Updated Halloween Special

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VideoGameCritic
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Updated Halloween Special

Postby VideoGameCritic » September 5th, 2019, 4:32 pm

My Halloween special had fallen into disrepair over recent years, so I gave it a makeover. I fixed up the formatting, added a few reviews, removed a few reviews, and expanded it to six parts:

https://videogamecritic.com/extras/themes/halloween.htm

There's a Halloween spirit rating in addition to a fright rating. This is useful for games like Costume Quest, which may not be scary but have a great Halloween vibe.

I assigned a lot of the rating off-the-cuff from memory, so if you'd like to challenge any of them I'm open to feedback. Also please alert me to any typos or formatting issues.

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Re: Updated Halloween Special

Postby VideoGameCritic » September 7th, 2019, 8:36 am

Wow, I was expecting all my work to break the internet but nobody really cares! Guess it's a little early for Halloween stuff.

One offshoot of this is that I added a little more space around the Read More link, because sometimes it got a little too close to the ebay/amazon links. Someone might hit those by accident. That change is soon to be site-wide.

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Stalvern
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Re: Updated Halloween Special

Postby Stalvern » September 7th, 2019, 1:34 pm

The formatting for Amityville's title is off and has a broken tag.

I'll challenge the five-pumpkin rating for Chiller. Shooting naked captives strapped to torture racks is not exactly my idea of trick-or-treating.

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Re: Updated Halloween Special

Postby VideoGameCritic » September 7th, 2019, 3:39 pm

Thanks Stavern! I fixed the error, and knocked a pumpkin off Chiller. I think you were right.

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Retro STrife
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Re: Updated Halloween Special

Postby Retro STrife » September 8th, 2019, 11:06 am

Enjoyed looking through this, as always. I'm using it to come up with ideas of games I need to finally play this October, starting with Silent Hill on PS1. I also want to try out Nightmare in the Dark on my MVS multicart. And I want to revisit Splatterhouse and Zombies Ate My Neighbors, which I haven't played in years.

If I had any feedback, I'm surprised by some of the high gravestone ratings on certain games. It's hard for me to picture any pre-2000 games being as scary as modern games. The old Resident Evil games have 5 stones, for example, but I remember stomaching them much easier than a modern game like Until Dawn. Zombies Ate My Neighbors also seemed high with 3 stones- any intensity is from the frantic nature of the game, rather than scares. But my biggest qualm is with Slain: Back from Hell. I figured the 4 stones had to be a mistake - great game, but I don't remember any scary parts or any parts intended to be scary.

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Matchstick
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Re: Updated Halloween Special

Postby Matchstick » September 8th, 2019, 3:08 pm

I'm a little bummed that Nightwarriors didn't make the Saturn lineup, yet Darkstalkers for the PSP did. Did any game in the Darkstalkers franchise make the Halloween list except for that PSP version? If not, I think that's a bit of an oversight.

Nightwarriors for the Saturn has long been one of my favorite go-to games around Halloween, and it's a blast to play with friends due to its inviting pick-up-and-play nature and the great arcade layout of the Saturn 6-button controller.

I also nominate Gauntlet Legends for some mild Halloween-themed entertainment. Man, did me and my buddies wear the N64 version of that game the eff out on Halloween night 1999, all while dressed as Jedi / Darth Maul from Star Wars Episode I. Those were the days!

It's a great party game, and given the ghouls / ghosts / skeletons / monsters found in the game, it's remained one of my all-time Halloween favorites. Even the four main characters look like they're wearing something that they got on clearance at Party City. C'mon, isn't that worth at least one pumpkin??

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Re: Updated Halloween Special

Postby VideoGameCritic » September 8th, 2019, 3:41 pm

Good feedback! This is what I'm talkin about!

Retro - You may have a point about Slain. I'll go back and take a look.

Matchstick - I think the lack of Nightstalkers was an oversight. I will probably be adding that! Gaunlet? That's a longshot.

Keep the feedback coming guys.

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Matchstick
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Re: Updated Halloween Special

Postby Matchstick » September 8th, 2019, 4:11 pm

Dawwww, okay. One outta two ain't bad!

The only other minor nitpick I have is that Nightmare Creatures made it onto the PS1 list but not the N64 one. I can definitely see it being left out for the sake of being redundant, but then again, Resident Evil 2 made the list for both the PS1 and N64, as well.

The N64 isn't really known for having too many scary games, so I feel like it's a case where you just have to take what you can get. I think the most "Halloween" feels on the system might be the "Big Boo's Haunt" level of Super Mario 64, or the "Banshee Boardwalk" track in Mario Kart 64, which both kinda say it all right there.

Maybe Doom 64 as a stretch? It is a genuinely creepy game, and it did get one of the "This game is scary" skull icons for its review here on the site. Not that I'm terribly partial to the N64 library, but I just feel like helping the poor lil' guy out.

All in all, though, it's an excellent list. I think it might even be the very thing that first attracted me to this site to begin with!

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Re: Updated Halloween Special

Postby Gentlegamer » September 8th, 2019, 8:28 pm

I just played nuRaider (Tomb Raider 2013 Definitive Edition aka Rambo Edition) and I would count it a Halloween game; Lara fights a wicked human sacrificing cult, almost every zone is a charnel house, and at one point Lara wades through a river of blood.

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Retro STrife
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Re: Updated Halloween Special

Postby Retro STrife » November 2nd, 2019, 11:27 am

Retro STrife wrote:Enjoyed looking through this, as always. I'm using it to come up with ideas of games I need to finally play this October, starting with Silent Hill on PS1. I also want to try out Nightmare in the Dark on my MVS multicart. And I want to revisit Splatterhouse and Zombies Ate My Neighbors, which I haven't played in years.


Well, I didn't hit all these this year, but I got around to half of them. I finally played Nightmare in the Dark on my Neo Geo cabinet. Pretty basic game, but my wife and I had fun playing through it for the 30 minutes or so that it lasts. Its gameplay reminds me of Bubble Bobble, but with a 16-bit Halloween sheen.

I also tried out Splatterhouse again on the Turbografx. I hadn't played that in like 10+ years.. in fact, I probably haven't played my Turbografx in like 10+ years. Still a good creepy game, but much harder than I remember. And better yet, I finally caught up on some major Turbografx backlog I had been building up. (Boy is Galaga '90 way better than I expected - thanks for the tip on that one, Critic.)

I also had hoped to play Silent Hill, but it didn't happen. Maybe later this winter, or next year.

Thanks for the inspiration to dive into these games, Critic. Anyone else get to try any Halloween games this October?


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