Want to play something spooky? Something to get you in the Halloween spirit … but what’s the vibe, y’know? Maybe you don’t want to be scared shitless, you just want to have some spooky vibes! Well, I’m here to help, with some specific recommendations that range from Haunted House to Graveyard to Nightmare. Note, I haven’t played all of these. I’m a real scaredy cat (๑•﹏•)
Haunted House tier:
Luigi’s Mansion (GameCube, 3DS, Switch 2)
The launch title for the Nintendo GameCube is literally a haunted house. Luigi is convinced that he won a mansion in a sweepstake, but Mario goes to check it out first, out of suspicion. He never comes back. Luigi goes to the mansion to find his brother and finds that the mansion is haunted! Boos and uncanny spectres haunt the halls, with the spirits of the original owners keeping Luigi away from the mastermind behind it all: King Boo.
As Luigi, you must use the Poltergeist 3000 (provided by Professor E. Gadd) to suck up the ghosts, defeat King Boo and save Mario. It’s a small game in length but deep with atmosphere. Dust coats every step Luigi takes through the mansion as he hums the theme of the game. It’s an uncanny yet comfortably fun experience that ends with Luigi staring fear in the face to save his older brother.
Pumpkin Jack (Steam, Switch, Xbox, PlayStation)
An indie 3D platformer made by Evil Raptor in 2020 has you play as the titular Jack, the Mythical Pumpkin Lord, as you travel through villages, graveyards and the North Pole itself, to let Evil win over Good once and for all. It’s a simple game with fun Halloween aesthetics that play with the campiness akin to a Haunted House. It’s fun, short, a little rough around the edges, but nostalgic for the older middle-of-the-road budget platformers popular during the early 2000s.
Graveyard Tier:
Resident Evil 1-4
Some of the first games to popularize the zombie horror-survival genre in games are also the cheesiest in the game. From the first three PlayStation One classics with the best-worst voice acting, to the ever available “GameCube exclusive” Resident Evil 4’s action-movie tone, the stories feel like the best of the camp available. So why is it in the Graveyard tier?
Because it’s the gameplay that brings your nerves on end. Zombies are hard to kill, and ammo is scarce. You need to pick and choose who is a threat and who you can avoid. And with the tank controls you’re given to play with, every encounter with a zombie needs to be thought through. As aged as these games are, the older they get, the more tense the gameplay becomes.
There are other games like this, control and style-wise. Crow Country and Signalis are examples with an abandoned theme park and abandoned sci-fi lab settings, respectively, as well as more serious stories with the same PlayStation One aesthetics.
Nightmare Tier:
Silent Hill Two/Remake (PC, Xbox, PlayStation)
A truly terrifying experience. Another game from the PlayStation Two era, only recently, as of writing this getting a remake for modern consoles. A psychological journey where Jason Sunderland explores the fog-filled town of Silent Hill, encountering physical manifestations of his darkest demons, searching for his wife, who suddenly went missing. If you know about this game already, you know why it’s in the nightmare tier. And if you don’t, then keep your eyes out for the monsters.
Make sure to turn the lights off, wrap yourself in your favorite blanket and snack on whatever candy you never gave out. The goal is to be comfortable and feel the soft glow of the monitor lulling you into a warm trance of tension and safety—
—Before it all drains away.
