Thirteen Games to Tide Over Your Halloween Spirit

Often when this type of list is made, it is just a compilation of the scariest games ever made. Scary doesn’t equal Halloween. I’d challenge anyone to say Saw is more Halloween appropriate than, say, Hocus Pocus. Plus, if we just picked the scariest game, there’d be nothing but survival-horror games. We take a look at the best video games to keep your Halloween sugar high soaring as we head to one of the best holidays of the year. Sure we could have done a top 10 list, but it is Halloween; 13 seems a little more appropriate.

We kept the list eclectic; it gives all types of gamers a little something to do.

13. Decap Attack (Scare Factor: 2/5)
System(s): Sega Genesis
Release Year: 1991
We doubt you’ll be able to get your hands on Decap Attack, but if you can dust off the old Sega Genesis and play it, we suggest it. The lead guy’s name is Chuck D. Head, and his main weapon is throwing his head. What else do you need? Need a cheesey Halloween villain? The main bad guy is Frank N. Stein, the mad scientist. Plenty of corny puns to go around. The game is a bit of a challenge, but a lot of fun as well.

12. Alan Wake (Scare Factor: 3/5)
System(s): Xbox 360
Release Year: 2010
When I think about what makes Alan Wake Halloween appropriate, I think of one of the main weapons in the game: the flashlight. The enemies, referred to as The Taken, are light sensitive beings. So putting two and two together, the flashlight (and finding batteries for it is essential) is your most important weapon. Additionally, the game does have a general creepiness to it which will keep you on edge. Will you be jumping at every turn? Definitely not. However, it’ll encourage you to take a flashlight this year when you beg others for candy.

11. Monster Party (Scare Factor: 2/5)
System(s): Nintendo
Release Year: 1989
Poor little Mark was walking home from a baseball game when a gargoyle named Bert demanded his help to fend off the bad guys (Small child saving the world? Sounds like an RPG, but it isn’t). You’ve got every stereotypical supernatural enemy in this game: Death, Medusa, giant spiders, zombies, man-eating plants, and for whatever reason…fried shrimp. It’d be cool to see this old dog on the Wii someday, but it is doubtful considering the small following it had.

10. Darkstalkers (Scare Factor: 1/5) System(s): Playstation, Playstation 2, Playstation Portable, Sega Dreamcast, Sega Saturn
Release Year: 1994
Much like Castlevania, any game from the series will do. It certainly has the right elements and is a lot of fun. It’s a game for those looking to battle it out with some friends this Halloween. Darkstalkers is a fighting game basically modeled after Universal Studios monsters. We’ve got vampires, werewolves, water creatures, rebuilt and revived corpses, witches, and any other monster you can think of!

9. Bioshock (Scare Factor: 4/5)
System(s): Microsoft Windows (PC), Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Release Year: 2007
This first-person shooter will make those who are looking to play something unsettling this Halloween very happy. This game is deep, dark and disturbing. Bioshock takes place in an underwater city where society has taken a turn for the worse. Your neighborhood watch is a bunch of mutated crazies hell bent on doing precious things to you. This is a very involving game that will make your brain work, so be prepared to do some reflecting as well.




8. Dead Space (Scare Factor: 4/5)
System(s): Microsoft Windows (PC), Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Release Year: 2008
You’re going to get your hands dirty in this one. Dead Space is a sci-fi take on the survival-horror genre where you methodically dismember your deadly companions on the ship. The game is full of blood, guys and gore. Enjoy the floating corpses of the dead when there is no gravity at points in the game. Enjoy the exploding bodies when you shoot them. If a bloodbath is going to float your boat this Halloween, look no further.

7. Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (Scare Factor: 2/5)
System(s): Nintendo, Wii (Virtual Console)
Release Year: 1989
Truthfully, any Castlevania will do. It could be the classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night or the brand spanking new Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Dracula’s Curse has a spooky feel to it that seems to supersede its prequels and sequels. In particular, the ghost ship could give the young ones nightmares. It’s a bit longer than the original Castlevania, but less frustrating than Simon’s Quest. No reason to ruin your Halloween vibes with anguish. Keep it simple, and enjoy Dracula’s Curse. Besides, Alucard makes his Castlevania debut in Dracula’s Curse. Don’t you want to see where it all began for Dracula’s son?

6. MediEvil: Resurrection (Scare Factor: 2/5)
System(s): Playstation Network, Playstation Portable
Release Year: 2005
For those of you on the go this Halloween (you can download this baby to your PSP from the PSN)—maybe you’re so obsessed with games that you, or your children, will want to play a game as you Trick Or Treat. The game is fun and quirky. The oh-so-brave Sir Daniel Fortesque must vanguish the evil Zarok, who partook in Sir Dan’s death many years ago. Running around as Sir Daniel Fortesque, once-knight-now-walking skeleton, you’ll travel the lands of Gallowmere bumping into plenty of zombies, goblins, ghouls and ghosts… which brings us to our next Halloween game.

