Phasmaphobia vs Demonologist - A Haunting Spectrum

We've had our stint in the horror genre here on Planet Virtua. We've talked about what to do and what not to do when it comes to the scary stuff in video games and it has been a nice ride as such. Well, here recently, I have found a group of friends that enjoy the horror games that you play online. Our first journey into the spooky stuff was Phasmaphobia, released in 2020. While it is titled with the word that means "Fear of Ghosts", there is a bit of a problem with that. 

Phasmaphobia can be described as darkly toned. That's about it, honestly. It has a good dark tone with a haunted setting. Beyond that, it has little tiny experiences that differ here and there, but not a whole lot. You go and investigate scary haunted locations together, bringing in a few Ghostbuster type gadgets that give you indications of what kind of ghost you are dealing with. A lot of the time, it's mostly just breathing steam when the temperatures get cold and the lights being turned off. When all of the light sources turn off, you just go to the fuse box and turn it back on. 

If you are lucky, you will see a specter of some sort. That occurrence is so rare, though, and I played through at least 20 whole rounds with only being able to take a picture of one ghost. The normal experience included the lights turning off, the doors suddenly closing and maybe something falling from a table. The ghost activity is so scarce, sometimes you'll just start yelling at the ghost through the speaker. You can insult them for hours and nothing will happen. 

Then, you're dead. Oh yes, the ghost will kill you if they feel inclined and that will be the end of it. This can be privy to absolutely nothing and no one. You will just see hands come around your neck and then a little image before you're dead and talking to your friends as a ghost. I was the Kenny of the group and died the most times by far. Sometimes, I wouldn't even see anything outside of the lights turning off every so often. They didn't even think to add scary sound effects, it all just get so mundane. The worst experience out of everything was in the camp ground. 

This is based on a money system and you need to pay for flashlights and other equipment. You NEED the flashlights and everyone will want one of their own. If not, you'll see black. You'll see a void of dark empty space and you'll run into things the whole time. In the camp ground, with the wide open area, add a truckload of lag on top of all of that, while not being able to decipher where you're going. It took me about six or seven minutes just to find my way back to the camp ground with the van to get out of that level because we were so sick of seeing camping tents and the game chugging to a TERRIBLE game-breaking framerate. If I am complaining about the framerate, something is horribly wrong. 

Now, take all of the good things of Phasmaphobia, with the flashlights, scary tone and setting, lights turning off and occasional ghost sightings and turn it up to 11! That is Demonologist. This game has better graphics, more customizable characters and SCARY THINGS. You are another 2 - 4 players (with a singleplayer setting!) but this time, you actually have horrific events, scary sounds and actual tangible things to do.

In Demonogist, you can walk into a room, get a dimming flashlight while the ghost starts laughing and appearing in a wedding dress. This, on top of scary babies appearing all over a room and some haunting laughter coming from nowhere. This freaked all of us out and made us want to hide in the cabinet, which can only hide two people. In this version, there are still sudden deaths, but at least now you get to have some tension where you think you're going to see floating objects in a room, a TV turning on and off along with a fireplace turning on and off. 

You feel the menace by these ghosts, and some of them are more aggressive than others. These ghosts have actual characteristics that differ from one another that range further than simple cold temperatures and maybe more than just a flashing light on your ghost detector. Sometimes, they can be a child running across the hall and making you wet your pants. Not that that happened to me at any point. It was a friend... MOVING ON!

Demonologist isn't without its own faults, obviously. One major downfall it has is that the only map you can get to in the first level and it takes a long while to level up in this game. Even with that in mind, this game walks all over Phasmaphobia by a very long margin. There were so many more instances where you feel like you're in a haunted house with a very nefarious spirit trying to make you leave. 

Another problem they both have is that the ghosts don't always differ all that much with how they give evidence to what they are. In both games, one of your objectives is to figure out what type of ghost you are dealing with. It's not always clear, but to Demonologist's credit, it's mostly hard in the beginning because you don't have a whole lot of items to decipher the puzzles. 

Phasmaphobia had some good points here and there, but they were so few and far in between, it became a bit of a slog to get through a lot of the locations. With just one level starting out in Demonologist, it was already ten times the experience with all of the images and dread you feel from the haunting entities. It's a clear winner between the two, but by all means, try them both. Just remember to bring your flashlight and a full canteen of water.

