This is Halloween: Staff Picks Favorite Scary/Halloween Games

In order to celebrate Halloween this week, we have asked our staff to pick one game that really gets them in the Halloween spirit.  My personal pick was Silent Hill, because Pyramid Head is one of the scariest, terrifying creatures I have ever seen.  He is that one character that kept me leaning around while playing through, just waiting for him to come out of the shadows.  I would have to say the Silent Hill games are the ones that creeped me out the most.  Read on to find out what the rest of the staff choose for their favorite Halloween related or scary game.  That one game that just screams Halloween, or gives them the creeps.  You know… those games that make you glance over your shoulder late at night to make sure Pyramid Head isn’t lurking in the darkest corners of your home waiting to drag you away…

Stephen R- Kingdom Hearts

My favorite Halloween-themed gaming experience would have to be the Halloweentown sections of the Kingdom Hearts games. In Sora’s quest to seal the keyholes of other worlds, he ventures into Jack Skellington’s world with his faithful friends (Donald and Goofy) to battle off the heartless. Upon entry, your costumes change into something a little more horrifying, and the Pumpkin King himself joins your team. In Kingdom Hearts, you must defeat Oogie Boogie, as he is part of Maleficant’s close group of villains. In Kingdom Hearts II, you must travel through the Christmas door and save Santa. Considering these are two of my favorite games ever, this was pretty much a shoe-in for my pick. I’m anxious to see if Halloweentown will be making any kind of appearance in the next installment of the series. Happy Halloween everyone!

Bryan Fleck- F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R or First Encounter Assault Recon has players controlling the new ‘Point man’ for a special forces team. The F.E.A.R. team is sent to stop a crazed man, Paxton Fettel from taking command of the Armacham Technology Corporation. From there, the player is totally immersed in action and suspense. You intend to meet up and work in conjuntion with a Delta Force squad, but they have been slaughtered horrendously by a little girl. You experience hallucinations and other more life-threatening phenomena caused by the little girl, named Alma. Through playing, you use your incredible reflexes, which are so advanced your enemies seem to be standing still. The player discovers that Fettel is under the control of Alma, and that they, The Point Man, are the child of Alma. There are some cerebral spine-tingling moments in the game, such as flashes or dead bodies, rooms that change when you look away, and endless gallons of blood. The mind-bending story, interesting gameplay, and definite horror make this a great game. Severely underrated, and  a must-play on Halloween.

Matt Castelli- Parasite Eve

Parasite Eve has to be the first game I ever felt was truly scary, The game opens with one of the goriest scenes in a video game I have ever witnesses, almost everyone in Carnegie Hall being burned to death in 45 seconds. The concept of a the Mitochondria in our body are waiting to take over  and on Christmas eve in New York City was something that was different from the typical zombie plague theme that seems so popular for horror games. Either way at 10 years old I only played this game with the lights on and was totally fascinated by the game taking place in a realistic replica of New York City being invaded by all sorts of mutant monsters. (The Statue of Liberty crying tears of blood in the opening still creeps me out).

Mark Hinton- Resident Evil

When I think of scary video games, or games that are based in the horror genre, the first game that comes to mind is Resident Evil.  As cliché’ as it may sound, the first installment of this series scared the hell out of me.  Yes….the H-E-double hockey sticks right out of me.  When I rented the game I was maybe 14 or 15 years old, and then if you owned a Playstation, you were pretty high on the food chain in my social circle.  When I rented the game, I came home, tossed case aside after ripping it from the box, and threw it in the console.  As if the game itself weren’t creepy enough, it was storming outside.  Just a torrential downpour, like the storm scene in the movie Poltergeist.  I made it through the first section of the game pretty stone faced, but when the dogs came crashing through the windows for the first time, I dropped my controller, yelled a string of expletives, and then proceeded to get devoured by rabid undead dogs.  That first experience with Resident Evil will always stand out as one of my favorite gaming experiences, as well as the scariest gaming experience in my life to date.  It was a groundbreaking game with unprecedented gore and story, as well as a theatrical sense of horror and drama.  What more could you ask for?  What’s that?  Oh, yeah.  Zombies.  No game is complete without zombies.

Darius Yaghoubi- Home Improvement

The scariest game I have ever played actually had good intentions. It wasn’t designed to scare you or give you nightmares, but my god, did it ever. This game was crafted by Satan himself in the bowels of hell. The game I am talking about is “Home Improvement: Power Tool Pursuit” for the SNES. Now you may be saying to yourself “But Darius, wasn’t Home Improvement a B-Rate sitcom from the 90s starring Tim Allen?” Well yes, you are correct. But for whatever god awful reason, they decided to make it into a video game. Somebody (possibly drunk and/or delusional) made the call saying “Home Improvement is just too awesome of a show to not have a generic sidescroller made after it” I honestly don’t even know the premise of the game. I only played it a few times back in the 90s but that was enough to scar me psychologically. You play as Tim Allen. For whatever reason you are fighting dinosaurs. Yeah that’s right, because dinosaurs were in the TV show so often. You walk through the freaking jungle armed with a nail gun shooting pterodactyls and raptors. Aside from the fact that you are controlling Tim “the Tool Man” Taylor in a Home Improvement video game, the graphics are awful, the controls are horrible, the sound is even worse, and it’s of the variety of game that is so poorly programmed that you can’t even get through the first stage. Do yourself a favor and NEVER play this game or it will change you forever.

Thanks for stopping by, and from all of us here at ResumePlay- have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Tags: Al Borlin fear Halloween Home Improvement Kingdom Hearts Nes Nintendo Parasite Eve PS3 Resident Evil xbox