Games of the Season: Halloween 2016

[celerystalker]

How has this game not made the list yet?

Zombies and Ghoul Patrol (mainly Zombies) are great games, but they get in these kinds of lists a lot, so I decided to give them a pass this year... plus it's mainly a list of games I personally associate with Halloween, but I'm definitely not discouraging discussion.

Some of the co-op games that did make it, though, include Nightmare in the Dark, Cotton 2, Deathsmiles, Death Crimson 2, House of the Dead, and Resident Evil: Deadly Silence.

[KWKBOX]

Zombies and Ghoul Patrol (mainly Zombies) are great games, but they get in these kinds of lists a lot, so I decided to give them a pass this year... plus it's mainly a list of games I personally associate with Halloween, but I'm definitely not discouraging discussion.

Some of the co-op games that did make it, though, include Nightmare in the Dark, Cotton 2, Deathsmiles, Death Crimson 2, House of the Dead, and Resident Evil: Deadly Silence.

I gotcha you are more looking for games like this for coop fun.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oExLsZt6bc

[bb_hood]

I gotcha you are more looking for games like this for coop fun.



Please stop inserting your YouTube links into the Game of the Day topic. There is a seperate thread for promoting such content.

[celerystalker]

I gotcha you are more looking for games like this for coop fun.

I don't want to be rude about it, but I'm not going to watch that video, nor take the time to respond to a video response. I'd love it if you would like to talk about the posted games, or even if there are other games you'd like to discuss with words, but this isn't an outlet for a YouTube channel to promote its content. This thread and its content are not cross-posted at other places to promote me or any other entity. It's meant to be a discussion with the folks here at DP. Feel free and encouraged to participate, but share your thoughts in non-video responses, please.

[Tanooki]

That is not his MO though, the dude is a long lasting poster here who is just a youtube sub troll. Do not expect much conversation that can not be done without a video camera.

That was really in poor taste spamming that shit in this thread. If I were a mod here Id slap you with a temp ban for both that and violating the existing rule to keep youtube links into its own dedicated thread made here over a year or so ago.

[Emperor Megas]

What bugs me the most is the way we're supposed to be stupid and not realize that he's just sub spamming. I don't mind the spam itself nearly as much as the insulting of intelligence by pretending that his replies are actually anything but SPAM.

[celerystalker]

98749875

One last family friendly game for this time of the year is Disney's Guilty Party for the Wii. If I haven't yet made it abundantly clear, I really like video board games, and this one, while far from stupendous, is still a fun little board game that can be played by the young and old alike, competitively or cooperatively. It pits the Dickens detective family against their nemesis, Mr. Valentine. Valentine has been constructing an elaborate plan using the weaknesses of ordinary people to commit a series of crimes to srick it to the Dickens family once and for all. Combining their deductive prowess may be the only way to avert disaster and bring Mr. Valentine to justice.

9877 9878

The main modes here are story mode and party mode. Party mode gives you a random crime scene and mystery to solve, and can be played cooperatively or competitively by up to four players. Players have a number of actions they can use each turn represented by tokens. These can include moving to any unlocked room, playing various cards that allow speciak abilities, searching for clues, or interrogating suspects. Any search or interrogation results in a mini game the likes of which with Wii owners are far too familiar, where you wiggle and waggle away within a certain time frame to win. There is a bit of variety here, but they're all incredibly simple and easy to win. Story mode gives you a pre-set series of mysteries, interspersed with cutscenes to relay the plot. This mode can only be played alone or cooperatively, but will always tell the same story.

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During the game, Mr. Valentine will occasionally pop in to muck things up, laying traps, turning out lights, or locking doors to impede your progress. This is a stall tactic, as the goal is to uncover the correct suspect in each case within a set number of turns, which varies based on difficulty, and in order to accuse somebody, you must possess clues that identify each of four traits: Gender, height, weight, and hair. Each successful search or interrogation earns one clue, which will have a highlighted green part. When viewing clues, your cursor becomes a lie detector, and will tell you if that statement is true ir false. If playing alone or cooperatively, it's a moot point, but in versus play, you can choose to make it appear as a lie or the truth at will in order to mess with other players and have the edge. Once you know everything, you confront your suspect face to face and show them the evidence that proves each trait. You have three accusations for each case, so make 'em count.

