I Miss Spooky Levels in Games

I used to really like Halloween as a kid. The decorations, the candy, going trick-or-treating with friends, carving pumpkins, and lest we forget fretting over what you’re going to dress up as that year. It’s never been my favorite holiday, but I looked forward to it every October. As I’ve grown up, though, my enjoyment of the holiday has waned significantly. My friends are too busy to throw festive parties, trick-or-treating got replaced with buying some bulk candy in November at a discount, and most of all I don’t like horror. That’s always been true, but liking horror didn’t feel like a requirement as a kid whereas a teen or adult is expected to sit for horror film after horror film if they want to partake in most festivities. Sadly I never got bit by the horror bug. I don’t like the feeling of being scared, plain and simple. But you know what I do like? Spooky levels in video games.

For many, October means horror games. From modern heartstoppers like The Mortuary Assistant to classics like Silent Hill 2, gaming has a banquet for those looking to get into the spirit of the season. With technology constantly improving, games have been able to get more and more visceral with each iteration. As I’m sure you can guess, I never got into any of them. The closest I got was the Castlevania series and the original Bioshock. Not very close is what I’m getting at. I’ve always preferred the tropes and aesthetic of All Hallow’s Eve to the actual content. For me, the pinnacle of Halloween letting loose is the bygone age of the spooky level. 

Typically seen in platformers and actions games of the PS1/PS2 era, this is when a level or world within the game is given the blanket theme of “Halloween” or often just “spooky”, but because most of the games are meant for younger audiences it means employing the tropes in a sillier or at least toned down sort of way. Great examples include Mad Monster Mansion from Banjo-Kazooie, Castle Frightmare in Ape Escape 2, Creepy Castle from Donkey Kong 64, and Pumpkin Hill Zone in Sonic Adventure 2. I’d also be remiss not to mention Big Boo’s Haunt in Super Mario 64 and its killer piano that introduced so many people to the concept of jumpscares. There’s always been something charming to me about how these levels deploy atmosphere and aesthetic but put zero effort into trying to scare you. Like a lot of the themed levels of that era, it was more for visual variety than anything. Playing with the tropes of a genre to create a memorable experience for the player while keeping things family friendly.

Sometimes, you even got whole games in this style. Medievil comes to mind, as does Luigi’s Mansion. Games that were based around concepts that are, in theory, scary, but present them in a more light-hearted way. Sir Daniel Fortesque may be a reanimated skeleton, but you can have him detach his arm to beat zombies with and use magic drumsticks to turn enemies into roast chicken. A mysterious mansion full of ghosts that want you gone should have the player shivering, but then we’ve got a literal ghost vacuum and an eccentric old scientist who speaks in total gibberish. To a young enough kid, these could provide some minor scares (I’m not proud to say that little me was too scared of ghosts to do the tutorial in Luigi’s Mansion until I watched my older sister start it) but generally speaking there’s very little that’s actually scary about them.

Occasionally the indie scene graces us with similar offerings like 2020’s Pumpkin Jack, and big publishers toss us a bone once in a while like with the Medievil remake for PS4 and a couple of haunted-themed levels in this year’s smash hit Astro Bot on PS5. The Sims 4 has a Halloween bundle, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has a Halloween event every year as is tradition for the series, but the occasional seasonal DLC is really the only thing we get anymore. Which is a shame because despite never even knowing about the original as a kid, the Medievil remake was a ton of fun and exactly the kind of experience I’m talking about here.

I shouldn’t be surprised by this decline. The main home for themed levels tended to be mascot platformers and those haven’t been terribly popular for a while. The last time I can recall encountering one of these delights during a game was when I played Astro Bot followed by last year’s Cavern of Dreams. Both did a really solid job capturing the old magic with lots of traditional iconography and set dressing. Prior to that? Not much. That’s true of most themed levels to be honest, and I kinda miss all of them, even if I do understand why they don’t show up much anymore. Honestly, I’m surprised I miss these levels so much. Like I said, I was never Halloween’s biggest fan. Maybe it’s because there’s something charming about the holiday branded as the scariest time of year getting turned into a goofy backdrop. A clash of tones that makes people keep making horror-themed Christmas films. 

To conclude, I miss spooky levels. They’re not entirely gone, and hopefully we get some more interesting releases from indie devs, but in the meantime, I hope you found something interesting in here. Maybe a game you hadn’t heard of, or a new appreciation of some old design styles, or perhaps just a short stroll down memory lane. Heck, if you’re like me and don’t care much for horror, I hope there was something in here that caught your eye so you have something to do during the holiday too. Stay spooky, friends.