Games of the Season: Halloween 2016

[celerystalker]

Ok. I haven't had time to do game of the day topics for a good few months, and while I still really don't, screw it, I want to get in a good seasonal mood this year. You never know how many holidays you're going to get in life, so might as well make an effort to enjoy them.

So, basically, a game for each day of the month this month, and I'll be catching up to current over the next day. 31 games that give me a distinctly Halloween feel when I play them, though many of them won't specifically be set on Halloween. Not all will be scary even. However, they'll all be games I genuinely enjoy, and that give me a nice fall flavor. They aren't in any kind of ranked order, either. So, yep! Here comes me annoying everyone again, but it'll be contained to this one thread.

[celerystalker]

To mind, not much is more definitively associated with Halloween than a creepy old mansion, and by golly... there appears to be one here! Often confused for its own Saturn sequel due to some astoundingly bad titling decisions, these games could really benefit from the use of some numbers and a definite article or two... but this Sega CD original tells its own unique story of a boy trying to save his sister.



The sister wants to go into a mansion in the woods in which people are purported to become manifest as butterflies. That's all of the story I want to touch on, as discovery and exploration are the whole point of playing. It's one of the earliest first-person FMV adventures, which play a bit like Myst if it were animated instead of stills. You poke around the giant place, trying to find your sister before it's too late.



You'll meet the denizens of the mansion soon enough, all of whom are butterflies who will live there for eternity. They help shape your perspective and offer you clues on how to keep moving forward. Much like a point and click adventure, you'll find items, solve puzzles, and discover the story as you experience it. The game does suffer a tad from hardware limitations, moving slowly, using very grainy images, and CD sound that's effective, but has voice acting from that era before it was a priority (which I enjoy, but it'll annoy some). If you can get past those short-comings and have the patience for a slow burn that's loaded with atmosphere, there's a really fun adventure here, and the Saturn sequel has a story directly tied to it.

Mansion of Hidden Souls will just be outdated to many, but for a certain kind of player, it hits the spot. Not really scary per se, it is creepy and intriguing... maybe even a tad suspenseful in a couple of parts. If you like something like D, it's a no brainer. For me... I love to explore a haunted house alone in the basement with the lights out.

[celerystalker]

A late Neo Geo MVS exclusive, Nightmare in the Dark is the story of an ugly grave keeper protecting a small village from evil. This setup may sound like it's going to get creepy, and, well... yeah, it's not... but it is basically Halloween Snow Bros., and that actually makes for an awesome little game!



It's a single screen platformer like the aforementioned Snow Bros., Bubble Bobble, Zupapa!, DonDokoDon, etc., in which you hurl flames from your lantern at the zombies, ghosts, and other creeps that abound. Hittimg them will freeze them, whereas hitting them repeatedly will engulf the monsters in flames, allowing them to be hurled like a rolling ball of doom, rebounding off of walls and killing whatever it touches. Chaining enemies is the key to scoring, and if you can clear all enemies with one ball, you get a massive bonus.



Every five levels, you fight a big boss monster before getting a nice change of scenery for the next group. The bosses are generally big and interesting, though it generally comes back to tossing spawned enemies back at the big 'uns. There are power-ups as well, which increase your speed, range, and the power of your flames. The game is only 25 levels long, which makes for a tidy little play in front of an arcade cabinet. Given its brevity and emphasis on scoring bonuses, it's really a game designed to be played either alone for high score or cooperatively with a competitive bent. I should say, the two-player mode, while fun, is heavy on slow-down.

Altogether, with great, cartoony graphics, atmospheric sound, and simple game play, Nightmare in the Dark is a short blast of Halloween that MVS owners should enjoy this season. I feel like its shorter length and puzzle-like scoring emphasis make it a great little play through every now and again. It's a little less animatronic zombie and a little more cutesy door sign of a ghost saying "Boo!," but isn't there room for both?

