturing many of the same folk will level up that ability, be it attack, defense, or effect. Each face button can be mapped to use a folk ability, and can be swapped out in menu. There are some with synergy with one another, and of course if you're the collecting type, you've got a list to fill out.
Folklore has its fun with all of the collecting and customizable progression, but where it's at its best is in its Irish otherworldly setting. The pub full of fae in Doolin is a beautiful little place to have a conversation. The folk have a very Halloween flair in their designs, and the setting is a colorful autumn at twilight, even in the netherworld. The, um, folk music is atmospheric and fitting, and the stories, while not earth shattering, are pleasantly mysterious. Folklore may not be scary, but it really nails its chosen setting and atmosphere, which basically makes it an excellent choice if you're looking for an action RPG for the Halloween season. It really feels other-worldly.
Last edited by celerystalker; 10-10-2016 at 02:35 PM.
Looks fairly decent. I have to admit I've seen many people write this on multiple sites just in the last few weeks and I felt the same so it wasn't an influence, but I have to say I wish I had kept my PS3 collection and ignored #4 just as many more say as much about 360 vs the One. So much overlap, so starkly and rarely something new of quality IT only gets, not it + last gen, or it + PC. I feel bad for those who felt taken/trapped swapping out their hardware, at least I paid 50% off on mine so it's not a loss and I still have the PS3 (gameless) but stuff like this makes me wonder going forward what the industry will do to get things on track again. VR isn't going to do shit at the cost involved with the hardware+goggles except for the truly dedicated. As cool as this game and others in this thread are, and how they could look even nicer in this gen or gen+(+vr) there's just a sad state of things. We used to moan that some creativity was really lost going into HD but this HD gen2 (and HD+VR) is looking even crappier.
Stuff like the games in this thread and all around halloween/spooky based or not make you wondering where things went wrong. :\ As little as there was with people making choice decisions like this latest PS3 review here, at least they tried, they don't now.
I get what you mean. I find most modern game design to be alienating to my tastes. I get that times have changed and arcades are basically gone, but I do appreciate it when companies put out something that has a strong, engaging atmosphere, even if the gameplay isn't something I like as much. Folklore was a game whose action is pretty bog standard, but its setting and atmosphere are nailed down tightly, which helps bridge that gap between what I like and don't so I could enjoy it.
#11: Maniac Mansion (NES)
Maniac Mansion is a fall favorite of mine, and has been ever since I first read about it in Nintendo Power as a kid. Even before I had it, I was sucked in by the idea of these teenagers sneaking through a huge house full of creepy weirdos, and its evening setting and wilted trees just scream fall and Halloween to me. I didn't have any kind of computer growing up, so that left the NES game as the definitive version to my mind, and although I've long since known that it's a censored port, this version will always be ingrained in my heart as the "real" version, despite knowing better.
Maniac Mansion's SCUMM engine practically revolutionized point and click adventuring, making them far more playable on home consoles without dramatic concessions. Being able to circumvent old school text parsers for simple one button press choices makes the game a breeze to play, as if you can read, you can play it. After selecting a group of three kids (you're stuck with useless-ass Dave), each with unique skills, talents, and soundtracks, you just wander the grounds, avoiding the various Eds, collecting junk, and figuring out how to use that combination of skills and stuff to solve the mansion's conundrums and rescue Dave's best gal.
A lot of the game's fun comes not just from its comedy, which was very clever for its time, but in how it has several possible solutions depending on who you bring along for the ride. The ability to play music, develop pictures, repair devices, and write all can lead down different roads to the inner laboratory, and it adds the kind of replayability that allows it to be fun for me seasonally year in and year out. There are also loads of little easter eggs and red herrings to enjoy, so the game has always managed to feel fresh to me.
Creepy mansion? A one night adventure? Oddity all around? Maniac Mansion brings a lot of my favorite Halloween flavors to the NES in grand fashion. With unique visual style, amusing characters and scenarios, and the kind of B-movie camp associated with '80s horror, it's a great all around package, and one of the most accessible point and click games ever to grace a classic console. It'll always hold a special place for me.
