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.