It’s officially the spooky season! And I love to get into the spookiness like the next geek, but spooky doesn’t have to be scary and full of horror. So I decided to curate a list of video games to get spooky without the scares.
Haunt the House: Terrortown
In Haunt the House: Terrortown you play as a cute little ghost who goes haunting around town on Halloween night because of the celebrations happening. It’s a very quick and easy game to play with enough spooks to satisfy you this Halloween.
Costume Quest and Costume Quest 2
In Costume Quest, you play as a kid that is trick-or-treating with their twin on Halloween night when they encounter a monster that kidnaps the sibling. You must now go on an adventure to save your sibling and be home by curfew. In the sequel, the twins and their cast of friends are out to save Halloween from the evil Dr. Orel White. The nefarious dentist teams up with a powerful time wizard, and together, they release the Grubbins, Orc-like creatures, into the human world, in hopes of ridding Halloween forever. A good set of adventure games with lots of Halloween hijinks.
Luigi’s Mansion
A ghost-filled adventure, Luigi’s Mansion is great for some spooks in a franchise we all know well. You play as Luigi trying to rescue Mario from the ghost-filled mansion controlled by King Boo. It’s a short game that is great for a Halloween night playthrough.
Night in the Woods
Although not all out a Halloween game, Night in the Woods can fill that creepy, spooky vibe you’re looking for. There is the Halloween night scene which starts the climax of the story and the odd occurrences that happen to Mae. There is a mystery afoot, can you solve it?
I have written a first look and full review of Night in the Woods if you want to learn more.
Trivia Murder Party
Need a game to play with friends? Jackbox has got you covered with Trivia Murder Party, which is part of their Party Pack 3. Either you know the answers, or you take the killing floor and try not to die. It sets the spooky vibe of the fear of death if it was also your favorite daytime game show. If you want to go more goofy and funny, you can also try Monster Seeking Monster in the Party Pack 4, where you date your competitors but you’re all secretly monsters. Both games are great fun to play with friends.
Do you prefer horror games or non-horror games? Let me know with a comment below!
Love seeing Luigi’s Mansion getting some love. Night in the Woods is perfect too and I love Murder Party!
Love, love, love this post. Even though I work for a game developer that specializes in horror games, I am the BIGGEST chicken 🙊
My favorite, non-scary but still “spooky-themed” games are the hidden object/puzzle games from Artifex Mundi (Endless Fables, etc.)!