American Mcgee's Alice Series - The Nightmare Niche

The story of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has existed in mainstream media for well over a hundred years and it is still considered one of the more popular tales. American Mcgee was obviously a huge fan of the story, and he decided to tell the story in his own very... unique way. While the story can get very excessively dark to an almost detrimental level, the atmosphere and the creativity on display cannot be ignored. After his departure from ID Software, Mcgee set out to fulfill one of his dreams. Alice was released in 2000 to extremely mixed reviews, but the game went on to be a very beloved cult classic. 

It tells the story of Alice after her house was burned down (the cause was retconned in the sequel for story reasons) and she was admitted to a mental institution. This is a very dark sequel to the original tale and it showed a very somber Wonderland as a result. The original characters from the book were made into very twisted versions through both nonplayer characters and boss battles. You're given a knife that is none other than the Vorpal Blade and you're also given several other types of weapons that have their own advantages such as throwing cards, a croquet mallet and even dice. 

While the graphics are quite crude by today's standards, it still served to show off the technology of the time. The ID Tech 3 is shown in great potential with such imaginative backdrops and very dynamic terrains, even water physics. This is also a very graphically violent game. Even if the characters aren't technically human, they still bleed quite a bit. You're able to sever limbs and even see some heads explode. 

Alice was a very difficult game. There are swimming sections and platforming that can be a little difficult, especially if you're using a keyboard rather than a controller. While the first installment was originally on the PC, it is far better with a controller, especially with some of the harder platforming sections where you have to fight both the enemies and some of the physics. 

Where the game really thrives, aside from the surrealistic atmosphere, is in its boss battles. While some of them have mechanics that can be hard to figure out, you are up against some of the more nightmarish creatures reimagined in very dark images. The Duchess is probably one of the more graphic reimagining through her extreme allergy to pepper which causes very violent repercussions. Nightmarish enemies can be seen through Tweedledee and Tweedledum in very uncanny proportions and even a chess piece in the Red King is eerie in his character design. 

The Queen of Hearts is the most infamous from this game, as she is seen with a mask on where the lips don't move when she speaks, giving her a bit more nightmare fuel with an already gruesome visage. She is the main antagonist and is rightfully the most difficult but also one of the more fun and fulfilling to defeat as a result. 

The first game was divisive among the public, but it garnered a very loyal following and was a brilliant precursor to an arguably more solid game in Alice: Madness Returns. With a much more powerful engine, Wonderland is brought back with a much broader appeal and more gruesome outlook. Alice returns to Wonderland, still feeling very guilty in having survived the fire while her family perished. The real problem that I had with this installment was the retconning it did in not only changing how the fire occurred, but also some of the darker themes it detailed in human trafficking and the implications it introduced in its main antagonist. 

The story aside, Alice is fleshed out a lot better as a character. While she is rather bitter toward the rest of the world, she still holds to a great integrity in holding onto what little of her child-like grace she still possesses in her midteens. She takes to the task of reviving Wonderland and taking up the Vorpal Blade once again when a dark, mysterious steam engine train rolls through the world, causing it to further decay along with Alice's sanity. 

While the first level details Wonderland in a more traditional sense with its corruption, the later levels also bring about different themes. There is a horrific rendition of Feudal Japan, complete with praying mantis samurais and cherry blossoms. There is also a very horrific world of dollhouses and an undersea levels where you need to bring oysters to a play for the Walrus and the Carpenter. Among these levels is the most beautiful of them in the Kingdom of Hearts, where you meet the new Queen. The card guards are zombified and there is a giant one who is nigh indestructible. 

The game is much more polished and graphically superior to the first title, but one very large gaping problem with the sequels that many agree are the lack of boss battles. The game seems to know this, as it attempts to tease one with a giant mech constructed by the Doormouse and Marsh Hare, but it breaks down before you even get any gameplay out of it. There is only one boss battle in the final level and that really is a shame. There are mini-bosses here and there in the form of the doll-headed enemies, which require a few extra maneuvers and breaking their shields.  

One element to the second game that is lauded by fans is the level progression in the form of teeth. Yes, collecting teeth allows you to upgrade your weaponry. You find more of these through secrets hidden within small doorways that require you grow small and explore more of the levels in secrets and out of the way paths that require extra perception on your part. The puzzles and some of the sidescrolling sections can be rather frustrating at times, especially in the Dollhouse and Asian themed sections.  

