Castlevania Judgement
Castlevania is a classic horror-themed franchise. What better way to spend Halloween than killing a Dracula? Sadly, most of them are definitely single-player experiences. Castlevania Judgement changes that. Released on the Wii, this was far from the game Castlevania-fans were hoping for from a new release. Instead of a Metroidvania, Castlevania Judgement is a fighting game that reunites many characters from across the franchise. If you want your Halloween multiplayer session to have a competitive edge, this is a fine fighting game.
Timesplitters 3 (Gamecube)
If you want to gun-down zombies this Halloween you have a huge amount of options. From rail-shooters like House of the Dead and certain Resident Evil spin-offs, to every FPS with a zombie mode, the genre is well catered for. In a much less serious vein there are games like Timesplitters 3, a local multiplayer arena FPS that lets you play as everything from a walking ribcage monster to a zombie monkey named Brains. Also a normal monkey, a duck man and a whole slew of robots. It remains one of the silliest and most fun shooting games ever made, and absolutely shines in multiplayer.
Ghostbusters (PS3)
Do we really need to say more than its Ghostbusters? The classic movie was, despite all odds, given a good showing in this action game that uses most of the original voice actors in a new story. The recently released remaster of Ghostbusters makes this one of the easiest to enjoy games on this list but it comes with a serious caveat. The ‘Remaster’ doesn’t currently have the co-op features, with the developer promising to ‘patch it in’ later. So, for now at least, stick to the PS3 or Xbox 360 version. The Wii version is a different experience, but has its own merits (and most importantly is still multiplayer). If you’ve watched the movies to death then its well worth grabbing a friend and enjoying some Halloween multiplayer action with the Ghostbusters.
Nintendoland (WiiU)
For anarchic multiplayer fun there isn’t much that can unseat Nintendoland. One of the few Wii U games not to have a Switch port, it remains the best reason not to box your Wii U up and shove it in the loft. One of the better mini-games is the Luigi’s Manson event. The brief trailer above doesn’t really do it justice. Its asynchronous multiplayer showed the potential of the game pad and with the right group of friends can have you howling. Of course, this Halloween Luigi’s Mansion 3 arrives, which has multiplayer modes of its own.
Zombies Ate My Neighbours (SNES)
The classic Halloween multiplayer experience remains Zombies Ate My Neighbours. Its funny, supremely challenging, and remains fun throughout. If you’re a horror movie fan you’ll recognise lots of tropes lovingly toyed with, and familiar faces from zombies to mummies and even martians. It had a sequel of sorts called Ghoul Patrol but the first game is the one to try. It also game out on the Megadrive, just called Zombies, so play it there if you can. There’s nothing else that is quite as satisfying, which is why a rerelease is badly needed. Fingers crossed for a future Switch SNES title!