5. Super Ghouls n’ Ghosts (Scare Factor: 2/5)
System(s): Super Nintendo, Wii (Virtual Console)
Release Year: 1991
This is a given. I mean, the name alone is meant for Halloween. Ghosts N’ Goblins is a journey to battle Satan as the shining knight, whom has clean underwear, Sir Arthur. It is your job to take a long journey over the river and through the woods to Satan’s doorstep. The kicker is that you might as well have forgotten your key to the door, because you have to play the game on a higher difficulty a second time to reach the true final battle. Chances are, you’ll never get that far. It’s a fun challenge, and you’ll get quite a few enjoyable hours out of it.

4. Silent Hill 2 (Scare Factor: 5/5)
System(s): Microsoft Windows, Playstation 2, Playstation Network, Xbox
Release Year: 2001
This survival horror game will chill you to the bone. Without giving too much of the story away, the town of Silent Hill was established on a land used throughout history for: necromancy, human sacrifice, and things of that nature—you know, the type of stuff mom and dad doesn’t want to hear when your new significant other is listing off some hobbies). You would think that type of history might make a person think twice before building a town there, but what a good horror story be without stupid people settling somewhere they clearly shouldn’t settle in, eh?

What makes Silent Hill scary is how vulnerable you feel throughout the game because areas throughout the game are dark, or unclear. While traveling through the streets, you are surrounded by fog, and usually can’t see the freakish figures, that move around like all of their limbs were ripped off and super glued back on. One thing’s for sure, you won’t look at fog the same way ever again.

3. LittleBigPlanet (Scare Factor: 1/5)
System(s): Playstation 3
Release Year: 2008
Not by any means a scary game, but LittleBigPlanet is perfect for capturing the Halloween spirit. First of all, one of the biggest parts of Little Big Planet is dressing up your Sackboy. Through playing the game, and tons of downloadable content (such as the Monster level kit and costumes, Halloween Pumpkin Head costume, and Mythology costumes), there are plenty of Halloween wardrobe options for your lil guy.

The LittleBigPlanet community will supply you with plenty of Halloween themed levels to play as well. Finding great user levels won’t be hard to find. Every holiday is swarmed with a plethora of great levels to play. Users can search levels by rating, so picking out the good ones shouldn’t take much work. One level we can suggest this Halloween is made by one of our own (The Corporate Ninja): Rotisserie Wheel Survival by Ethanbrec

2. Resident Evil (Scare Factor: 5/5)
System(s): GameCube, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, Playstation, Playstation Network, Sega Saturn, Wii (Virtual Console)
Release Year: 1996
We prefer the Director’s Cut version of this game (there are so many other remakes and releases of it). To this very day, it is one of the scariest and creepiest video games. It is scary the way old horror movies leave new horror movies in dust. The quality of graphics and drone music will reach down into your stomach and squeeze the life out of you. The poor camera angles only make it worse. Each shot is fixed, meaning the player cannot rotate the camera. In other words, if you hear the creepy groan of a zombie, you begin to go into a cold sweat wondering where the hell it is coming from, and how many more are coming with it. If you have never suffered from an anxiety attack, you’re about to…

Resident Evil takes place in a mansion on the outskirts of Raccoon City. This mansion has the same comfort level as your grandmother’s eerie basement had when you were a child. It won’t take long for the fear factor to seep in on this one—believe me, if you haven’t played this classic, you’ll have a good idea of what you’re in store for really quickly. If you are looking that will cause you to soil yourself, look no further. Game-Flush.com recommends not wearing pants, and preferably, playing on the toilet while enjoying Resident Evil. It will certain make the clean up much shorter.

Note: Certain versions differ from the original title.

1. Friday the 13^th (Scare Factor: 666)
System(s): Nintendo
Release Year: 1989
There’s a lot of old school gamers nodding their head right now. They are nodding because it is a nervous twitch that they gained from playing this game more than once. Outside of the music which plays while you walk around outside of camps and in forests, the music is dreadful. Not in the sense that it is bad—it’s perfect for the game. The short loop of the song that plays during the character select screen begins to make you tense. Every time you die, you want to pick your next character as quickly as possible, just to get that song off of your television.

Then, of course, there is Jason Voorhees (I’m not even going to bother addressing Jason’s mother, as you’ll probably never get to her anyway). Jason, and his sudden appearance jingle that will make you jump 10 times out of 10, will begin to put you into a cold sweat when he: is attacking a nearby cabin with campers that you must keep alive, randomly pops up while you are rowing your boat at half a mile per hour, randomly pops up while your traveling on the world map, and, the worst one of all, is in a cabin you are searching.

You might go through two rooms… you might go through ten rooms… the anticipation of, “When the hell is this son of a bitch going to show his face!?” is going to cause you to convulse. While fighting him, you’ll feel like you’re solving advanced mathematical equations rather than pressing left, right, A or B. Your hands are sweating, you’re bug-eyed, and you forget to breathe. Just thinking about it is overwhelming. Don’t play this with grandma in the room, because you’ll probably kill her.

We hope you enjoyed our top Halloween video games list. Just don’t punch a kid in the face that is wearing a Jason Voorhees mask because you just finished playing Friday the 13^th and are trigger happy.

Happy Halloween from the Game Flush Staff!

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