The dark themes of American Mcgee's Alice games can get to be a bit cumbersome, especially if you are not partial to child abuse and things that it entails. Sometimes, the game can lean a little heavily into these themes, especially when you start finding some of the darker memories and further into the plot. These have been cited as a detriment to the series, but they are not so heavily depicted. The game can get heavy handed with its story, but it also casts a deeper light on Alice's psychological trauma that she has had to endure. 

Where the game has always shined was its imaginative level design and very dark creatures born from the original story. The Cheshire Cat is also seen as an ally who offers you advice and clues as to how to progress. Many of the characters from the original tale can be seen throughout and while many of them meet gruesome deaths in the first game, many of them return for the sequel. The game makes you want to progress and stop the corruption of Alice's mental illness and repair what remains of her beautiful dream world. 

Sadly, the planned third installment, Alice Asylum, never came about aside from a great deal of lore elements and images made by American Mcgee himself. Throughout the 2010's, he attempted to regain the rights to the games in order to bring this to fruition, but he was unsuccessful and decided that it simply was not worth it. The games' followers tried very hard to help him regain the copyright to the title, but E.A. Games denied him and decided it was more important to sit on the property while it wasted away into obscurity because that's the gaming industry for you. If they weren't making any money off of it, then no one was going to enjoy it. Do I sound a little bitter? Yeah, I might be a bit. This was American Mcgee's creation and it just goes to show you that greed can be a true detriment to creativity. 

It would have been nice to see a spiritual successor to the series, much like Mega Man with Mighty Number N--- you know what, that's a bad example. Castlevania had Bloodstained and it brought about much of the same themes as the original series. Alice could have been made into a different character with a different type of world, but in the end, I can also understand why American became somewhat disolutioned with the notion after so long of fighting those greedy beaurocrats of the industry. It's really no wonder the gaming industry is in the state it's in with corporations having such a stranglehold on beloved franchises they're willing to let go to the wayside in favor of live service looter shooters with predatory loot crate systems. Creativity can birth monetary value much better than microtransactions and gambling addictions, but it also requires a lot more work and patience in order to do so. 

Alice is a sad tale in many respects and it would be nice to see a resurgence of the franchise, but it is also good that it went out on a high note with two very solid entries. You could do a lot worse than trying to find these two gems, but they are also part of a bygone era, so you'll need some old school systems like the Playstation 3 just for the second entry. The first entry is extensively hard to find now, even when it was coupled with Madness Returns in many of its iterations. These editions are expensive now, but if you're a big collector, they are worth a look if you're even mildly curious. It's a very dark story, but the game mechanics and creativity of the games themselves are worth a closer look. Walk into the dream world or look upon them with the looking glass. Virtua Cheshire Grin. 

Dark Seed (Saturn) - You Put Weird in My Weird!

 

There come times in our lives when we truly never knew what to expect when we got into a game. The internet has said things about this game, but experiencing it for yourself is a trip and a half. If you enjoy Alex Grey or Salvador Dalí, then you may also enjoy the work of H.R. Giger. This is an artist who has a very distinct style that many have attempted, but few have successfully replicated. If you look closely, you will notice that his art has details upon details to a very minute degree. His art is very surrealistic and strange, and he is also the only reason anyone talks about Dark Seed to this day. 

It is very fortunate that I couldn't find the medicine that cures Mike of his headache. The entire first part of the game, he will complain of having a headache ad nauseum. He does not stop talking about this head ache and this review could have been three paragraphs long, had I not looked up a walkthrough very quickly. Apparently, the game cannot be played unless you read a walkthrough. Even watching a walkthrough for this game could make you miss very small details that you will need. Though, I did also watch walkthroughs on youtube for the English dub rather than the Japanese version I was playing on the Saturn.

This game is weird, creepy, and quite poorly made. It may be looked upon fondly for certain features, but the gameplay is quite distracting and drives a nail into its enjoyment factor. If you miss one single detail, or forget to put objects in certain places, then you will need to go and backtrack again and again! This is all under the clock, because you just so happened to have an alien fetus in your brain. In three days, and the game will keep close track, the alien will hatch and the horrific image of the alien hatching will rear its very disgusting head. Yes, this is really terrible gameplay, hence the walkthrough.

