HAUNTED: Halloween '85 (Original NES Game) Reviews

I love this game. It's got everything I like in one stop. Retro, halloween, great music, and great controls.

A janky, mindless button-masher with no depth and questionable level design choices, further held back by slippery platforming, unfair enemy placement and enemy spam. A decent-looking NES throwback with some cute '80s references but that's about it. No save feature (not even a quick save) and jump punches seem to only work whenever they want to. The [spoiler]scarecrow[/spoiler] boss can also eat a big one.

I very much enjoy when modern games try to emulate NES era gaming, and I'm recommending Haunted: Halloween '85 because it does that very well. Having said that, it definitely has issues. HH85 accurately recreates some of the NES's weaker output, so don't expect to be reminded of the popular classics. It looks and plays more like Ghoul School or the Simpsons games. It's a little janky, the controls feels slippery, the graphics are pretty rough, character design is meh, and it's got a few sections that feel cheap. There's no save feature or password so you have to play through the game in one sitting. No achievements, either, so you don't even get official bragging rights for beating it. But it's got that charm that reminds me of my childhood finding enjoyment in even lousy games. It's not great, but it's playable. I was able to beat it in a couple of hours total which is more than I can say for a lot of low-tier NES games. The gameplay is very simple but there is at least [i]some[/i] depth to the combat, where rapid button presses create punches with different strengths, and holding the down direction on the d-pad when you punch throws a slower-but-powerful uppercut (honestly, most of the game becomes learning how to position yourself to spam uppercuts). The platforming is decent, the tunes are pretty good, and the bosses are at least varied and interesting, requiring unique techniques to beat each one. A couple of the bosses were pretty frustrating, but not impossible. I was able to accumulate a lot of 1-ups (green cans, so keep an eye out for 'em), softening the punishment of the harder areas. HH85 rewards patient and deliberate play, which is a way I enjoy playing a lot of games. Honestly, beating a bad (or mediocre) game is often more satisfying than beating a good game. A well-designed game guides you and gives you everything you need to make consistent progress. A janky game will force you to learn its intricacies in order to squeak your way past unfair obstacles. The former is like being treated to a nice meal. The latter is catching a wild animal with your bare hands so you can survive in the woods. The former may be more pleasant, but the latter comes with a greater sense of accomplishment.

HAUNTED: Halloween '85 (Original NES Game), aside from its Steam Store page name, is a very simple game. It's not trying to break any sort of mold or dazzle you with graphics that push the NES hardware to its limits; because yes, it can be played on an original NES, which is pretty cool. It's just a platformer-beat em' up hybrid with a Halloween theme that offers just the right amount of challenge. Its mechanics are consistent and function perfectly well when compared to other titles of a similar nature, even if takes a little bit to fully understand your punch and uppercut hitboxes. It has a solid soundtrack that, despite being ultimately unmemorable, fits the atmosphere that the game's going for very well. There's also a good amount of enemies to fight, and each level ends with a unique boss battle, which really helps keep things fresh. Some of the level design can be unfair though, like how when you enter certain rooms, an enemy will jump you in about half a second. And the back half of the game can suffer from enemy overload, where you can't go more than a couple yards without 3 new guys spawning and charging towards you. But this game is a classic example of "what you see is what you get". If you like the idea of playing a new NES platformer-beat em' up hybrid with Halloween window dressing, then this game is good for that. Really the worst part of Haunted Halloween '85 is that it's pretty short. I imagine that if you were used to NES-level difficulty you could clear this whole game in about an hour. Other than that, this is a perfectly serviceable title that I'd say is worth grabbing on sale. 7/10

Horrible game. Holy shit. Bosses that leave the screen and never come back, so you have to reset and start over. Platforms that you fall through. Walls you can get stuck in. If you are wondering if this game closely resembles an original NES game, then the answer is yes, it does. Unfortunately the game it most closely resembles is The Cheetahmen.

I've played through this on NES a few years ago. I just tried again today and I struggled to get through it. The game is frustrating due to cheap enemy placement. The gameplay is pretty full so the whole game is kind of a slog. I know it's trying to be a retro game but no one wants limited continues anymore. There is a reason that went away. I actually made it to the final boss with little effort but he wiped out my 30 lives with ease. It took me probably 2 hours to get there. I don't feel the desire to ever try again. I'm going to uninstall and forget I own this.

This game is pretty reminiscent of old NES horror games. It helps being that it literally is a game that can be played on the NES, and was developed for the NES, first, as a homebrew game. It reminds me of Zombies Ate my Neighbors, on the SNES, Ghoul School & Monster Party on the NES, or other similar games, where kids take on strange monsters, in schools or other places. The atmosphere and recreation of actual things, from real life, in NES form, is one of the great things about this one. The gameplay, while some platforming can rarely be nerve racking, is tight, as well as the controls, with excellent control and combat mechanics. Sadly, I wont be able to enjoy this on a live NES, on a CRT, where it likely looks its best. Still, its great to see ideas like this. Horror themes done on the NES, this way, work, really well. The rustic look works well, and I wish this kind of rusty cartoon look would be done in other places, as I've seen similar, outside this medium. There's something about it that's just interesting.

Old fashioned NES fun with challenging levels, tough boss fights, and no save states or continues once your lives are gone. If you want an era-authentic experience, look no further! ONE MINUTE REVIEW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgxVwa9ytQM

Amazing game. Simple but very fun retro experience. I love the fact it was ported to PC instead of just being emulated. And the backgrounds are beautiful and very creative. They remind me of backgrounds seen in games developed by Imagineering decades ago (more focused on realism than japanese pixel art from NES era).

This is technically an "early access" review, because I got to try this game before it came out when I went to an arcade/pinball/retro gaming convention, right off the bat I talked about how I felt like I was in the 80's when i tried the game on an actual cartridge. The game's ost is interesting and deffinately gives off that catchy/classic retro kind of creepy feel that you'd expect from horror style games during the NES era and the art style reminds me strongly of Double Dragon and River City Ransom on the NES, but the question remains, is this game a good game? The game is an interesting game and deffinately lives up to "Nintendo hard" in terms of how tough old school games were, with basic gameplay (go to the right, just like a beat em up) but with platforming elements and difficult placements similar to Mega Man However, where the game's problems are can be "located" if you will, with no ability to use passwords if you run out of contiunues or a file to save (although the game may be trying this to capture NES nostalgia, it can feel like a chore if your required to play througout the game in one run, especially with no way of getting back to where you were if you run out of continues) and some of the bosses (to my knowledge) take no effort to beat, for example you fight bigfoot on level 2, all I had to do after losing 1 life was stand on a tree stump without moving and beat that boss fight easy Overall, the game is a nice game and deffinately feels like an old NES game and its nice to know that new games are being made these days for old consoles, however, I feel as though (unless this game gets patched) that due to it trying to hard to "match" the NES, it might actually turn off some people from trying the game, I would get the game if its at a discount or on a physical cartridge, but be ready for a challenge and be aware that the game can be slightly unfair