I like Halloween fine. I enjoy the costumes and all that. However, I also have a big fear of being afraid, so I take little pleasure in entertainment designed to scare my heart out of my chest.
While this means that I can’t watch 90 percent of Halloween-themed movies (thank god for The Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus), this limitation also extends to gaming. I don’t do well with games built around scaring players. No Five Night’s At Freddy’s or Amnesia: The Dark Descent for me.
Luckily, I can still find games with plenty of ghosts and Halloween flavor that aren’t actually all that scary. So if you’re a wimp like me but still want some digital entertainment to help you get into the candy-giving spirit, check out the games below.
Luigi’s Mansion (series)
Above: Who ya gonna call?
Luigi’s Mansion is all about exploring creepy houses and hunting ghosts, but it’s still a Mario game designed for all ages. You won’t have to worry about jump-scares or anything like that. This is like the gaming equivalent of Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride. It has all of the spooky fun of Halloween without actually being scary.
Retro gamers can enjoy the GameCube original, but the Nintendo 3DS also has a great sequel.
Castlevania (series)
Above: What a terrible night to have a symphony.
Castlevania is a series of (mostly) 2D action games featuring a family of whip-wielders tasked with taking down Count Dracula, who happens to live in a giant castle inhabited by classic creeps like Frankenstein’s Monster, the Mummy, and Medusa. Still, despite all of those enemies inspired by horror films, the only thing scary about Castlevania is how hard it can be.
The series has a lot of games in the series to choose from, but for Halloween I’d recommend the Nintendo Entertainment System original, which you can also buy from the Virtual Console stores for Wii U and 3DS. If you want one of the more Metroidvania games (meaning they focus more on exploration than linear action), play Symphony of the Night, which originally came out for the first PlayStation. You can also buy a digital copy of it for Vita.
Grabbed by the Ghoulies
Above: Fighting ghosts, WWE stlye.
This comes to us via Rare, the studio responsible for classics like Banjo & Kanzooie and Donkey Kong Country. While Grabbed by the Ghoulies is hardly on that level, it’s still a fun, beat-’em-up-style game (almost like Battletoads, another Rare classic). Like Luigi’s Mansion, it takes place in a haunted house that isn’t really all that scary, despite all of the monsters running around.
Grabbed by the Ghoulies originally came out for Xbox, but you can easily play it now as part of Rare Replay on the Xbox One.
Grim Fandango
Above: You’re a grim reaper, but you’re not all bad.
If you’re looking for more of an international flair for your Halloween festivities, check out Grim Fandango. It’s an adventure game that takes place in the Land of the Dead, an afterlife inspired by the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead. In fact, the game actually takes place across consecutive Day of the Dead holidays throughout four years. Even though every character is a skeleton or some kind of monster, Grim Fandango isn’t a scary game. Instead, it’s more like a classic noir film.
Grim Fandango originally came out for PC, but a recent remastered version came out for PlayStation 4, Vita, and PC.
Costume Quest (series)
Above: So adorable.
As kids, dressing up in costumes and getting candy was easily more important than watching gory movies and trying to scare friends. The Costume Quest games tap into that Halloween nostalgia. Both the original and Costume Quest 2 are turn-based role-playing games, where equipping different costumes gives you different powers.
Both games are available on multiple platforms, including PC and consoles.