[celerystalker]

Monster Pardise is a video board game for the Japanses PS1 that reeks of Halloween. Invited by the ghost of villainous explorer and prospector Char de Pudding, up to 8 players can compete to traverse the grounds of his now-haunted mansion, vying to reach his inner sanctum and claim his treasure for themselves. Are you brave or greedy enough to survive the challenge?



This really is a board game, and your main objective is to make it through each section of the map to the inner chambers and claim victory by killing the final guardian. You fight random enemies, gain items and cards, and can even fight one another in simplistic JRPG battles if you hit the same space. Dying sends you back to the beginning of the area you're in. For a more in-depth how to play, I wrote it up in a thread in Import Mania here: http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/sh...=1#post2009578



Monster Paradise lacks any kind of big quest game you might find in something like Dokapon Kingdom, but it is a very quick, accessible board game to play with friends open to something different. The monsters, backgrounds, music, and premise all drip with Halloween flair, and it's pretty darn playable even without Japanese skills. I wouldn't recommend it as a one player game, but if you have anyone to play with and can find a copy, it's a great game for the season.

[bb_hood]

Very cool, I havent played any of these!

[Tron 2.0]

Nice pick on nightmare in the dark.I have it for my mvs as well the only neo-geo game that's prefect to play in october.

[celerystalker]

This was one I didn't buy when it first came out, but rather got for free along with Super Mario Sunshine when I bought my Japanese Gamecube. Even then, it just sat on a shelf for years until one night I decided to finally give it a spin at random... I would have never guessed that I'd enjoy it so much!



If for some similar reason someone doesn't know the game, it's a faux horror game in which Luigi must search out his missing brother in a haunted mansion that's just chock full of Boos. After befriending a weird little scientist, Luigi gets a vacuum with which to suck up the spooks like a Ghostbusters proton pack and trap all in one. Using twin-stick controls to control the weapon independently works like a champ, and having to solve the riddle of how to capture each of the mansion's ephemeral residents adds some fun puzzling depth to the action (this was actually even more fun to have to figure out in Japanese).



Make no mistake; Luigi's Mansion isn't any kind of scary. That said, its haunted house is rife with great seasonal imagery, making for a more family friendly fall fling. That's right, I alliterate once in awhile. I really enjoy its cartoony brand of tension, like the best of Scooby Doo with a Nintendo coat of paint and, you know, actual ghosts. It's of a comfortable length, has a fun sub-quest of hunting down Boos hiding throughout the grounds, and even some creative boss battles in tow. It's a good one to pair with the likes of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!"

[Tanooki]

Oooh nice a return to form of sorts. I've got Nightmare on my 161in1 multicart for my arcade cabinet and it's pretty fun, a screwball mix of halloween, qwak! and like snow bros.

If you run out of ideas beyond the obviously obvious fall back of something Castlevania, Ghosts N Goblins franchise, or Sweet Home FC/Resident Evil (multi) here's some good ideas:
- Dementium (DS) has a less known sequel too
- Vampire (aka Master of Darkness for SMS in the UK)
- Nightmare Creatures (N64, etc)
- Holy Diver (FC)
- Dead Space (multi, sequels aren't all that scary or good, first is a mind screw)
- Clock Tower (SFC/SNES)
- Kid Dracula (Gameboy)

I take it with the satanic overtones and hell DOOM1 and 2 (PC, GBA, any 90s console) would work too.

[celerystalker]

Now this one is a personal favorite of mine. If Zelda II, my favorite NES game, were to be remade as a survival horror game, this'd be it. Is it as tightly designed as Nintendo's monster? Well, no, no it isn't. But... it does have atmosphere for days.



As a young special forces agent named Laila, you must attempt to save the mountain town of Chaney's Hill, which has been overrun by demons and monsters. The few survivors have safely barricaded themselves in the local church, and you must search for more survivors to bring back, find weapons and equipment, and get to the bottom of what went down in this little hamlet.



