I totally agree that good horror needs to gradually ramp up the tension. But that’s why I’m not looking for horror games, I’m just looking for some fun spooky games i can jump into real quick without really dedicating a lot of time to it.
I’ve never even heard of this! Looks like it’s a turn-based RPG though. Those are typically pretty rough on the NES. Do you like the game?
Just to throw another item into the list, there’s a VirtualBoy game called Jack Bros which should perfectly fit my criteria:
Unfortunately, the game is really boring (in my opinion). You just wander around a maze collecting keys so that you can… move onto the next maze to collect more keys. You have a basic attack but the range is so short that it isn’t exactly fun. I had really high hopes when I learned of its existence too…
I’m not so much concerned with the gore or being too scary, it’s the slowness of the SH games that I don’t have the patience for right now. I’m not looking for a game I need to spend hours immersing myself into, I’m hoping to find some fun games I can jump into for 20 minutes at a time.
Ghost n Goblins is a good call, although I’m terrible at that game. I’ll definitely need to checkout Rusty, I’ve played all the Castlevania games so Rusty sounds perfect.
MedEvil definitely fits my criteria, although I find that game too clunky. There’s a new(ish) game called Pumpkin Jack which was heavily inspired by MedEvil but uses more modern game mechanics. It’s a fun one.
Luigi’s Mansion leans a bit too far into the cutesy/silly territory for me, but it’s definitely a good choice.
I didn’t realize Dead By Daylight had a bunch of characters from various horror franchises, that’s really cool! I think I’m probably more likely to play Left4Dead if I wanted an action-y spooky multiplayer game but I’ll definitely give Dead By Daylight more attention.
I’ve never heard of Pascal’s Wager and the reviews on steam don’t look great, but I’ll look into it.
Thanks for the list with so many varied options!
You’re right, Maniac Mansion definitely has the vibe I’m looking for but there’s no way I’ve got the patience for a point-and-click game.
Well that looks perfect, thanks!
Cool! Can you share a link to one of those?
This Flirc case is fantastic. It uses passive cooling so you don’t have to worry about the noise or air flow of a fan and it still does a great job cooling.
I’m going to keep adding more items as I think of them in case others might be interested in this type of game.
There’s a free game on steam called Nightmare Kart which started out as a Bloodborne Mario Kart but the developer was getting too much attention so he removed all the explicit Bloodborne references that might get him sued and released the game as a vaguely Bloodborne-ish kart racing game. It features PS1 style graphics.
Also, for anyone into arcade (MAME) games, there’s a horror-themed beat 'em up called Night Slashers which is pretty fun.
Apparently this game is getting a remake on steam, called Night Slashers: Remake. I actually had no idea this game was being made until I googled for the arcade game’s cover art just now.