98819882

Guilty Party is a cutesy little game of whodunit that is accessible even to fairly young kids, making it a good seasonal game for young families, and working together for story mode can be fun with little ones. None of the crimes are horrific annd gory, so it's an easy pick for a mystery board game. It isn't amazing for an all adult crowd, but I wanted to include it due to how many folks here have young kids, and its trains and mansions make good Halloween settings for solving a mystery with some atmosphere.

[Edmond Dantes]

Whatever the Dickens family may say, I still think it was Miss Scarlet, in the Kitchen, with the Rope.

[celerystalker]

Whatever the Dickens family may say, I still think it was Miss Scarlet, in the Kitchen, with the Rope.

Close... but I had the rope card.

[celerystalker]

98839884

The final game of this year's Halloween countdown is one of my very favorite Saturn games, Lunacy. The third and final game of System Sacom's butterfly trilogy, it appears to be somewhat of a prequel to the Mansion of Hidden Souls games. Chronicling the adventures of an amnesiac wanderer who has found himself locked up in Misty Town by a corrupt lord while searching for clues to his past. After befriending a mysterious man named Anthony who helps him escape, the traveler goes on the hunt for the legendary City of Moons, where wishes are said to come true. If only he can find the secrets of the city, perhaps he can free Misty Town from the corrupt Lord Gordon and find out what happened four years ago when his memories vanished.

98859886

The game plays out in a first person FMV CG adventure just like the Hidden Souls games and D. You once again wander and explore in search of clues and items in order to progress the story and solve puzzles. The big difference between Lunacy and the rest is that A) Lunacy is much larger in scope, having a much longer and more fleshed out adventure and cgaracters, and B) it is also much, much faster paced. Where D moves at a crawl for its duration, Lunacy flies comparatively at about three times the speed of its contemporaries, which is frankly necessary given its larger focus on gathering items and information. The two discs cover two massive areas in Misty Town and the City of Moons, each filled with tons of scenes to view and things to find.

98879888

Lunacy is really more story driven than most games of this type, as it actually has a pretty robust cast of NPCs, each with his or her own back story and motives. Misty Town has a somber autumnal atmosphere, where Lord Gordon's oppression has created an air of secrecy and desperation, with speculation of the City of Moon's power being the source of hope for some and greed for others. The City of Moons, however, is both beautiful and scary, trading Misty Town's suspense for a more horror bent. While the first disc basically has just one solution, the City of Moons offers more choices and endings, and can result in certain characters living or dying. The idea of human souls reborn as butterflies once again rears its head, laying the groundwork for the Hidden Souls games, but I don't want to include hard spoilers when discussing a graphic adventure. Suffice to say, if you enjoyed those games at all, Lunacy is a must, and refines their gameplay perhaps to its apex on consoles.

98899890

Lunacy may not be the scariest, but it is definitely odd and at times unsettling. Its story and improved pace really help it to shine in its tiny little sub-genre, and it has a haunting atmosphere in spades. The English voice acting can be laughable in parts, and solving its puzzles without a guide can be tough, but the characters still work well enough to just seem weird and the puzzles do make real sense and can be solved with logic instead of some farcical nonsense solutions. Anyone lookingfor a more atmospheric, thoughtful suspense experience should play this if they have access to it. It can be fully enjoyed with no knowledge of its ties to the Hidden Souls games, but fans of those will get that much more from their time with Lunacy and the implications of its ending. It's one of my very favorite Saturn games, though I must qualify that to say that I have a real predilection for this style of game. Great stuff!

Also, thanks everyone who has read and participated in this thread. It's been fun doing GOTD again, but I won't be doing then for November, as work is too crazy and I have other obligations. I plan on coming back for another short series in December leading up to Christmas. Anyway, hope there were some new or fun games here that weren't the same old same old, and Happy Halloween!

[Gamevet]

Enemy Zero Sega Saturn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WadBPY158Xc

[celerystalker]

Enemy Zero Sega Saturn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WadBPY158Xc

Enemy Zero is my favorite Saturn game. It rules. Main reason I left it out is that I don't personally associate the setting of futuristic space ships with Halloween. Love the game, though.

[Gamevet]

Enemy Zero is my favorite Saturn game. It rules. Main reason I left it out is that I don't personally associate the setting of futurustic space ships with Halloween. Love the game, though.

