5 Great Video Games for Halloween

Ah it’s that spooky time of year again, Halloween. Being in Australia I can only imagine the whimsy and magic in the air over in America at this time. The leaves are changing, the air is becoming crisp and demons and ghouls walk the streets with their jack o lanterns shining. Here in Aus we are lucky if we get a bogan in a stained singlet coming to our house and demanding a Tim Tam or something.

Anyway, in the spirit of being spooked, here is a quick list of 5 awesome video games you could play this Halloween! If you prefer a video, check out the bottom of this post where our Youtube video is hiding. In the spirit of Halloween you might be also interested in our Super Mario related Pumpkin Stencils!

5 – Slender Man

The legendary creepypasta that started a game that is now becoming a movie, I think anyway. Slender Man get’s a solid number 5 on this list because it has just become a classic horror game that I have played on at least 1 Halloween occasion. And you should too!

For those that don’t know, the game is quite simple. Released in June 2012, Slender: The 8 pages was a freeware game that took the internet by storm. The idea is to collect 8 pages that are scattered throughout the dark woods. Sounds simple right? Well it is damn creepy to play at night and alone because that sneaky child abducting Slender Man could pop out at any moment and send your heart racing like a spoilt kid races after cake. Not to mention his teleportation and lurking abilities. Heck, he is even scary in pillow form!

Slender Man is a thin, unnaturally tall humanoid with a featureless head and face and wearing a black suit. He is just creepy. Use your torch when needed (don’t run out of batteries), jog a bit if you can and try not to get caught by the Slender Man and his accompanying static or loud piano jolts.

If you are looking for a free cheap thrill this Halloween and you haven’t already played the game, give it a go now!

4 – Silent Hill

Released in North America in January 1999 for the Sony Playstation, Konami hit a home run with their game Silent Hill. The now classic survival horror game led the pack when it came to scares back in the day and is still talked about now, as proved by this sentence.

In this foggy piece of video game history you are the player Harry Mason, searching for your adopted daughter in the fictional American town of Silent Hill. Even the damn town name is creepy! Some people even consider it as one of the greatest video games ever made because it focuses more on psychological aspects of horror rather than smashing you in the face with gore like previous games did. The gameplay is more about puzzle solving, exploration and of course combat against the various monsters lurking in the fog.

If all that wasn’t enough there are actually five different game endings, depending on the actions you take during the game, and it even includes one joke ending which is a nice spin for the horror genre.

The game has also spawned several other adaptations, including a visual novel in 2001, a feature film in 2006, and of course the 2 other games Silent hill 2 and Silent hill 3. Pretty impressive when you think about it.

If you are looking for a good spook this October 31^st then give either the classic Silent Hill or one of it’s sequels a go! You won’t be disappointed but you might have to change your pants after playing.

3 – Resident Evil

We can’t have a horror game list without including the famous Resident Evil. Released in 1996 by Capcom for the Sony Playstation, the first Resident Evil game sold over 8.63 million copies worldwide! Not bad for a survival horror game that was the first of it’s kind, not to mention it was the most successful debut game for Capcom!

Known as Bio Hazard in Japan, Resident Evil is also a survival horror game like Silent Hill, only it has its own twist on the genre. This time you are Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine who are part of an elite task force known as S.T.A.R.S. and you are investigating the outskirts of the fictional Raccoon City after one of their team members had disappeared.

Naturally you find yourself in a Zombie filled mansion and you have to run, gun and explore your way out before some monster or zombie gets you.

Resident Evil has a few iconic parts to it, such as the inventory system, the 3D models imposed over pre-rendered backgrounds and of course it’s control style. Many games have since borrowed such ideas and added their own spin to it.

If you love you some Zombies, puzzle solving and survival horror in general, and for some reason you have never heard of the Resident Evil series then get your butt into gear and take a look at one of them! There are so many ports on so many consoles you don’t really have an excuse not to have played at least one Resident Evil game!

2 – Doom

Ah Doom, the granddaddy of first person shooters and just about the video game horror genre in general! What’s more brutal than fighting your way to Hell? Released by Id software in 1993 Doom is generally considered as being one of the most significant and influential titles in video game history, for having helped to pioneer the now standard first-person shooter. We are talking before Counter Strike and the likes here boys and girls, this is MS-DOS at its finest!

The original game had 3 nine level episode type things, named “Knee-Deep in the Dead”, “The Shores of Hell”, and “Inferno”. The game allows you take the control of a Space Marine (also known as “Doomguy”) and you essentially fight through invading demons from Hell. Intense, no? Add in superb graphics for the time, a killer sound track and a fantastic array of weapons to choose from and you have a real winner folks.

The game sold or at least was played outstandingly well, especially considering it was mail order and shareware game! In fact it’s estimated that 15–20 million people played the game within a 2 year time span.

You know you are onto a winner this Halloween if you play Doom because its graphic violence, as well as satanic imagery, made the game subject of considerable controversy. That’s right, your Mum might get upset if you play this game, which is scary enough on it’s own.

1 – Luigi’s Mansion

Ok, time for a slightly less intense spooky addition. And what better game to have as number 1 on this list than the GameCube 2001 action-adventure launch title game Luigi’s Mansion!

So it’s not quite a survival horror shoot em up, but rather a ghost infested mansion and a vacuum cleaner type thing game. Even the younger audiences can enjoy this one, it is a Nintendo only game after all.

Join Luigi on his hunt for a lost Mario after winning a contest for a free Mansion, despite not actually entering in a contest. Luckily for Luigi Professor Elvin Gadd is introduced in this game and equips him with the “Poltergust 3000,” and of course the invention called the GameBoy Horror that allows him to communicate with Luigi.

This fun filled Romp allows you to capture ghosts, complete puzzles, collect coins and of course fight the biggest ghost of them all, King Boo, Who is actually behind this entire caper.

Shine your torch on ghosts and get sucking, literally! That’s the aim of the game here!

Whilst it’s not as intense as the other games on this list, Luigi’s Mansion has a fantastic spooky atmosphere, music and level design that is perfect to play on a dark Halloween night! Just don’t dream about any Boo’s after playing!