Retrorealms: Halloween Review – A Familiar Shape

Retrorealms: Halloween is an uncanny experience. It invokes the old trend of 1990s movie tie-in games. Ones that vaguely use the framework of its source material for a pixel-art arcade platformer. Given the convoluted nonsense of the Halloween franchise, it isn't the strangest thing to happen, but it may ask a bit upfront with its price tag.

Retrorealms: Halloween Review –  A Thing of Evil

Much like other games in the series, Retrorealms: Halloween involves a sinister plot by an eldritch horror called The Overlord. The Overlord wants to pull the human world into the world of nightmares. To that end, he will need a champion to cleave a path of carnage, blood, and terror through the world. So he has selected the iconic Shape himself: Michael Myers.

To ensure the Haddonfield killer listens, The Overlord has taken something precious to him: the tombstone of his sister Judith. Of course, nothing good ever comes from someone trying to control or guide Michael Myers. Thus begins a bloody massacre through the local town spread across five levels.

Myers' move list is familiar to other Retrorealms protagonists. You have a simple attack, a short-range teleport, and a wall kick. Myers can also pick up consumable weapons such as pitchforks, sickles, and bloody fire axes to stun and kill enemies at range. Lastly, Myers' has a chargeable dashing slash that lets him cover short distances.

The level design continues the series' nightmare world gimmick, adding a light level of exploration. At any point in a level, you can teleport to a darker, more twisted version of the level with harder enemies and alternate paths. Alternate paths filled with collectible Jack-O-Lanterns and Golden Tickets. Golden Tickets that can be exchanged for collectible 3D exhibit pieces from the Halloween series.

Aesthetically, Retrorealms: Halloween has a lot going for it. The sprite animation looks great. There's a great synth soundtrack, including a funky remix of the iconic Halloween theme song.

The shoestring plot contains boss fights and cameos from franchise characters. A personal highlight is a double boss fight with Laurie Strode and Doctor Loomis. You collect candy corn as part of the game's light RPG elements between levels. The game even has item placements inside innocent civilians you need to stab.

If you want to feel like Michael Myers in an arcade platformer, this looks and sounds the part.

Retrorealms: Halloween Review – Evil Dies Tonight

What keeps Retrorealms: Halloween from being a perfect marriage of retro gameplay and movie license are small but annoying issues. Aside from consumables, Michael doesn't have a long-range option. His dash attack can be interrupted by enemy projectiles. This becomes a problem when enemies start chucking acid and explosive vials. Worse still, it's a problem exacerbated by multiple demon eye enemies firing eye beams in the nightmare world sections

Michael Myers feels a bit stiffer compared to other Retrorealms characters. There's a slight delay in his teleport dash, making it difficult to pull off in the thick of a fight. In addition, his standard knife attack is lacking in reach. Pair this with some other annoying game design decisions: constantly spawning flying enemies and monster closets, and there is more frustration than joy in this arcade throwback.

Part of this may come down to the limitations of the movie license. Outside of the Mark of Thorn, Halloween doesn't dabble in supernatural elements. It's just a masked killer and his next victim. That elegant simplicity works well in something like Dead By Daylight but can lead to creative issues in a retro platformer. Because of this, the game leans more on its original demon monsters to pick up the slack and ends up clashing with Michael Myers' appeal.

This doesn't mean Retrorealms: Halloween is a complete waste of time. There are setpieces and boss fights that work wonderfully here. But when you are charging $24.99 for a game with a run time of just over an hour with expectations of replaying it, these little moments can add up significantly.

Retrorealms: Halloween Review | Final Thoughts

Retrorealms: Halloween gets the look and sound of its source material down, but stumbles in spots with its retro platforming gameplay. Coupled with a steep asking price and its horror-themed experience that is more trick than treat.

Retrorealms: Halloween was reviewed on PC with a copy provided by the Developer over the course of 2 hours of gameplay - all screenshots were taken during the process of review.