There are loads of weapons to find, and ammo can only be culled from dead enemies. You have scant health at first, but you can level up by collecting blue experience orbs from fallen foes. Battles randomly occur while exploring, switching to side-scrolling battles almost exactly like in Zelda II. The town is big but spread out, and there is equipment such as a canoe to find to help get around and protect you. I'd go further in depth on the game's mechanics, but I already did in Import Mania here: http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/sh...=1#post2026819



War of the Dead employs a couple of themes that really resonate with me... let's see if I can articulate them. One, the whole game basically takes place in one night. I really love the idea of one crazy night of tension and adventure. Whether it's The Warriors, Friday the 13th, or Harold and Kumar Goto White Castle, one crazy night is a magical kind of setting. Secondly, there's the idea of a world gone to hell, but a safe base to hide out in, and in this case it's the church. Whether it's the Enterprise on an away mission, Sherwood Forest for Robin Hood... hell, I think the mountain base feel got me through Stargate SG-1. War of the Dead just hits a lot of the right notes for me, and its hell night flavor and dark color scheme really give me that Halloween feel. Love it.

[celerystalker]

Oooh nice a return to form of sorts. I've got Nightmare on my 161in1 multicart for my arcade cabinet and it's pretty fun, a screwball mix of halloween, qwak! and like snow bros.

If you run out of ideas beyond the obviously obvious fall back of something Castlevania, Ghosts N Goblins franchise, or Sweet Home FC/Resident Evil (multi) here's some good ideas:
- Dementium (DS) has a less known sequel too
- Vampire (aka Master of Darkness for SMS in the UK)
- Nightmare Creatures (N64, etc)
- Holy Diver (FC)
- Dead Space (multi, sequels aren't all that scary or good, first is a mind screw)
- Clock Tower (SFC/SNES)
- Kid Dracula (Gameboy)

I take it with the satanic overtones and hell DOOM1 and 2 (PC, GBA, any 90s console) would work too.

Thanks! I've got quite a few lined up, and I'm gonna try and balance the obscure with a few better known games this time. I'm glad you and Tron2.0 both like Nightmare in the Dark. That game is a short little pile of fun.

[Tanooki]

I wish one part of your sentence there wasn't true -- short. Damn game costs like $300, and it's just not worth $3~ a stage to me. Over time I'd like to think I'll find stuff I enjoy best on the multicart and replace them with real cartridges but I'm also aware some stuff is just too expensive so the multicart is the way to go. Now if I could just figure out how to find a 138in1 someone can mod to work in a multi-slot system for me as it has Twinkle Star Sprites, Sengoku 2, Ghost Pilots, and many others the 161 lacks that cost a good bit.

Sengoku kind of falls into a gray area of this too, any of them. All those undead/dead ninja spirits and demons who attack your ninja players.

[celerystalker]

There's something gritty and off about many of those old FMV games, and the best of them manage to convey some solid atmosphere. Psychic Detective may be my favorite interactive movie of the '90s, and it has a lot to do with its creepy atmosphere that just has kind of a Halloween feel for me in spite of having nothing to do with it.



As an interactive film, Psychic Detective goes out and uses some novel play mechanics far different from the usual Dragon's Lair QTE stuff or the trap games where you cycle through cameras and trigger traps. As psychic performer Eric Fox, you have the secret power to dive into people's minds if you can see them. If a character is on screen, their portrait will appear in the border, allowing you to hop into their minds and see the world through their eyes. You can leap from mind to mind, chasing rabbits, witnessing first-hand murders, or even having sex through the eyes of passers-by. It's a wild ride, and there are loads of possibilities for viewing different scenes... far more than you might think.



Not only are there myriad paths through the game, but more than a dozen endings in the 3DO's less censored version. Eric has to discover the secret behind several murders and conspiracies among a cult-like group of eastern Europeans, and while the acting is often hammy, it gets across an interesting feeling. Discovering the secrets of the characters and finding psychic amplifiers is the only way to win at a creepy psychic game against the antagonist at the end, which can leave Eric powerful and in love or literally retarded and playing with children's toys.