Mike has to be one of the worst characters you have the displeasure of controlling. His horrific dialogue grates against the ears. It can be rather hilarious in some cases. He is so awkward, and so are a lot of the townspeople, and sometimes that makes for some comedic scenes. Mike will talk to himself. This can be seen as a sign of brilliance, but it isn't and he does it entirely too much. His observations are really dumb, but did elicite a chortle at times. Some guy tells you that he wants to hang out with you once you buy a bottle of alcohol. This has the wonderful affect of him taking a drink of it and then walking away. The whole time, you were waiting to grab the stick he was throwing for his dog. 

Once you get to the Dark World, the artwork is rather impressively implimented. It obviously took a hit in quality, no matter what version of this game you play. Still, he was apparently happy with how it turned out and it does set a nice tone for its segments. That's not to say the game looks bad overall. As point-and-click games go, this one looks rather solid. It's clearly an older game and had a lot of limitations, but the developers obviously worked hard on it. The problem is that the Dark World, which is the most interesting part, is rarely in the game. Later in the story, it doesn't do a great deal to cure the slog that this game becomes. 

This is not a long game, nor is it a hard game if you know what items to get and what to do in each scene. Apparently, this was a very common problem for a lot of people. This calls into question, why is it on best horror games or point and click games? Apparently the development was something of a ridiculous maze of mice all going every which way, but either way, the end product doesn't justify it on any other list than, perhaps, the strangest. H.R. Giger's art is fascinating, though, and the world they portray really seems like it could have used some more exploring. While Dark Seed 2 does return to the world, H.R. Giger did not return with the artwork. That game is remembered for very different reasons. Either way, Planet Virtua stays away from the Dark World. Virtua Threat. 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (PS2) - Professor Imps Attack!

 Everyone can probably agree that the first Harry Potter novel was more of a trial and error novel where JK Rowling was trying to find her footing in the genre and the world she was building. The story and the lore she was building was in its infancy and it took a few more novels to really grow what she wanted from the series itself. This game is a release on the PS2, given much better graphics and more fluid mechanics in comparison to its Playstation 1 counterpart. The first iteration of the Philosopher's stone (which it is properly titled) was more of a puzzle platformer and that's a lot of what we got here, but it has more development behind it. 

Keep this in mind, because there are still some rough areas in this game where there should have been a bit more thought. The mechanics have a good amount of thought when it comes to figuring out and exploring the world and the puzzles. When you play through the levels, you can look in different areas around where you're supposed to be puzzling to find extra items and even some collectibles. Instead of moving a huge cube into its place for the puzzle right away, you can push it to a shorter wall in order to jump on top of that wall to get some health power ups or even some chocolate frog cards.

The collectibles are probably the best part of this while also being one of the more annoying aspects. Yes, it's nice to have the chocolate frog cards, but do we really need to go straight into their history and/or text as soon as we collect them? The Berttie Bot's Beans are fun to collect as well, but do we need to know every single flavor your pick up as well as your reaction to said flavors? You pick them up and Harry will tell you what he thinks of them right away individually and there really aren't that many flavors to choose from. They're not only collectibles, but they're also the currency for which you pay for dung bombs and other useful items. 

This iteration of the game has its good points, like when you cast spells on imps in order to trap them in cages while also figuring out puzzles. However, the problem it has is with the extra mechanics that it adds to the game. The stealth in this game are rough to say the least. When you have to get around Percy Weasley to get to the Weasley item shop in a secret passage through the Gryffindor Dorms. Not that they could have done it in their own dorms, they had to do it in the Prefect Dorms! Whatever sense that makes is not important, I guess, but getting through this stealth section is not a matter of skill, it's a matter of luck because Percy will go anywhere and everywhere in this place and it's so easy for him to catch you. 

One part of the game that should have been better explained was the section where you catch Draco Malfoy on his broomstick. You're supposed to cut corners and catch him, and if you didn't know this beforehand, the game will not tell you anything. You can just keep chasing him and chasing him and chasing him and you'll seem like you're getting closer just like this but you never do. You have to maneuver around him as much as possible in order to catch him off guard. This is monotonous to say the least, because the game WILL NOT progress until you do and it's just a matter of figuring it out yourself. Once you figure out the mechanic, it's really not hard and you can ace it in no time, but the game really should be telling you these details. 

The levels have the problem of being too open and the game has a horrible habit of not telling you a single thing to do. The stage where you're supposed to find the potion ingredients in Hagrid's Hut leaves you to figure out everything for yourself. There's some things that you can figure out on your own, but really not a whole lot. Figuring out where to go and how to collect the plants is left up to luck because you just need to know how to approach everything and the luck of having to dodge the gnomes that gain in number the longer you're there. These sections can be especially long and boring while you're sitting there trying to determine where to go and what plants you need to collect.

