It is not all that often that I get to cover something really cool. I know, a lot of you have already gotten, beaten, and probably shelved Haunted Halloween 85 but what about Haunted Halloween 86? This article is more for the people new to homebrew/independent development of games, those that are old hats in this category could probably learn something new also though.

Set in Possum Hollow, on Halloween night, Haunted Halloween 85 is a scrolling action brawler. The environments are varied and often dank, run down, just like you would expect in a horror movie. The setting is set up perfectly – pumpkins have come to life, crows are mean as ever and troublesome ghosts and zombies are out in force. What more could ask for?

Haunted: Halloween 86 is the follow up to ’85 and is still set in Possum Hollow. This time though, the protagonist, Donny P, is not alone. What is cool about this sequel is it is a true sequel. Fans get more of what was great in the first game plus additions such as some parallax scrolling (something the NES is not supposed to be able to do natively) and innovative bosses – radioactive octopus and even a smelting pot are interesting choices.

Neither of these games are re-skins or hacks of previously released games. These are full on brand new developed titles explicitly for the Nintendo Entertainment System. They are also available on Steam for those of you lacking the hardware to rock these adventures.

I am personally impressed with what I see in the videos. Most independent developers avoid the action/platform genre and instead focus on puzzle or shooters. It looks like they have a great development team behind their releases – let’s see what they come up with in the future. Reviews coming soon, I promise.

Grab Haunted: Halloween 85 and Haunted: Halloween 86 on Steam and at the Cashinculture.com store. Support indies giving you games you like so they will keep doing it.

Don’t have a NES console? No problem, check eBay for deals on original hardware and clones.

Carl Williams

It is time gaming journalism takes its rightful place as proper sources and not fanboys giving free advertising. If you wish to support writers like Carl please use the links below. https://www.paypal.me/WCW https://www.patreon.com/CarlWilliams