Fun game I suppose. I owned it off and on for years and never made any progress. It's exceptionally rare when a point and click game makes any logical sense to me before I get pissed off and quit. This one skates the line where I can never get near finishing but it's still alright while I'm at it. Maybe a decade ago or so, someone redid the entire thing for Windows as a free download that probably still works too (hamster included.) I wish I could do these games as I love the intent behind them but without a faq the leaps of programmer decision mostly escape me. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis along with the original Sam & Max Hit the Road were about it for me along with going pretty far into The Dig.
Love Maniac Mansion, its one of the best games everrr!!
Maniac Mansion is a fall favorite of mine, and has been ever since I first read about it in Nintendo Power as a kid. Even before I had it, I was sucked in by the idea of these teenagers sneaking through a huge house full of creepy weirdos, and its evening setting and wilted trees just scream fall and Halloween to me. I didn't have any kind of computer growing up, so that left the NES game as the definitive version to my mind, and although I've long since known that it's a censored port, this version will always be ingrained in my heart as the "real" version, despite knowing better.
Maniac Mansion's SCUMM engine practically revolutionized point and click adventuring, making them far more playable on home consoles without dramatic concessions. Being able to circumvent old school text parsers for simple one button press choices makes the game a breeze to play, as if you can read, you can play it. After selecting a group of three kids (you're stuck with useless-ass Dave), each with unique skills, talents, and soundtracks, you just wander the grounds, avoiding the various Eds, collecting junk, and figuring out how to use that combination of skills and stuff to solve the mansion's conundrums and rescue Dave's best gal.
A lot of the game's fun comes not just from its comedy, which was very clever for its time, but in how it has several possible solutions depending on who you bring along for the ride. The ability to play music, develop pictures, repair devices, and write all can lead down different roads to the inner laboratory, and it adds the kind of replayability that allows it to be fun for me seasonally year in and year out. There are also loads of little easter eggs and red herrings to enjoy, so the game has always managed to feel fresh to me.
Creepy mansion? A one night adventure? Oddity all around? Maniac Mansion brings a lot of my favorite Halloween flavors to the NES in grand fashion. With unique visual style, amusing characters and scenarios, and the kind of B-movie camp associated with '80s horror, it's a great all around package, and one of the most accessible point and click games ever to grace a classic console. It'll always hold a special place for me.
Its actually not as hard as people think.. there are multiple ways to complete the game. Dont be a tuna head.
Razor is da best. She such a babe.
Here tracked it down Maniac Mansion Deluxe -- http://maniac-mansion-deluxe.en.uptodown.com/windows
Have fun, total faithful remaster of the original made 12 years ago for Windows
I see what you did there.
Heheh, I was wondering if anyone would notice that. Turns out it was the man himself.I see what you did there.
*bows*Heheh, I was wondering if anyone would notice that. Turns out it was the man himself.
What can I say?
#12: Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ (DS)
Some games are spooky, some games are tense, and some are gory... then there's Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ for Nintendo DS. It takes cute little Red Riding Hood and her newfound buddy, the Peach Boy Momotaro, and has them mow down the shambling corpses of their friends and families in effort to find out why hell has come to Frogto... um... Storyland. Armed with only her little red cloak, sandles, and machine guns, flamethrowers, shotguns, lasers... actually, seems she's been ready to throw down for awhile! Max Brooks would be proud.
This game is an auto-scrolling vertical shooter that feels a bit like Taito's Space Raiders for Gamecube/PS2. Kind of like a scrolling Galaga or Space Invaders, you only move horizontally along the bottom of the screen at a slightly tilted perspective, firing upward, using the touch screen to aim at any angle. In fact, the entire game can be played with touch controls, moving by touching where you want Momo or Hood to move, firing by holding the stylus to the screen, and lifting it to reload. Tapping your character will cause a duck, or to fight off a zombie who has managed to get its grubby hands on you. You can also move with either the touch screen or face buttons, but firing or switching weapons is touch only.
I'm personally not a huge fan of touch controls, but they work pretty well here. I prefer to move with the D-pad so I can hold the damn thing, though it's easier to play if I set it on the bar and keep it still. It is rather responsive, although I find that my own hand is often obscuring one corner of the screen (which also made this a bitch to take even a modest photo of...). Every couple of stages ends in a big boss battle, whether it's dear old granny, Gretel, or other beloved children's characters., and there are loads of miniboss encounters. You can save your progress, and there are three save slots to boot.