Alien is a sci-if horror flick. Remember, no one can hear you scream in space.

[KWKBOX]

Enemy Zero Sega Saturn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WadBPY158Xc

Stop sub spamming on this thread. If I were a mod I would have suspended your account by now.

[celerystalker]

Stop sub spamming on this thread. If I were a mod I would have suspended your account by now.

Don't be too rough... I have seen some of your videos in the past, and you seem like a nice, enthusiastic person in them.

[RP2A03]

Stop sub spamming on this thread. If I were a mod I would have suspended your account by now.

That's funny coming from you.

[bb_hood]

98329833

There are two NES games that pop up pretty much every October in my basement. The first was earlier mention Maniac Mansion, for which bb_hood accurately pointed out that Razor is in fact the best (Bernard is pretty great, too, though). The other, though, is one of my personal favorites, Dr Chaos. Offering survival horror before that was a thing, Michael Chaos must enter the mansion of his brother, the titular Dr Chaos, who has unleashed hell on Earth in his experimentation with warp zones. Crossing any threshold in the house may result in entering a warp zone, where fragments of the Chaos laser can be found. Can you defeat the devil and save your brother?

98349835

This one was a previous game of the day, but it's so right for the season that it needs to be talked about. I mean, if that isn't some of the most bitchin' cover art on an NES game, I'm crazy. Monsters, blood, weapons... way darker than your typical censored mess. A mansion filled not only with critters, but genuinely jarring monsters popping out of the woodwork and portals into the unknown hidden everywhere... and you have only a knife at your disposal. Fortunately, weapons, body armor, health expansions, and ammo are hidden about as well, leaving the player to scrounge and prepare while searching for the next warp. Items such as jump boots and an underwater helmet help drive progress, and a warp zone detector can help you locate them (I've once again included a picture of the first floor room where the first warp is to help any prospective players get started).

98369837

Exploring the mansion takes place both in horizontal platforming and in a first-person point and click format. The compass in the lower corner of the screen can help with navigating, as south always exits the room to the hall, west is map left, and east is map right. Hidden passages can be found by hitting the wall, taking you through walls and even to the basement and attic. There's a lot of trial and error involved at first, but for a first time player, this adds to the game in my book, stretching your resources and leaving you more susceptible to surprise monster attacks. Warp zones are all horizontal battle platforming, and hazards abound. The boss fights can be particularly clever, as each has unique patterns and weakness to different attacks, making the player use the entire arsenal while still trying to conserve ammo. It's primitive, but it lays the ground for later horror games admirably.

98389839

I may be waxing a bit poetic here, as the game is flawed. Its scrolling can be a tad choppy, and the challenge, while far from insurmountable, takes some getting used to. The trial and error gameplay may not be for everyone... but this is a game with tremendous atmosphere, using stark black backgrounds and good tiles to create a very isolated feeling. It has some pretty legit jump scares for its time, and was one of the first games I ever played to really feel like a horror game. If you're the patient type who can finish a game like Castlevania II and love it, this should be one you'll enjoy. It has a spotty reputation, but there are a few of us out there who love it.

This is a game that I really need to play again. I never really gave it a chance and I always wrote it off as a crappy game. NES is always surprising me. I will probably play it next as soon as I beat Adventure Island 2.

[Gamevet]

Stop sub spamming on this thread. If I were a mod I would have suspended your account by now.

You're a smart one. That's not even my YouTube channel.

It would be much easier to just put my YouTube channel in my signature.

[celerystalker]

This is a game that I really need to play again. I never really gave it a chance and I always wrote it off as a crappy game. NES is always surprising me. I will probably play it next as soon as I beat Adventure Island 2.

Hope you enjoy it! In a lot of ways, it feels like a way more focused Goonies II with more of a horror bent. I've loved it ever since I first bought an old rental copy from a grocery store as a kid.

[bb_hood]

98329833

There are two NES games that pop up pretty much every October in my basement. The first was earlier mention Maniac Mansion, for which bb_hood accurately pointed out that Razor is in fact the best (Bernard is pretty great, too, though). The other, though, is one of my personal favorites, Dr Chaos. Offering survival horror before that was a thing, Michael Chaos must enter the mansion of his brother, the titular Dr Chaos, who has unleashed hell on Earth in his experimentation with warp zones. Crossing any threshold in the house may result in entering a warp zone, where fragments of the Chaos laser can be found. Can you defeat the devil and save your brother?