The glitches are also on full display here. You can do parts of the Hagrid's Hut level by simply climbing one of the roots and getting behind the waterfall without the platforms and having no need to activate the gargoyle behind the bars. I also had a part of one level where I searched one of the boxes, but nothing happened. I got stuck in the box and was forced to load my last save. These glitches aren't horrible and they're not especially bad, but there are just so many time wasting elements in this game. The game sometimes doesn't outright tell you when you finish a mission and so you're going around the level to try and find anything else you can do until you figure out that you can check your book and it will tell you there.

The openness in this game is a strength as well as its most glaring weakness. Sometimes, it is alright to tell us where to go or tell us when a mission is done. On the other hand, though, before you do anything in your actual missions, you can search Hogwarts to get more beans and pumpkin pasties. The more health items you get while you're at full health, the more health meters you get. It's fun to explore Hogwarts, but it's not so fun when you don't know which doors to go through and searching for ways to go can become stale and overly time consuming. 

Overall, the game is a mixed bag, but it's a decent Harry Potter game. Like Berttie Bott's beans, there are good and bad elements to it and honestly, exploring the school can be a little more fun than simply going through the story mode itself. The graphics and gameplay are far better than the original PS1 iteration of Philosopher's Stone, but it also has a few elements that deserve a bit more explanation. It's a title worth checking out if you're a fan, but remember not to spend too much money on this. Save your Virtua Galleons.  

7 Spooooooooooky Saturn Games!

 

Happy Halloween, from Planet Virtua! You want to know about horror? When you think of scary video games, you probably wouldn't look back to the 32-bit era. Whether it be the lesser quality of graphics or the overarching tone, a lot of people pass this off as nothing special. Do not listen to them.

There is a lot to love in terms of dark tones when it comes to the Saturn. Here in the Month of SpoooooooOOOOoooooooooOOOOOOoOoOkiness, we'll be looking at such games. Not all of these will be games that are meant to outright frighten you. Some of these are simply games that have interesting monster designs or a tone that fits the horror genre. I do solidly believe that some of these are genuinely devoted to a creep factor. These games are not in any real order, hence why none of them are numbered. Now that we've got that out of the way, on with the virtua blood!

                                                                         House of the Dead

We start things off with an action railshooter! It is not especially scary in its setup, but it genuinely has some terrible monsters in it. We're not just talking about zombies, either. These range from swamp beasts made of algae, undead piranhas and armored monsters made of sludge cream filling. The flavors of monsters range far and wide and you will be hard pressed to count how many different types there are. How scary is it? Well, not especially scary, all things considered. It does have that wonderful atmosphere, though and it makes up for a lot of that with gore! Shoot these monsters apart with a hand gun and watch their chunks fly! Just try not to shoot innocent people, that's not the kind of gore we're supposed to have.

                                                                         Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Another entry in the action genre, this time for a platformer. Anything from skeletons to strange flower monsters spitting acid are on display here. The bosses are especially horrific! The very first one you fight is Dracula in a formless, horrific transformation! This is another title with such a wide range of monsters and ghosts, that your horror quota will be met in just a few hours of playing, whatever that quota may be. There are even monsters here that either have no classification or just flat out doesn't matter because they'll eat your face anyway! The castle is full of heinous beasts and you must kill the lot of them. Oh, crap, they respawned. Now, do it again!

                                                                                         D

Cutting right to the heart of the matter, D encapsulates the genre of horror to its max level. Get yourself in a dark room with this game in the forefront and there is a very good chance that you will at least feel some unsettling vibes. While it may be light on the monsters, it certainly fits every bill when it comes to atmosphere. There is still a lot to look at and the place you're in still feels haunted as all hell. D is an all around fun time and it is short enough for you to play on Halloween if you're looking for something to do.

                                                                                        Doom

That's right, I said it and I'm not taking it back. Doom is a game for any day and Halloween welcomes it with open arms. With such a large array of demons to squash, how could you not add it among the ranks of horrific titles? It doesn't have the creep factor unless you find yourself in a dark area with imps and cacodemons creeping within. There's enough blood here to fill a lake and the river that runs through it. It's horror, alright. It's just the type of horror you can pump a shotgun at.