The combination of a zombie apocalypse and fairy tales tangles up to present a decidedly Halloween feel and look, with fall color pallets, bloody monstrosities, and dark settings. The action in pretty fun and frenetic, and the story and theme are dumb enough to have a goofy charm. Honestly, it's nothing that couldn't have been done on a smart phone, but it's still a good romp thanks to how absurd it is. For a fun seasonal portable game, it's a winner.
I wanted to like that game but I can't. I'm not as forgiving on the controls as they're just not that good and got me killed stupidly enough times, plus hand blockage of part of the screen in a shooter is stupid too. I think the concept was nice but the control execution ruins it. I recently got fed up with it and tossed it up on ebay, hopefully someone snaps it up as it's surprisingly worth a little bit more than one would think.
#13: Death Crimson 2 (Dreamcast)
Death Crimson is a series with quite the cult following in Japan, and not always for the best of reasons. The first sequel on Sega's Dreamcast is another light gun shooter with a horror theme, and while it's no House of the Dead 2, it still brings several reasons to play it to the table. As a young agent, you must visit a sleepy gothic European village to uncover what is behind the violent monster attacks plaguing the residents.
There are two primary modes of play in Death Crimson 2. Story Mode is a single-payer adventure with loads of incomprehensible dialogue and Resident Evil-like exploration scenes, complete with tank controls. This is designed specifically to take advantage of the design of Sega's first party gun accessory, which featured a D-pad on the back of the handle with a pair of buttons, giving it similar functionality to Nintendo's Wii Zapper with nunchuck. You walk around, explore, and find power-ups while advancing the story, and then launch into an on-rails light gun sequence, which plays much like you would expect, though you can use the D-pad to slightly alter your viewpoint and get a better angle. It's mostly just window dressing for a gun game, but it does add quite a bit of atmosphere to make it feel a tad more like a horror game.
Mission Mode is pretty much an arcade mode, where you select various missions to play as a straight up light gun shooter. Again, these are hardly akin to the best of Sega or Namco's gun games, but they do play well enough, and offer up some unique features. For one, Death Crimson 2 supports up to four players simultaneously in missions, and has competitive scoring, which makes it a fun party experience if you have the guns. Secondly, and perhaps more amusingly, you can record a couple of seconds-long death scream using your old Seaman microphone, so each player can have custom sounds for their kills. Nothing says "I'm better than you" like a constant stream of "Fuck you, Ben!"s. In the right setting, it's an absolute riot.
Death Crimson 2 is a flawed gun game with such amusing multi-player features that it becomes a better party game than it should be. The village setting's architecture conveys that Halloween mood well, and the story mode is at least a novel approach, even if it's rough around the edges. If you've already played House of the Dead to death, it might be worth a spin.
Last edited by celerystalker; 10-12-2016 at 11:21 PM.
#14: Eternal Darkness (Gamecube)
In this countdown, I've mainly been focused on games that give me more of a Halloween feel than just necessarily horror in general. There are a lot of great sci-fi horror games I really love, but a dying space station just isn't Halloween to me. One of my favorite horror games, though, is Eternal Darkness for Gamecube. While some of its settings vary, its core concept is about as Halloween a concept as it gets. A young woman reading a terrifying occult book bound in human flesh, all alone in her ancestral New England mansion where her grandfather recently died... Inspired by the likes of Poe and Lovecraft, it is a game whose tone and story really go in interesting directions compared to the usual horror twists.
At this point, it's hardly a spoiler that Eternal Darkness likes to screw with players in amusing ways, but focusing on that is a disservice to the game's strengths. The Roivas family's struggle against the machinations of the ancients take place throughout the centuries and around the globe. The concept of brave people fighting and suffering alone, completely unappreciated and often ending cruelly, makes for a compelling take on horror gaming, especially for its time. If you can imagine sitting in a hidden study, reading about the madness and death your entire line has faced throughout history, it's the sort of Halloween night that can really stick with you.
The stories of these lost souls take place across four main regions, and it's intriguing to see how the various crypts, cathedrals, and mansions change over the course of the game. Always haunting, locations such as a countryside French church can develop into a huge cathedral where the old building is still a wing, and that cathedral being used as an emergency hospital during a war... all the while knowing as the player what hideous acts happened there before... it's a great device to help you care about the characters and what they're heading into. The sets become as interesting as the characters walking through them, and the atmosphere developed by their synergy is truly engaging.
