Halloween Forever

Genre: Action-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Halloween Forever is an Action-Platformer released on PC in 2016, ported to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in 2018, and then ported to Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game has players taking the role of a Jack-O-Lantern-headed man spitting candy corn at spooky enemies.

The presentation here is decidedly retro, with 2D pixel art visuals that hearken back to 8-bit classics like Ghosts ‘N Goblins without specifically referencing any of them. As with those games, it’s both fittingly dark and colorful at the same time, making for an overall appealing look. This is backed by a chiptune soundtrack that I actually found to be pretty annoying, making me want to turn down my volume within seconds of starting the game.

While the presentation may be wonderfully nostalgic, the gameplay here is nothing special. At its best, this game is simple and somewhat repetitive and monotonous. Unfortunately, this game often falls prey to some poor design choices – leaps of faith that lead to instant-death spikes, falling hazards that don’t give you nearly enough warning they’re falling, and deaths that send you back to the beginning of a long, tedious level. Without these issues, this game wouldn’t be anything particularly noteworthy, but with them it becomes irritating and tedious.

It’s a pity Halloween Forever doesn’t play as good as it looks, because its retro style is really wonderful. Unfortunately, it just isn’t all that fun to play, with frustrating unearned deaths sending you back to the beginning of the level often enough that you’ll likely want to just shut the game off entirely. If you’re looking for fun retro-style Halloween games on Nintendo Switch, you have multiple better options than this.

tl;dr – Halloween Forever is a retro-style pixel art Action-Platformer where players play a Jack-O-Lantern-headed man spitting candy corn at spooky enemies. The visuals and theme are delightfully nostalgic, but the sound is terrible and the gameplay is tedious and frustrating, with poor level design and game design in places. There are multiple better Halloween-themed games on Nintendo Switch.

Grade: C-

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