                                                                                   Quake

If we have Doom, we may as well have this gib-soaked title. It may have guns and explosions, but there's also a vast number of monsters throughout. Not only the monsters, but also the atmosphere and the sinister tones that the setting enhances just spells out that Lovecraftian, gothic vibe that let's you settle into it and rocket jump straight into its face! Just look 

                                                                                  Resident Evil

The first game to coin the phrase "Survival Horror" and for good reason. BioHazard has got to be one of the most influential titles to come out of the horror gaming genre. It has enough clones and copycats as such. It is known to the rest of the world for its zombies but it sports a number of different creatures both of its own making and ones you would see around the genre. You could be fighting a Licker, sure, but you could also be fighting a giant spider! Its list of terrifying crratures knows no bounds!

                                                                                     Hexen

With dark castles, monsters at every turn and a gothic fantasy atmosphere, you better believe this title belongs here. Hexen is a very challenging game, don't you doubt, but the level design and aesthetics make it look so sinister, especially with two headed brutes and winged flame creatures flying overhead. There is a darkness to this game that is fun to explore. Just try not to get gored by giant lizards.

Now, you may be wondering why you don't see titles such as Deep Fear or Battle Monsters. Well, those games are going on a different list. I simply need to work out the details of said list. Until then, these are the games I would suggest for a night in with either yourself or some friends to enjoy. "Enjoy" being the key word here. Don't worry about such menial details as to why Horror Tour isn't included here. Oh who am I kidding, you're not wondering that. Virtua Boo!

Alone in the Dark 2 (Saturn) - Jack's Heart Attack

We continue our Virtua month of SpoooooOOOOOOOOOOKY CRISPS with this very obscure, strange title for the Saturn. Even for Survival Horror standards, this game is very strange. In fact, before this review, I had no idea this game even existed. Obviously, Alone in the Dark had sequels, but I had never even looked into them and this one hasn't come up in any of the conversations when talking about survival horror games. 

Total transparency here, I used a game walkthrough and I did not finish it. Every single element on display here was beyond terribly implemented. The controls are the worst of all. Not only are they tank controls, but they require you to fight zombies with tommy guns. Sounds awesome, right? No, it's really not. The only thing good about it is that it's funny and random. Actually fighting the three you encounter at the start of the game is jarring. You need to figure out these controls and that takes time you do not have when a zombie is using a bullet typewriter in close proximity to your face. 

Figuring out the button combinations and taking aim in multiple points of view is just a terrible way to learn. The controls are absolutely atrocious to begin with as they are the most awkward buttons to find and impliment in the game. Not only that, but finding out what to do in the game, objects to use and secret passages is another gigantic pain in the zombie rear! Figuring out these puzzles and getting ambushed at random points gets really old really fast. 

No matter where you go or what you do, you will die. Fighting in this game is so difficult with everything on display. Not only do the controls make it impossible to master, but you move so slowly. Every single time you run into a challenge, get ready to spend ten minutes trying to figure out how to get by it.

On top of everything, the graphics are about what you expect from Alone in the Dark, in fact, they are just about the same. They are just about as bad as they were in the original. The Saturn graphics on top of it are about the most charming thing you're going to get with this. 

Elements such as story, characters, setting and any connection to the first game, all of that went to the wayside. There's so little to focus on other than trying not to die, that you may as well consider each encounter a minigame. Trying to look at this game as a full entity is so daunting, you'll probably want to give up.

If this game had better controls and better mechanics with a little less of a cryptic nature, it could have been a nice little gem of a game. As it stands, though, this game even makes zombies toting guns boring. It is a dullfest that doesn't even attempt to scare you. That's really saying something when there are some genuinely creepy 32-bit games, despite what you might hear from these youngins today. Yes, I know I sound old, but who cares! That just means I'm getting ready to haunt your virtua dreams!  

7 Sorta Spooooooky Saturn Games!

 Happy Halloween, Gamer heads! On this installment of the Month of Spooky Spooks, we're going to take a look at games that are not getting any real recommendations. Either the game's quality is rather subpar or their attempts at being scary fall flat. Either way, they're Saturn titles, so they at least get the minimum recommendation.

                                                                Deep Fear

Of course, we would see at least one Resident Evil clone on this list. There are those who enjoy this title and you can roll with that as far as it will go. I never found its creatures all that scary, nor did I ever feel any real atmospehere radiating from this title. The voice acting and glitchy graphics pretty much killed my immersion on that front.

