The Halloween franchise is a complicated beast. You’ve got the original timeline, the Thorn timeline, the H20 timeline, the Blumhouse timeline, the Rob Zombie remakes and, finally, the adorably weird loner that is Season of the Witch. It’s all a bit overwhelming at the best of times, so thankfully, RetroRealms: Halloween strips away all of the nonsense and gets down to what fans love best: serial killer Michael Myers embarking on a vicious, knife-wielding rampage.
The best part is that you get to play as Myers himself stalking through a series of levels inspired by the film series, most notably the 1978 original. Naturally, it would be a bit harsh for every ‘enemy’ in the game to be innocent babysitters and their woefully gullible partners (though there are a few), so instead you're dealing with similarly deranged killers to appease a demonic overlord that gifts Myers the ability to shift over into the Dark Realm.
Much like RetroRealms: Ash vs. Evil Dead, flipping over to the Dark Realm will alter the environment slightly, revealing hidden platforms and entryways that will help you collect three jack-o'-lanterns hidden throughout each level. It also ramps up the difficulty significantly, revealing demonic creatures large and small that will tear you to shreds if you’re not careful.
Controlling Myers is great fun for the most part. You can defeat enemies with a brief thrust of your knife or via a charged-up dash attack, while items picked up throughout can be used as long-range weapons. Compared to Ash Williams, Myers is a bit slower and more lumbering, so if you’re coming from the lightning-fast gameplay of Ash vs. Evil Dead, Halloween may feel a bit jarring at first.
Luckily, if you own both games, you can play as Ash Williams here too, and vice versa. Additional DLC characters in the form of Laurie Strode and Kelly Maxwell also mix up the gameplay quite nicely, though you can’t simply switch characters on the fly; each will commence their own campaign right from the start.
Accessing this game (and Ash vs. Evil Dead) in the RetroRealms 'wrapper' is done via a first-person hub world, effectively designed to make it seem as though you’ve stumbled upon this horror-themed treasure trove made up of arcade cabinets and 3D models. Collecting tokens via both games lets you unlock more models with brief background information on their place within each universe, while behind-the-scenes videos from developer WayForward and publisher Boss Team Games offer excellent insight into the games’ development.
It’s tough to say whether Halloween is a lesser experience than Ash vs. Evil Dead since the two are so remarkably similar in style and structure; think of them as two DLC packs serving the larger ‘RetroRealms’ hub experience. Yet we can’t deny that controlling Michael Myers isn’t quite as exhilarating as Ash Williams, nor are the enemies quite as interesting. If forced to choose, we’d probably go with Ash vs. Evil Dead.
Comments 15
Thanks for the review, everything I mentioned about the other game applies to this one as well although I'm admittedly less interested in this one also considering what's mentioned here!
"Michael Myers don't feel as satisfying to control as Ash Williams" - I read that in a cockney accent.
Double-Feature Pre-Order already on lock! Excited to see what other films get adaptations!
Glad to hear that this and Ash Vs. are worthy games! I wavered because I thought it would be more fun to have Michael as the antagonist rather than the player character, but ended up preordering the physical 2-pack. Plus licensed games are hard for me to resist. 😅
I’ll be picking it up early next week.
I had to grab the expensive pre order because my 4 year old wanted the Michael Myers 12” plush 🤦♂️
Can’t wait to play the games.
Why is he attacking gang members in a junk yard? Is Michael Myers fighting crime alone or is he part of the Justice League now in the DC extended universe?
@Jack_Goetz Ha, I was hearing Chicago mobster.
Just to add to my comment in the Ash Vs. review.
We are being utterly spoilt with the abundance of 8/16bit inspired action platformers. I’ve got Shadow of the Ninja, Moonrider, Iron Meat, Bzzzt, Volgarr 2 all in rotation with Pizza Tower on the side. Will be adding this horror duo to the collection soon.
Both games look like great fun - is there a physical copy coming?? Also I did take a Quick Look in the switch store and thought these were DLC’s of another game? which I can’t remember which game it was.
@dartmonkey Can NintendoLife please help spread word about this video? The link isn't related to this article but is very relevant to gamers and gaming in general. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkMe9MxxZiI
@joey302
Look up the RetroRealms Double Feature. That's the physical edition. $49.99 USD and includes the DLC characters with your pre-order. The game will act as a virtual-arcade hub with more titles (hopefully) released as DLC or additional physical copies in the future to fill out the arcade space.
@WhiteTrashGuy I will check it out thx! but what game is it from? Or they can be purchased separately? Wasn’t sure thx
This remind me so much of the license tie-ins of the 16-bit generation that I can't resist playing them. Also helps they turned out to be decent and I like the franchises. I'm interested to know if there will be more "arcades" to play in the RetroRealms wrapper, considering the layout. Maybe Jason and Freddy in time...?
Did I just read all of the article with Dr. Loomis' voice in my head? Really didn't help that I was binging all of the Halloween movies for like a week. Doesn't help that Michael is my favorite slasher, I may get this one of these days if I'm up to it.
@joey302
These are the first two games in the RetroRealms series. The are available physically in a double-pack or individually through the eshop.
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