It’s spooky season, and while it’s certainly okay to play games about werewolves and ghosts and witches any time of the year, Halloween is always a great time to break out some extra creature features. Here are some games that will have your guests shivering in their seats!
Our suggestions for this year’s list are from Alex Hart, Jonathan Liu, Paul Benson, Rob Huddleston, and Michael Knight.
The Shivers
Experience a one-of-a-kind pop-up book adventure in this wonderful family-weight introduction into RPGs! In The Shivers, you’ll be playing as a group of family and friends exploring the creepy manor at the end of the road, picking up clues, and encountering creepy monsters all while being immersed in a 3D pop-up book world. Complete with several multi-episode scenarios and a step-by-step guide for the volunteer GM, this game is sure to be a hit for the whole family, especially during spooky season! Read the full review here. Also, there’s currently a Kickstarter campaign for three new expansions (along with the base game, if you don’t have that already). (AH)
Nemesis
I’m not sure I’ve ever had as cinematic of an experience playing board games as I have with Nemesis. This semi-cooperative take on the Ridley Scott movie Alien has crew members fighting to survive a xenos infestation of their starship. But while you’re ostensibly working together, everyone has their own secret agendas… which might include getting an alien sample off of the ship, at the cost of the other crew members’ lives. Next month will see a crowdfunding campaign for a sequel that’s an homage to James Cameron’s Aliens, with well-equipped soldiers facing off against alien hordes. (PB)
Phantom Ink
I’m resurrecting this one from last year’s list, because it continues to delight (and haunt?) us. Communicate with the spirits to figure out the mystery object in this team-based word game. Each team has a spirit giving the clues, which are written out one letter at a time until the medium decides to stop them—you can see the clues from both teams, but you don’t know the questions that were asked. Silence your spirit before they give away too much information! Read the full review here. (JL)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Slaughterhouse
In this one-versus-many game for 2–5 players, one person plays the cannibalistic Sawyer family, while the other players are unwitting trespassers in their house. There are 5 different scenarios for players to choose from, and these trespassers must play cooperatively, fulfilling the goals of the chosen scenario in order to survive the night. It’s a tense game of cat and mouse where, as the survivors grow more panicked, they become more desperate, and find themselves hunted by more Sawyer family members. Look for a review soon! (PB)
The Night Cage
Here’s another holdover from last year’s list, but it’s back for more because Smirk & Dagger Games just closed a Kickstarter campaign for the Shrieking Hollow expansion (alas, we didn’t have this list ready in time!). Work together to collect the keys and reach the gate to escape The Night Cage, a cooperative tile-laying game. The maze of passages shifts and changes, and you can only see the spaces right next to you. Watch out for the Wax Eaters, who will snuff out your candle, and use caution on the crumbling floors that will drop you into pits. Read my full review here. (JL)
BOOoop!
This delightful 2-player strategy game has you trying to line up three kittens in a row. Sounds easy, but every time you place a kitten on the board, it “boops” every adjacent kitten one space away. This Halloween sequel to Boop! introduces Ghost Cats, which float between the spaces and will frighten kittens away, making them jump right over other kittens. It plays pretty fast, and who can resist those little Halloween kitten meeples and the quilted fabric board that drapes over the box? (PB)
Tiny Epic Zombies
Gamelyn Games is well-known for its Tiny Epic series of games, packing a lot of gameplay into a tiny package. Tiny Epic Zombies is a few years old but still creeping along! It puts you in an abandoned shopping mall with an ever-growing horde of the shambling undead. Play cooperatively or competitively, with or without a zombie player—randomized scenarios change up the survivors’ objectives each time you play. Read my review here. (JL)
Final Girl
You are the Final Girl in a horror movie, trying to survive the night and defeat the killer. There are several different “Feature Films,” each with their own Final Girl, killer, and setting. But you can mix and match all of these, creating your own unique horror movie that you play through. This solo-only GeekDad-Approved game just got even better with the release this year of Series 2, which includes 5 more Feature Films. A Kickstarter campaign for Series 3 just wrapped up, and will likely have late pledges available once the pledge manager opens. Read my full review here. (PB)
The Hunger
This deck-building game has you playing as a vampire, creeping out of your castle at night to round up humans and herd them back before sunrise—but the more people you wrangle, the slower you move. There’s a lot of vampire humor in the game, and you can add in the High Stakes expansion to bring in new threats like vampire hunters and werewolves! Read my full review of the base game here, or check out what the expansion adds. (JL)
Ticket to Ride: Ghost Train
This game takes the gameplay of board game classic Ticket to Ride and scales it down for kids. Instead of train routes, you’re trying to complete Parade float routes with your Haunted Carriages. You will connect such locations as the Mad Scientist’s Lab and the Witch’s Cauldron, and if you create a route all the way from the Dark Forest region to the Seashore region, you will collect the “trick or treat” bonus. (PB)
Resident Evil: The Board Game
After their success with board game adaptations of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3, Steamforged Games has gone back to the start of the series and made Resident Evil: The Board Game. This 1–4 player cooperative survival horror board game has players solving puzzles to unlock doors and reveal new parts of the map. They’ll explore Spencer Mansion, finding items to equip to aid them against the deadly enemies they’ll encounter. Resident Evil: The Board Game is designed to be played as a campaign, but you can also play each scenario separately for a shorter gaming experience. Look for a review soon! (PB)
Horrified: American Monsters
The sequel to the most excellent Horrified: Universal Monsters takes the series off of the silver screen and into the realm of blurry stories and campfire stories. Still relying on the great cooperative mechanics of the first game, American Monsters pits the players against the Banshee of the Badlands, the Jersey Devil, the Chupacabra, the Ozark Howler, the Mothman, and of course Bigfoot. The miniatures are great and the objectives to defeat each monster fit nicely with the legend. Best of all the game is fairly quick and downright fun. You can read my full review here. The latest installment, which Michael Knight reviewed recently, features Greek monsters and is fun, though perhaps not quite as Halloween-y as the Universal monsters and American cryptids. (RH)
Disney Villainous: Filled with Fright
Disney Villainous is a game where players take on the roles of infamous villains from various Disney movies. Between the main game and the five expansions, 21 different villains are available to play. Now with the recent release of Disney Villainous: Filled with Fright, players can try to take over Halloween Town as Oogie Boogie, the scary villain from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Unlike other villains, Oogie Boogie comes with his own set of dice which he can roll as he plays cards to bring in some chance–and even cheat. In order to win, he must hold Sandy Claws prisoner, play imposter Sandy Claws cards, and lure Jack Skellington to his lair to defeat him. This new villain really has the feel of the movie and makes a great Halloween addition to a fun game. Here is where you can read my full review of the frightful expansion. If you have not played Disney Villainous before and would like to start, here is a link to my review of the new starter game for the series, Disney Villainous: Introduction to Evil. (MK)
Happy Halloween, and happy gaming!
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