                                                            Battle Monsters

If you told me that I could dress up in a Halloween costume and becone immortalized in video game form, I would be 100% on board! So, there's no judgment to the people posing as characters in this title. The game itself, oh yeah, plenty of judgment. The monsters aren't scary, the controls are horrific and you can win once you find that perfect spam attack. Go nuts.

                                                            Death Crimson

Probably the worst railshooter on the system, and probably worse than a lot of other genres on top of that. This game is notorious among old school gamers for some of the most terrifying graphics, atrocious hit detection and all around nauseating gameplay. So, if you looking for a bad game for Halloween, it's worth a look.

                                                            Alien Trilogy

Probably one of the least bad games on the list but still not really striking that horror chord. Alien simply made some levels, put aliens in it with some guns and called it a day. Okay, that's pretty harsh, but this title invokes more boredom than it does terror. It's an alright title, it just needed a bit more spice.

                                                                Horror Tour

You've probably never heard of this title and there are many reasons for that. For one thing, it was released only in Japan. For another, it can hardly be considered a game because there's really no gameplay to speak of. Like the name suggests, it's more of a point and click site seeing tour around a gothic castle. There's some talking paintings, some big spiders here and there and there's a witch that speaks Japanese. Beyond that, there's not much. But it's SPOOOOOOOKYYYYY!

                                                Alone in the Dark 2: Jack is Back

A recent addition to my entourage of games. This one is just bad. I dare say you pretty much need to learn fire is hot by getting constantly burned here. You die in pretty much every scene because without knowing what's happening, things can kill you from off screen because of the sluggish tank controls and slow movements in general. The game is boring, but as stated earlier, giving zombies tommy guns is quite the novelty.

                                                                    Casper

Movie tie-in games are thankfully a thing of the past but they did have their gems. This was not one of them. It is immensely boring. Floating around the house as a ghost who can't fly through walls, you will be hard pressed to figure out the control scheme and apply it in an effective manner. The ghostly trio lack any of their jerk charms from the movie and Casper is just as dull as ever. Good luck getting a remake.

So, there you have it. Halloween is here at the time of writing but it is time now to wait for next year's Month of Saturn Spookiness. No matter what day it is, it is time to plan for the next year. Halloween is the best time of the year for a lot of reasons and this is no exception. Remember to stay safe, enjoy the season, stay with family and friends and drink zombies.

Casper (Saturn) - The Friendly Lump

Welcome back, Virtua fans, to The Neptune err Virtua Month of Saturn SPEEEEEWWWWWBOOBOOBOO!!!! Get ready for the worst scare of all! The horrors of the movie tie-in games! Nuu! 

The Sega Saturn was in its hayday during a strange period in gaming history. It was a very experimental period where large corporations and movie studios were a lot less tentative. While movie tie-ins were not new by any means, Casper came out when these games were released on every single port they could get their hands on. Anytime you looked at a game ad in a magazine or a comic book, you would see several different cartridges and/or CD's with the various coverarts for every system. Casper was released on the SNES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Playstation, Sega Saturn, 3DO (strangely, the final game for the system) and PC! This was the norm for back in those days, but this was around the time when they stopped doing that and started releasing them on just two or three instead. With the 3D era coming in full force, games were becoming much harder and more costly to make. 

Casper didn't seem to have the problem of having an expensive development, though. While it does boast a semi-unique isometric puzzler gameplay, it is still very much considered a 2D game. The graphics do what they set out to do, the graphical art is quite nice and the ambience of the level works, that's about the most credit you can give the whole game. 

Beyond that, this game is a lot of fluff with a whole lot of no content. You fly around the levels looking for puzzle pieces, keys to get to said puzzle pieces and find secrets. While resistance to get these puzzle pieces is rather scant, there are places in the game where you need to contend with the uncles. 

The level with Uncle Fatso, if I may be frank, startled the life out of me, pun intended. After going through rooms of nothing but stillness and finding pieces of a painting, Fatso came out of nowhere and began chasing me. This level became some of the most fun in the game and was something of an iconic moment, because after that, it was more bland, lifeless level. The puzzle pieces take a while to find if you don't know where to go or what key opens which door. This is one of those games where they had to make it cryptic and slow-going to elongate it and make it "worth your while".

If you've read my Top 20 Worst Games of the Saturn list, you'll know that I have placed this game in a rather dishonorable spot. There's really no other way to put it. This game is a slog to get through and playing it over a long period of time can very quickly become the cure for sleep deprivation. Aside from a few places where you need to deal with the uncles, there's very little to get excited about. Even the uncles aren't anything. Aside from Fatso, the others are just slow death traps that follow you around. 

