RetroRealms: Halloween Review (EShop Transfer)
the Halloween Franchising is a complicated beast. You have the original timeline, the Thorn timeline, the H20 timeline, the Blumhouse timeline, the Rob Zombie remake, and finally the lovable weird loner. Witch season. At the best of times, it’s all a bit overwhelming, luckily, RetroRealms: Halloween strip out all the nonsense and focus on what fans love most: serial killer Michael Myers embarks on a vicious knife-wielding rampage.
The best part is that you get to play as Myers himself stalking through a series of levels inspired by the series, most notably the 1978 original. Naturally, it gets a bit harsh on every ‘enemy’ in game are all about innocent babysitters and their pitifully gullible partners (though there are a few), so instead you have to deal with similarly deranged killers to appease Appease an evil lord who gives gifts. Myers has the ability to transition to the Dark Realm.
Like RetroRealms: Ash vs. Evil Deadmoving into the Dark Realm will change the environment slightly, revealing hidden platforms and entrances that will help you collect three jack-o-lanterns hidden in each level. It also ramps up the difficulty considerably, revealing demonic creatures large and small that will tear you to pieces if you’re not careful.
Controlling Myers is mostly great fun. You can defeat enemies with just a short stab of the knife or through a charging attack, while picked up items can be used as ranged weapons. Compared to Ash Williams, Myers is a bit slower and more sluggish, so if you start from the lightning-fast gameplay of Ash vs. Evil Dead, Halloween may feel a bit jarring at first.
Luckily, if you own both games, you can also play as Ash Williams here and vice versa. Additional DLC characters in the form of Laurie Strode and Kelly Maxwell also mix up the gameplay quite nicely, although you can’t simply switch characters on the fly; Each person will start their own campaign from the beginning.
Accessing this game (and Ash vs. Evil Dead) in the RetroRealms ‘wrapper’ is done via a first-person hub world, effectively designed to make it seem like you found it by accident. This horror-themed treasure trove is made up of arcade cabinets and 3D models. Collecting tokens across both games allows you to unlock more models with brief background information on their location in each universe, while behind-the-scenes videos from developer WayForward and Boss Team Games’ release provides excellent insight into the game’s development.
It’s hard to say whether Halloween is a lesser experience than Ash vs. Evil Dead or not because they both have a very similar style and structure; Think of them as two DLC packs that serve up the larger ‘RetroRealms’ hub experience. However, we cannot deny that Michael Myers is not in control rather as exciting as Ash Williams, and the enemies aren’t as interesting either. If forced to choose, we’ll probably choose Ash vs. Evil Dead.
