Haunted Halloween '86 - Video Game Review

 Did you know Spirit Halloween has its own video game? Well, it's not so much a Spirit game as it is slapping the brand on an existing game and making a few changes. Kind of like how Spirit takes over all the vacant buildings in your town every year.

 

 Haunted Halloween is a homebrew game made by Retrotainment. It was created using the same limitations as any game for the NES so it looks and plays just like an original NES game. The Spirit version has two games: the original Haunted Halloween 86 and the Spirit themed version.

 

 The fun thing about the game is that it has an actual physical release with a boxes cartridge and color manual. These seem to be quite the collector's item as they always show "out of stock" and "not available in store" at Spirit online. Current EBay prices are $200+ !!

 

On to the game...

 

October 31st  2025: On a quiet evening in Possum Hollow, two kids are looking for the perfect Donny and Tami costumes. On a quest to dress up as their heroes, Steven and Kym venture into a Spirit Halloween, but just as they put on the costumes, they’re surprised by Jack the Reaper who plummets them through a vortex back to 1986 to relive the infamous nightmare that Donny and Tami endured.
Jack the Reaper has taken over Possum Hollow with a few old friends and they are having so much fun, it’s scary. To find their way home our heroes must battle all sorts of evil and there is nowhere to hide… 

 

 Donny and Tami are the heroes in the original 86' game so in the Spirit version, you're playing new kids who are sent back to relive (replay?) the OG experience with a few new twists.

 

I did spend some time with each version of the game and yes, they're very similar. The main difference being the Spirit branding and boss fights are now versus characters you'd find in Spirit. 

 

The first boss is Sam from Trick R Treat! 

 

This game play will take you back to the NES days of old: loud cursing and trying not to throw your controller across the room when you miss that jump to a platform or lose you're last sliver of life and have to start the scene from the beginning. Playing the game is just as much about surviving as it is dying and remembering the patterns. But don't worry, at the end of each level, you'll get a code you can enter to start from that level instead of going all the way back to the beginning.

 

Each of the characters has their own life meter so you can tag out when one of them gets too beat up. To fend off the horrors, you've got your standard jump and punch/kick along with a handful of special moves. Depending on the difficulty, you can start with all of them (easy) or unlock one new move at the end of every level (normal).

 

 The game is fun (and frustrating) but I was a little let down that the Spirit version is essentially a slight rebrand. There's no shortage of monsters and spooky atmosphere but I was hoping for something that felt more Spirit than generic horror game.

 

If you don't want to spend crazy money on the physical release, Haunted Halloween '86 is available on Steam. Xbox and Nintendo Switch. 

 

 

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