Haunted: Halloween ’86

Genre: Action-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Haunted: Halloween ‘86 is an Action-Platformer released on the Nintendo Entertainment System and Nintendo Switch in 2019 that has you playing as a pair of kids who have to fight through a horde of creepy enemies after wandering into a haunted house on Halloween. And yes, you read that right, this game was released on the dusty old Nintendo Entertainment System console in 2019. That’s one of the unique signatures of developer Mega Cat Studios, designing new games for retro systems. While I leave it to you whether to see this as targeting a very niche market or trying to gain attention with an odd gimmick, in this review I’m playing the Nintendo Switch version, which is identical to the NES version of the game, with all of that game’s limitations intact.

Yes, that means that this game suffers from the hardware limitations of the 1985 console, which means pixel art visuals with an extremely limited color palette, and chiptune audio that’s similarly limited. Depending on how you look at it, this may make this game’s presentation nostalgic or dated. But in either case, the limited color palette does make it difficult to tell where things are sometimes as foregrounds get muddled into backgrounds.

The gameplay here involves roughly an even mix of jumping on platforms and melee combat, and the combat is actually pretty decent, with some Street Fighter-esque moves players can use to pound on enemies, with their list of moves growing as they upgrade it throughout the game. This game is truly at its best when you land a great combo on an enemy.

Unfortunately, while there is some originality here, both the combat and platforming suffer due to poor hit detection and odd movement at times. There are some other issues too, such as enemies that pop out of nowhere before you can respond to them. Also, the game implements a two-character system, which seems like it would make for a great opportunity to give players two different move sets to work with. Unfortunately, the two characters play identically, and this works out to only be a tedious way to manage health.

There are some good qualities to Haunted: Halloween ‘86, and back in the NES era this might have been seen as a fair-to-decent Action-Platformer. But by today’s standards, its problems really make it harder to appreciate. Unless you’re looking specifically for a game that brings that era back from the dead, for better or worse, then you’re better off skipping this game.

tl;dr – Haunted: Halloween ‘86 is an Action-Platformer that has players taking the role of a pair of kids fighting a horde of undead enemies. This game does try some interesting things, but issues with movement and the limitations of the retro hardware this game was designed for keep this from being the fun nostalgia trip it aims to be.

Grade: C

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