As I get older, I find I have no interest in playing the cutesy/silly games that are everywhere on retro consoles (obviously, they were targeted towards kids). But I also don’t have the patience for survival horror games like the resident evil or silent hill series. I’m just looking for a fun spooky game that I can jump into and start playing.
So what are your favorite action-oriented games featuring skeletons and bats and horror movie monsters that aren’t actually trying to scare you? Any platform, any year. I’m looking for games whose entire theme is spooky, not just a single haunted house or graveyard level.
Not action oriented, but just wanted to give Maniac Mansion a shout out…
Monster Party
Fun, spooky, action-oriented*, skeletons, bats: Temple of Apshai from 1983 on the Commodore 64. About two minutes fifteen seconds into the video you’ll see and hear its unique spooky atmosphere.
*for a role-playing game of this vintage, anyway.
Alien 3 on snes
Can’t go wrong with Castlevania, Devil’s Crush also comes to mind as my favorite pinball game. I don’t know why spooky games have OSTs that go so hard, but I’m glad they do!
I only just played Symphony of the Night this last winter and was treated to an unforgettable experience. Then felt the same way all over again the next month when my wife picked up Hollow Knight. Both highly recommended.
Oh boy, if you haven’t played Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, then you’ve got another treat to look forward to!
Since Konami doesn’t make many games anymore, the director of Symphony took a lot of the big names involved in making it and made his own studio. They crowdfunded Ritual of the Night as a spiritual successor to Symphony. It’s a modern SoTN done right by the people who made the original.
I will say that it does have some of the same jank in its blood though, with stuff like overpowered rare item drops and some requirements for the true ending practically requiring a guide. It also hides the fastest movement ability (think the wolf dash in Symphony) in a side challenge in literally the final area of the castle before the true final boss, which is kind of shitty.
But if you enjoyed Symphony, warts and all, you’ll probably love it.
I’m around 35 hours in, just about to get the true ending on normal difficulty. There’s something like three more characters I can play through with, a classic (Castlevania 1) mode, a built in randomizer mode, and a Simon’s Quest style classic mode 2 dlc that I’m probably going to play through before I call it done, so good value for the price too.