Couple all of the game's feel with a creepy runic magic system in an unknowable language, some really solid voice performances, and a perfectly tuned soundtrack, and you get a game that really gets it right. Easily my favorite Gamecube game, I enjoy playing through this every year, sometimes three times to get all of the potential endings. I've made effort to omit any real spoilers here on the off chance someone has an opportunity to enjoy it for the first time, but for me it's still a great time even knowing what's coming and despite its easily exploitable combat and magic. This one's not about survival. It's about the plight of the few willing who refuse to bend to darkness. I love it.
Last edited by celerystalker; 10-13-2016 at 10:28 PM.
One of the most if not the most inspired horror and suspense games ever made. This one never relied on lame pop scares or yet another meaty zombie. This one took as you said the Lovecraftian attempt and rolled it with some Poe and creative license and just hit it. It's rare a game will make you uneasy just wanting to progress through it and even more rare when a game will do odd stuff to screw with the person behind the camera (the gamer) -- none really ever do but this one did it with style.
#15: Decap Attack (Genesis)
Back to a little seasonal levity, Decap Attack for the Sega Genesis is a fun little platformer from the folks behind Kid Kool and Psycho Fox about a re-animated mummy-like monster named Chuck D. Head, created by Dr. Frank N. Stein to save the world from a powerful demon. It's actually a re-skinning of a game loosely translated as Magical Hat Adventure, given a very Halloween-inspired makeover. That's not to say it's a scary game; it's still a cartoony romp focused on platforming over violence. Still, there's a solid little game here that looks like it's made up of the kind of goofy decorations an elementary school teacher would put up in October.
The platforming here has strong play control, with momentum-based movement where your first few steps are considerable slower than your full speed. Everything is reponsive enough to keep this style of movement strategic instead of becoming a hindrance, and the stages have a lot of veticality to go with the usual horizontal play, ending up feeling somewhere in the middle between Mario and Sonic's 16-bit games. You can hop on enemies and use attacks involving striking with your stomach head or lobbing your skull about. There are also power-ups to select from a sub menu that can make your attacks stronger, clear the screen, and more, and collecting coins gives you extra chances at the bonus game in between worlds to gain even more bonuses. Lastly, jamming on the jump button allows you to flail your legs, letting you briefly hover to reach distant platforms or time an attack.
Everything in Decap Attack has a skeletal or anatomical theme, ranging from your life bar being comprised of beating hearts to the world's continents being shaped like body parts. Bones and skulls are everywhere, and the music utilizes the Genesis' synth to create some fun tunes and replicate an organ pretty well. It's like a Halloween coloring book turned into a platformer, though the odd pumpkin might've made it perfect. Decap Attack has all the right window dressing for the season, yet it is a quality platformer anytime. Good play control, solid music, and some nice variety in stage design really help it stand out among the many Genesis platformers out there, but it really shines this time of year. If you're looking for something a little on the light side while the kids are up, it's a winner.
Last edited by celerystalker; 10-14-2016 at 11:23 PM.
It's a solid game alright but one you can't be burned out on (I am) or just passively amused by as it can get stale. It's actually one of 6 Gen games I pulled and put on ebay a few days ago. I've had it quite a bit over the years in real versions and also both those atgames handhelds between the original one like 6-7 years ago with the sd slot and the MK1-3 one last year. I got my fill, it's just not one I can go back to anymore more than once.
I'm with the Happy Video Game Nerd regarding Eternal Darkness--its a neat idea, but its just honestly kind of dull. Actually, when I play it I find it comes off more like a power fantasy that thinks its a horror game. Kinda hard to be scared of the insanity effects when you know that they're only an illusion that happens due to a clearly visible meter. Kinda hard to be scared of the dull, generic-looking monsters at all and even moreso when the game outright hands you spells that basically make you a superhero. Hell, even the Doomguy seems weak compared to even the weakest playable character of Eternal Darkness, once you get the eponymous tome at least.
It might've all worked if the game wasn't just so bland all around. I mean the environments tend to have no character to them. Just for example one of the storylines obstensibly takes place in a field hospital set up inside a church. Do an experiment--compare the hospital from the first Silent Hill to the hospital from Eternal Darkness. The former is actually creepy. The latter is absolutely sterile, a generic location with vague window dressing. It's actually almost amazing how much Silicon Knights failed. That's actually something of a recurring thing with their games in my experience (I had similar feelings about the first Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain game).
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