98349835

This one was a previous game of the day, but it's so right for the season that it needs to be talked about. I mean, if that isn't some of the most bitchin' cover art on an NES game, I'm crazy. Monsters, blood, weapons... way darker than your typical censored mess. A mansion filled not only with critters, but genuinely jarring monsters popping out of the woodwork and portals into the unknown hidden everywhere... and you have only a knife at your disposal. Fortunately, weapons, body armor, health expansions, and ammo are hidden about as well, leaving the player to scrounge and prepare while searching for the next warp. Items such as jump boots and an underwater helmet help drive progress, and a warp zone detector can help you locate them (I've once again included a picture of the first floor room where the first warp is to help any prospective players get started).

98369837

Exploring the mansion takes place both in horizontal platforming and in a first-person point and click format. The compass in the lower corner of the screen can help with navigating, as south always exits the room to the hall, west is map left, and east is map right. Hidden passages can be found by hitting the wall, taking you through walls and even to the basement and attic. There's a lot of trial and error involved at first, but for a first time player, this adds to the game in my book, stretching your resources and leaving you more susceptible to surprise monster attacks. Warp zones are all horizontal battle platforming, and hazards abound. The boss fights can be particularly clever, as each has unique patterns and weakness to different attacks, making the player use the entire arsenal while still trying to conserve ammo. It's primitive, but it lays the ground for later horror games admirably.

98389839

I may be waxing a bit poetic here, as the game is flawed. Its scrolling can be a tad choppy, and the challenge, while far from insurmountable, takes some getting used to. The trial and error gameplay may not be for everyone... but this is a game with tremendous atmosphere, using stark black backgrounds and good tiles to create a very isolated feeling. It has some pretty legit jump scares for its time, and was one of the first games I ever played to really feel like a horror game. If you're the patient type who can finish a game like Castlevania II and love it, this should be one you'll enjoy. It has a spotty reputation, but there are a few of us out there who love it.

Ok so I finally finished Adventure Island II, then I picked up Dr. Chaos. Dr. Chaos is pretty fun, I never really played it before. I was surprised at how easy it was. Very refreshing because Adventure Island II took me about a month to beat where Dr. Chaos took me less than a day.
Anyway, so Like you mentioned the game is flawed, but only slightly. And this is easily overlooked because its kindof an early FCI nes game. My only complaint about the game is that you spend alot of time simply punching walls. Otherwise its a fun & charming nes title.

One thing that I found funny about this game: for a game called 'Dr. Chaos', its not really chaotic at all. Its actually very orderly considering how all the secrets are setup. Like if there is a room you cant get to on your left, you go in the next closest room and punch the wall to the left to reveal the secret passage. The game features alot of secrets, but these secrets are all pretty easy to find. I guess this makes for a pretty enjoyable nes game. Games like Milon's Secret Castle often turn people off because they are wayyyyy too cryptic.
So yeah, Dr. Chaos is pretty fun.

[celerystalker]

Ok so I finally finished Adventure Island II, then I picked up Dr. Chaos. Dr. Chaos is pretty fun, I never really played it before. I was surprised at how easy it was. Very refreshing because Adventure Island II took me about a month to beat where Dr. Chaos took me less than a day.
Anyway, so Like you mentioned the game is flawed, but only slightly. And this is easily overlooked because its kindof an early FCI nes game. My only complaint about the game is that you spend alot of time simply punching walls. Otherwise its a fun & charming nes title.

One thing that I found funny about this game: for a game called 'Dr. Chaos', its not really chaotic at all. Its actually very orderly considering how all the secrets are setup. Like if there is a room you cant get to on your left, you go in the next closest room and punch the wall to the left to reveal the secret passage. The game features alot of secrets, but these secrets are all pretty easy to find. I guess this makes for a pretty enjoyable nes game. Games like Milon's Secret Castle often turn people off because they are wayyyyy too cryptic.
So yeah, Dr. Chaos is pretty fun.

Glad you had some fun with it! It's a game that people always lump in with those really obtuse games, but, like you said, it actually makes a lot of sense.