While Halloween is typically considered a spooky holiday, it does not always have to be about endless frights. The idea of dressing up in costumes, many of which are homemade, also makes the holiday a time to celebrate boundless creativity.
Even so, fake violence and tons of blood are typically associated with the imaginative outfits people craft. This philosophy rings true with video games as well. The ten games below are not horror by any stretch of the word, but they are all great games to play for Halloween, either late at night or in between handing out candy to trick-or-treaters.
10 Super Meat Boy
What is more Halloween than playing as a skinless blob of meat? Those who were into flash games will remember this popular platformer’s inception on Newgrounds as a raunchy tale filled with gratuitous humor. Super Meat Boy cleaned up much of the mature content while retaining the aesthetic and brutally difficult platforming challenges. Hints of the twisted humor still live on in the game’s cinematic, however.
9 Mortal Kombat
One of the longest lasting and most consistent fighting game franchises on the market, Mortal Kombat offers a wealth of costume ideas with a roster reaching almost one hundred characters.
The series is so popular, even those who have never touched a controller recognize series staples like Scorpion and Sub-Zero. The aesthetic and supernatural elements is sure to put anybody in a Halloween mood, and the fatalities are in line with some of the most gruesome horror films.
8 Binding Of Isaac
Coming from Edmund McMillen, the same mind behind Super Meat Boy, Binding of Isaac is a rogue like following a young boy escaping into his imagination as his overbearing mother attempts to end his life. It is definitely dark and creepy, but it attempts to say something far more important than simply trying to scare gamers. Anybody who like the dungeons of old Legend of Zelda games will appreciate the gameplay.
7 Hello Neighbor
Hello Neighbor follows a young child as he investigates the screams coming from a neighbor’s house. Players uncover the tragic tale while sneaking around and avoiding the neighbor’s traps in a puzzle-like cat and mouse game. While not directly horror, the plot revelations will certainly make some gamers’ skin crawl.
6 Alien Hominid
Another title originating from Newgrounds, Alien Hominid was developed into a full length game for the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube in 2004. The run and gun action follows an alien as it evades capture by government authorities after crash landing on Earth. The cartoonish art style somehow makes the extreme violence adorable. For anyone who missed out on it sixteen years ago, a remake, Alien Hominid Invasion, is currently in development for modern platforms.
5 Max Payne
Max Payne is not so much scary as it is downright brutal and unfair. Within the first several minutes of playing, the titular character’s family is mercilessly slain in their own home. The first two games take place mainly at night in the cold, unforgiving New York City streets, complete with sufficiently unsettling dream sequences. Max Payne 3 moves the action to Brazil, but retains the gritty noir atmosphere for which the series is known.
4 BioShock
Plenty of games have players exploring ruined and abandoned houses, them parks, or asylums; only BioShock has players explore a ruined underwater utopia. The dark science fiction story is a perfect compliment to Halloween.
The third game, BioShock Infinite, switches things up by taking place in a floating city and making the player the harbinger of the city’s downfall, and justifiably so. The wild plot twists make one question their understanding of time.
3 Luigi’s Mansion
Most of the games featured here are not straight up horrifying, but are still not intended for kids. Luigi’s Mansion is Halloween fun for the whole family. The charming aesthetic and light puzzle mechanics make the title a blast for both young ones and veteran Nintendo fans. The series was thought lost to time, but made a comeback recently with Luigi’s Mansion 3 on the Nintendo Switch in 2019, which also features cooperative and competitive multiplayer.
2 Castlevania
Most vampire fiction involves people becoming helpless victims. Castlevania lets players take the battle to the vampire’s lair. The original NES game is now available on most platforms thanks to the Castlevania collection, which also includes Super Castlevania IV, often considered one of the best 2D games of its era. It has not seen the same admiration in the 3D space, though Lords of Shadow was a decent, if short-lived, revival.
1 DOOM
When Hell an Halloween are mixed together, it usually means a bad time for the protagonist. However, the Doom Slayer welcomes the demon army if it gives him more opportunities to rip and tear through countless hordes. Whether one is going with the rebooted titles, the most recent of which is DOOM Eternal, or the original classics from the mid-’90s, it is difficult to go wrong with this legendary first-person shooter franchise when October 31st comes around.
