Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Celebrating All Things Spooky: The Annual Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video Games  No Responses »  Tagged with:
Oct 232026
 

Now, why don’t we talk about a game really suited to Halloween?

The Annual Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival is an online Halloween festival that goes live every October.

Although I’m not a big online game person, I was curious enough to check it out.

I started the game and created a little ghost avatar for myself. Then I carved the world’s most basic pumpkin and loaded the game.

I immediately saw countless pumpkins that put my weak artistic efforts to shame, but I nevertheless headed out through the festival in search of a spot. This is where I found myself frustrated. Whenever I saw a spot where a pumpkin could be placed, the other pumpkins were crowded in too much for mine to fit. However, I switched to a less-populated game world and eventually found a spot for mine.

Not only can you look at all the other players’ pumpkins, but you can even given a award ribbon to a pumpkin you like.

But there’s more to the game than just pumpkins, such as a hayride and other features that make it really feel like a festival. On top of that, there even areas with puzzles to solve (and pins to collect, which you can put on your ghost). When I checked out the city portion of the world, I found a theater playing public domain classic movies and a locked door that led into a maze that played out like a small survival horror game.

I actually didn’t check out everything the game has to offer, let alone finish it all, but since it’s a time-limited game, I wanted to blog about it now instead of waiting until I’ve finished (especially since I’m tempted to return to it closer to Halloween).

Oh, and I know someone in the comments will ask, so here, this is my pumpkin. Like I said, it’s not exactly an artistic achievement.

In short, The Annual Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival is a delightful little Halloween experience, whether you want to design the perfect pumpkin or see what puzzles and scares the festival has to offer.

…Maybe I’ll design a more creative pumpkin when I return to the game.

Celebrating All Things Spooky: The Séance of Blake Manor

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video Games  2 Responses »  Tagged with:
Oct 222026
 

I almost forgot to talk about The Séance of Blake Manor, an adventure game I reviewed last October for MonsterVine.

The Séance of Blake Manor is from Spooky Doorway, the developers of the Darkside Detective series.

We talked about The Darkside Detective all the way back in 2018, and I followed that with a review of its sequel in 2021.

Both were funny adventure games with a perfect Halloween atmosphere, so I was excited when I saw Spooky Doorway had a new game.

I also was nervous.

Because The Séance of Blake Manor has time limits.

Fortunately, as you’ll see if you read my full review, the time limit didn’t end up bothering me too much since walking around doesn’t take time (thank goodness) and it’s more a matter of strategically planning your schedule, which adds a fun bit of management.

(I wish I could examine every single inconsequential object in case there’s interesting dialogue, but it’s fine.)

Unlike the Darkside Detective games, this one is a first-person, 3D adventure game. It’s primarily a detective game, in which you’re investigating a woman’s disappearance, and you need to gather clues and then link them together to form hypotheses that you can pursue by confronting other characters about the secrets they’re hiding.

On top of the mystery elements, the case you’re investigating is overtly supernatural even aside from the upcoming séance that everyone is waiting for. I wouldn’t call it an outright horror game, but it has a great atmosphere and is definitely spooky.

So if you enjoy detective games and supernatural mysteries, you should definitely check out The Séance of Blake Manor. It’s a perfect game for Halloween.

Celebrating All Things Spooky: Novel Game ZENO

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video Games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Oct 192026
 

Yes, it’s ZENO time again already.

After our out-of-season look at ZENO: Daily Life, I moved on to the other translated sequel/spin-off, which depending on which translation you look at might be referred to as ZENO Novel, ZENO Novel Game, or Novel Game ZENO.

This one is only available on a site called plicy, and as far as I can tell it’s only playable in-browser, which adds some frustrations that probably wouldn’t be there otherwise, because at least for me, it was slightly slow to respond. Sometimes I had to click something multiple times before it actually went through.

Anyway, Novel Game ZENO begins with a young woman getting a new job where she quickly meets a few of the main ZENO characters. Each day, you pick someone to talk to and help them come up with ideas to express their friendship. On the final day, you pick one to see their story conclusion and get an ending.

At first it felt like this one also wouldn’t fit the horror theme, but I was suspicious since the game begins with a warning about the game’s content that really doesn’t apply to those lighthearted routes.

Yes, there is a secret route and ending that brings horror back to the forefront, and I’m glad I looked up how to get it, because I never would have figured it out on my own… especially because of my problem with the game’s responsiveness. You need to click a specific spot on a specific day, and the guide said to click it 3 times but I definitely clicked more times than that.

This true route is the best part of the game, and it does a good job building the tension and raising questions about what’s happening, with both typical horror content and meta horror content like glitchy effects.

Sadly, it’s over too soon, because this is the shortest of the ZENO games by far. It look me less than half an hour to see all four endings, even with the issues I mentioned, but that short slice of horror left me wishing for a full-length ZENO visual novel.

So if you’re interested in seeing more of the universe, do check out Novel Game ZENO. This is the last of the games translated into English, so our ZENO adventures will end here until someone translates one of the other sequels. Maybe next year…?

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