100 More Gruesome Games For Halloween ( 89-86 )

89 - Otogi-Myth Of Demons (Xbox) :

In this From Software developed / SEGA published exclusive for the original Xbox, you fill the shoes of assassin Raikoh, last member of a clan who's job it was to deliver a death blow to whoever the Imperial Court wished dead...a job that Raikoh was never very happy doing it has to be said, but one which as a member of the clan was his duty!

One fateful day however, the Court made an order that Raikoh was to kill his own father! Raikoh refused, stole his clan's ancestral sword Soul Shrine, and made a hasty exit from the court.....

Now.... this Court had ruled for over a thousand years, but at the same time Raikoh made his escape,  a mystical Seal that had been keeping the human world seperate from the demon world cracked open.....

Ominous clouds covered the world, and the lands were plunged into darkness. A huge tempest emerged from the blackness, and destroyed all in its wake....When it had passed, only ruins remained and it looked as if nothing had survived. However, all manner of unearthly creatures were now spread over the world, and they seemed intent to destroy anything and everything that did manage to evade the previous destruction....

Raikoh awoke in a place somewhere between life and death, having been rescued by the mysterious Princess, who informed Raikoh he may return to the world of the living in exchange for his servitude to her. If he performs several quests set by the Princess to cleanse the world of the demonic hordes who have ransacked it, he will also gain redemption from his dark past and be forgiven for his previous sins as an assassin....

As we take control of Raikoh, we find ourselves in a rather nice hack-n-slash adventure through a very stylised ancient Japan. Traditional music creates an eerie atmosphere, and the floaty gameplay has you hardly touching the ground in some levels, as you dart back and forth slashing away at the many different types of demons who now inhabit the place.

Missions are pretty straight forward affairs, and some can be quickly completed by rushing to your objective...but doing this means you'll miss out on the various extras and bonuses the levels hold, like freeing trapped spirits or demolishing as much scenery as possible...As with most hack-n-slash style games, the gameplay can have the tendency to get a bit repetitive after a while, but when it looks as good as this and has as much atmosphere, you shouldn't find it a problem if you play in small doses...

I recently discovered this game....and it's even better sequel.....hidden away in my local charity shop,  and having never heard of them before was intrigued as to what they'd be like. Being a fan of all things Japanese I was happy to discover a very enjoyable and atmospheric couple of games that seem to have slipped under most gamers radar...certainly if I had known they existed I would have picked them up before now!

I will say before I finish up talking about Otogi, that I am finding it exceptionally tricky....it's a really difficult game! Not as frustrating as Spooky Castle, but far from easy! So bear that in mind if you decide to pick it up...but if I was you I would definitely try to find the games soon before everybody realises just how awesome they are and they get really tricky to find!

88 - Maxwell Manor (Atari 800) :

Strange things are afoot at Maxwell Manor....The former mad scientist-type owner has been found headless and obviously dead in the library, and strange creatures resulting from bizarre experiments on doilys & combs (seriously!) roam the grounds and manor, as do undead spiders and the like!

The Psychical Society believes that the legendary Skull Of Doom is now in control of the manor and has tasked you... the wonderfully named Professor Arabesque...with the task of entering the manor, seeking out the skull and destroying it!

With no instructions, this game can be rather confusing as you start off in the middle of road with no idea where to go. A gun, shield and sword can be found here, but if you venture too far along the road you'll end up getting lost and find yourself zapped to the mansion gates! This is not the entry into the manor though, and you'll need to find another entrance somewhere along the wall....

Thinking the game was a bit basic, and not really wanting to continue with it, I did manage to find and check out the instructions online before giving up on it completely...and I'm glad I did! The game is a lot more complex than it first appears!

Apparently there are over a thousand variations to how the game will play out, although the instructions are deliberately vague about what exactly affects these variations. Also included in the game manual are some maps that show how the various areas are connected, so it's worth having the instructions for this fact alone! The various creatures can be attacked with the sword or gun, and the shield will deflect some projectiles...but I'll leave it up to you to discover how to beat the Vampyre Spider and it's sticky webbing! Oh, and if you happen to die too many times, escape from Limbo can only be achieved by choosing the right direction!

There are a few more items to pick up with some unique abilities, but again you'll get more enjoyment if I leave these for you to discover yourselves. Hopefully you'll make it to the through the mazes and get to the manor...which I have yet to actually do myself...although I hear some jumping and platforming skills may be needed!

But yeah, having given the game a bit more time, my first impressions turned out to be wrong...and I now recommend Maxwell Manor to any Atari 800 or C64 owners or emulators who are willing to put in that little bit of effort required to fully enjoy it!

87 - Martian Gothic (PS1) :

According to Creative Reality's space-based survival horror, we should be have done a lot more than just send a robot rover to Mars by now.....by their timescale we should already have set up a manned base and started doing tests on various fossils and rocks we've discovered...

Taking place in 2019, ten months after a strange message saying "Stay alone, Stay alive" was broadcast from base Vita 1, the game has us take control of three different main characters...Kenzo Uji, Martin Karne and Diane Matlock. Following orders, they each enter the base at separate airlocks, and we switch control between the three....

It soon becomes apparent that things have gone a bit pear-shaped in the base, with dead bodies lying around all over the place....bodies which soon start levitating and coming to life, setting the scene for yet-another zombie-filled, puzzle-heavy survival game....

And it does a fairly decent job I suppose! Because of a virus given to our three heroes when they enter the base, if they meet up they'll merge into one big gloopy mess of a beast and suddenly develop a taste for human flesh or something...so it's wise to try and keep them apart! You can use Vac-Tubes to exchange items between the trio, something that's required due to the placement of some items. It's all very Resident Evil... right down to the controls and camera angles...but the item-swapping and setting help it feel a little different....

Unfortunately, this is another recommendation I've only recently been able to track down though, so I'm still not that far into it. As I say, so far it seems okay if fairly standard survival horror type-stuff. Oh, and despite what some reviews I remember reading say...the voice acting in this is pretty shocking! Especially Kenzo! But it's almost so bad it's good....almost....

Another thing of note is just how gruesome and gory this game is.. a fact that seems to have been forgotten by one of it's voice actors, a certain Julie Peasgood, who later appeared on UK television spewing nonsense into the ears of real life zombies who worship an evil cult-master named Titchmarsh....Check out this video below!!

Poor Tim! Anyway, as I said the game is a pretty standard survival horror, that's okay but nothing special... so give it a go if you like such things and the above video hasn't made you reconsider playing such obvious hatred-and-violence-filled filth.......

86 - Tricky Doc (Arcade) :

In this 1987 coin-op from Tecfri you play the role of Tricky Doc as he runs around his labs trying to control all his bizarre creations that have escaped from their cages! You do this by running up and down stairs and zapping them with some sort of monster-bug-spray or by punching them in the face! There are also a few obstacles and pit-falls to avoid...

Not much to say about this one really, as it's all pretty much straightforward platformy fun! Although as the title suggests it's also quite tricky! Still, it's well worth a go or two if you can find it out in the wild.....