Where Psychic Detective pulls me in for that fall feeling is the combination of occult imagery and its nighttime setting. Most of the game is very dark and gritty, moving through suburban locales at night and voyeuristically peering through both windows and the eyes of others. It also takes place in autumn, with most characters wearing jackets... it just feels like a messed up fall night, and gets me in the mood for Halloween. It's very different from other FMV games, though, and really is interesting to see what all you can, well, see jumping from person to person. If you aren't just hell-bent against this style of game, try giving the 3DO or PC versions a spin (the PS1 game is censored) if you're feeling up to something odd.

[Az]

Now if I could just figure out how to find a 138in1 someone can mod to work in a multi-slot system for me

Needs its own thread but this is easily done. Picked one up a few months ago just for World Heroes Perfect and got it working with minimal effort.

[celerystalker]

Cotton 2 is a game that has always felt like an elementary school Halloween party to me in its light-hearted brand of fun. As the witch, Cotton, and her friend/rival Apple, you fly around on your broom in a horizontal shooter that falls somewhere in between The Nightmare Before Christmas and Kiki's Delivery Service. Though it won't be scaring anyone, this game's anime arcade action is a great time no matter how you slice it.



If flying around on a broom and casting spells to fight bats, jack-o-lanterns, and all manner of evil monsters isn't a Halloween past time, I'm just confused. However, the shooting is really secondary to Cotton's deeper mechanics. Killing a wave of enemies causes a crystal to appear, which can be shot to change colors that correspond to ice, wind, or fire. Collecting crystals and killing enemies makes you stronger, and the combination of elements dictates both your weapon to fire and the elements and power levels of your magic (bomb) attacks. This is cool, but...



The real fun comes from the ability to grab most enemies, crystals, and even some projectiles to huck across the screen like a rocket, damaging whatever it hits. That first boss looking scary with that axe? Rip it out of his hands and slap him with it. The key to scoring comes from smacking enemies with a crystal, then grabbing the now engulfed enemy and continually killing as many enemies as possible with it. Once it finally falls off screen, a bubble will float up, which can be grabbed for massive points. So, balancing collecting crystals with attacking with them is a great strategic element.



Cotton 2 is an arcade-y blast that hits the season just right. Pumpkins, witches, bats, and ghouls... it's a Halloween cocktail that is satisfying anytime, but really shines in October. Sharp, scaling sprites, colorful backgrounds, and giant bosses set a strong aesthetic, and the music suits the on-screen antics with aplomb. There are loads of other Cotton games to play to scratch the same itch on many systems, so, you know... smoke 'em if you got 'em.

[sfchakan]

Ah, I gotta watch this thread now all month!

I'm doing a similar thing over on my YT channel with Sega games or games on Sega platforms.

[Tanooki]

I miss COTTON it's fun. Never had that one, but I did have it on Super Famicom, PCE CD and Neo Geo Pocket Color and it's a goofy fun ride. Problem is it has become a prime import collectard title so the prices aren't cool or I'd own it again.

[celerystalker]

Ah, I gotta watch this thread now all month!

I'm doing a similar thing over on my YT channel with Sega games or games on Sega platforms.

I'll have to check your countdown out! I'd be interested to see what, if any, kind of overlap we end up with.

Tanooki-yeah, the last couple of years have really wrecked Cotton's prices. Even last year the SFC game could be had regularly at about $20 loose, but it just keeps getting worse. This Saturn game I bought about 13 years ago for about $25. I wouldn't pay its going rate.

[celerystalker]

D was one of the earlier games I bought for my Sega Saturn, and was one of my earliest forays into the more graphic, "adult" style of horror game. A first-person cinematic adventure game, it combines the type of detailed, animated imagery of an FMV game with point and click style puzzles, creating an intriguing, tense horror experience. As a young woman named Laura, you must venture into the warped mind of your father to find out why he has suddenly murdered everyone in a hospital. This plays out as a haunted mansion search full of grotesque imagery and cinematic scenes to get to the bottom of what made Richter Harris snap.