You've got the mansion and you've got the hedge maze in the backyard. Those are the two primary locations in this game and the levels are dizzying. Keeping up with where you've been and what samey room you've been in to get what puzzle piece is enough to make you go crosseyed if this is not your prefered genre. If you're looking for a scary puzzler with lot's of intrigue take this out of your Saturn immediately and put in D. This game is bland, tasteless and reaks of bad punny one-liners and vague ties to a movie that may be nice to watch on Halloween once in a while. This game should be tested before selecting as a common haunt. Virtua Ghost Flies!

Myst vs D - Point and Puzzlers

 Back in the hayday of our favorite console, there weren't a whole lot of games to fit in each and every genre. Now days, we have games that fit in to just about every niche one could possibly think of and can often find a decent amount in each one. Back in 1995, this was not the case, especially when it comes to consoles. Point and click adventures, on the other hand, were commonplace and there were plenty of them. The Sega Saturn sported two that we will be comparing today. D and Myst were two prominent titles on the system in North America because they were very commonly found in stores. When both sport such similar gameplay but in strikingly different ways. Both have strong cult followings and both have puzzles and explorative features that all can enjoy. 

One difference that a player will notice immediately is the setting. Myst is more akin to a different planet while D is far more like a haunted mansion (aside from the hospital cut scene at the very beginning). Another very noticeable difference is the way you move. This may seem like a cosmetic feature, but it is far more important than one might think. Myst has a fade effect when it comes to the point and click movement. Once you click forward or whatever direction you're wanting to go, the screen goes out then comes back in with your movement progression. D, on the other hand, you actually see yourself move forward. You walk slowly and actually turn in a visible way. The real difference is not only graphical movement, but also atmosphere. 

Atmosphere is one of the key factors that set these two games apart. Where Myst is an otherworldly experience with discovery and puzzles, D is a horror experience with discovery and puzzles. Not only does D sport a more gothic, macabre feel to it, but it also boasts a soundtrack that plays an eerie sound throughout your experience. This background soundtrack keeps you feeling that unsettling creep factor all throughout. 

While Myst does possess a more diverse list of levels, it lacks heavily when it comes to any sort of atmosphere. This is due to there being next to no soundtrack. There are some outside sounds and sometimes that's pretty nice, but after a while, many will find themselves pining for some music or more background noise. 

Another point of comparison is... oh boy... the acting. I'm going to be honest, Myst will always lose when it comes to acting. The voice acting from D isn't great, because it's all just Dr. Harris, Laura's father, popping in and telling her that she shouldn't be doing things. Myst, on the other hand, is some of the worst acting this side of the Sega systems. The brothers you choose to either set free from the books or not set free from the books come to you, say they want pages and they ham it up like they're trying to win a Razzie. It is physically painful to watch. 

To more of D's credit, it also sets itself ahead of Myst in the ways of character. You play Laura Harris, a young woman who is trapped in her father's mind and is forced to work her way through his house of horrors in order to save him from insanity. You are a human being with a clear goal and an emotional connection with the situation. Not only do you know she is trying to save her father, you can also see her reactions to her situation as they happen. We feel her tension and we see how horrific her circumstances are and thus we are engaged. 

Myst has a severe lacking of any of this. We are a faceless person who teleports around to places, collecting pages and putting them into books with psychopathic thespians who apparently couldn't pass Drama 101. There's some sense of awe when we see the scenery, especially if you're seeing these graphics back in the mid 90's for the first time. However, you don't see your character reacting to these events and you don't have any sort of connection to them at all, aside from being the player. This makes all of the difference in the world. 

[Spoilers] D is not a perfect game, it has its flaws and it's got very little replay factors aside from some background beetles that tend to show up at random and the option to either join your father or kill him. Myst has the replay factor where you either want to go the long way through the game or the short way through the game to get the different endings. Both games have different endings and both games have their ups and downs. From a story and atmospheric point of view, D has the goods. Either way, both games will scratch your itch for exploration and both games are rather short in length, especially if you know your way around the puzzles already. Science Fiction nuts will probably prefer Myst while Horror fanatics will probably have more fun with D. It's all up to taste. By the way D stands for Dracula! I SAID SPOILERS! NO TAKE BACKS!