D is a game that gets a lot right when it comes to presentation. The imagery looked astonishing for its time, and today it manages to remain pretty creepy with the grainy nature of the FMV coupled with the slow pace and subtle sound and music. Many people deride D for its sluggish pace, and while there are times that I do get frustrated when I have to watch repeated scenes (like the rotating tower), it also forces the player to soak in its atmosphere, which is easily its strong suit. Gothic imagery, dark dungeons, a quiet courtyard... everything has an excellent combination of calm aesthetics and foreboding tension that makes its world truly interesting to scour.



I don't want to spoil anything about the game's story or puzzles, as solving the riddles (some of which are pretty clever) and discovering its sparse plot are the biggest payoff aside from traversing the game's haunting scenery. Just be on the lookout for caterpillars, avoid using an FAQ, and play in the dark if you want to get your money's worth. I only play this game every three years or so, or else I remember too much about its puzzles, and it's a little less enjoyable. It does have a couple of endings and a 2 hour time limit, but replay value is a weak point here. Still, I always keep it, as those years where I do soak it in are always a fun time.



Where D fits in for Halloween to me aside from its horror theme is in its cinematic approach. This makes it feel like a horror movie more than most other games, and it truly shines if played in a dark, quiet space. The mood in this game just permeates you in the setting, and that sort of removal from the norm aids in bringing about that sort of "today is special" mood to me. It's really only for the most patient of players, but of all the games I'll be writing about, it might do the most to set a particular feeling in the air. There are better, scarier, more plot-heavy games to play, but there's just something about D that hooks me.

[Tanooki]

Now there's one I've always found passively interesting but know I would get pissed off and lost in so I never picked it up, even recently when GoG got it up there too I've resisted but it is nice to see a solid write up of it.

...and on Cotton the SFC and NGPC(if I were to get one again) were interesting to me. Problem is any semi-decent Japanese game on either system (especially the limited SNK box) get damn expensive even loose which sucks.

[celerystalker]

Splatterhouse is practically an institution on the Turbografx 16, chronicling the adventures of a young Rob Stra... er, Rick, in his quest to save his girlfriend Jennifer from West Mansion with the aid of his infamous Terror Mask. Using the power of the mask, his fists, feet, and anything he can pick up, Rick must travel through the mansion's perils into the very depths of pure evil and hell in the name of love (and just a little revenge). The Halloween horror tropes of the haunted mansion, such as ghouls, poltergeists, and demons, are all perfect reasons to play it in October, but getting to be the Jason Voorhees-inspired monster certainly has its own appeal!



For its time, Splatterhouse was very notable for its graphic violence and dark imagery, which to that point had rarely been so vivid on a home console. The way enemies, well, splatter against a wall when Rick whacks them with a 2x4 is grotesquely satisfying, and the bosses offer up a pretty wide variety of battles to wage. Poltergeists, bag-headed goons, spirits, and increasingly twisted fiends make the game a buffet of seasonal violence, and some of the events and imagery (I'm looking at you, wall of fetuses) really crank up the spooky atmosphere.



For all of its creepy window dressing and praise, the game is basically just a horror-themed Kung Fu or Vigilante, with flat stages and enemies that mostly just walk straight toward you, begging to be annihilated. Still... I like Kung Fu and Vigilante, and Splatterhouse definitely does it better in the boss department without question. The descent into West Mansion was bold for its time, but the aesthetics hold up pretty well in feeling like a violent rampage into the abyss. Rick is a character who gets put through a meat grinder to satisfy his motives, and it makes him a likeable force of destruction.



If you want sonething with an arcade action flair this season, but would prefer to avoid the more cutesy Japanese stuff like Cotton, Splatterhouse is a jam. If you're a Turbo fan, you probably already have a copy, so why not? And if not, the arcade version is emulated as a bonus in the 360 and PS3 game. For violent brawling fun that's easy to get into and makes you want to finish, this one's a great time.