A Nostalgic Platformer That Mixes Simple Thrills With Monster-Traps
We’re only forty years and two months late in reviewing Halloween 1985. Better late than never: consider it a double-bill with a Nightmare Before Christmas rewatch.
Halloween 1985 is, of course, not actually a forty-year old game. It can feel like an arcade time-capsule, with single-screen platforming that rotates between Bubble Bobble, the original Mario Bros and Manic Miner. The pixel art and campy Fright Night/Teen Wolf attitude helps too. But this is a 2025 release that’s baring its vampire teeth and going for the nostalgia-jugular.
What I like most about Halloween 1985 is that, while it’s most-definitely a throwback, it’s not just copycatting the games of the ‘80s era. Its new ideas don’t always work, but the fact that they’re here and prominent is credit to developers Spoonbox Studio. This is a 2D platformer with a spoopy twist.
It’s Pumpk-tacular!
Things start off with a (partially unskippable, natch) cutscene where the imaginatively named Vampire, Werewolf, Witch, Clown and Mummy run into the Pumpk-man’s pumpkin shop and raids his stock (let’s take a quick moment to ruminate on the sheer terribleness of that Pumpk-man pun). The P-man is clearly bitter about the experience (and his awful name), so he heads out to steal back his pumpkins.
There’s an early indication that things may get unusual in the Main Menu. You can choose to play a Beginner, Expert or Speedrun Mode, and then you’re selecting which character to assail first. You’re going to need to raid each (twice in Expert Mode), so you’re choosing their order.
At its core, Halloween 1985 is a collectathon. The object of every level is to collect the pumpkins that are hanging around. Simple stuff. But there’s a bugger of an enemy hunting you as you do so, in the form of the Hammer Horror beasties we mentioned earlier. They’re a bit of a Nemesis: they’re overpowered, and for (almost) all purposes they are unkillable. If they even get within eyesight of you, they will fly at you, toss bandages, fly on their broomsticks and all manner of one-hit-kills. That’s right: if even one pixel snags you, you deeeead.
While there are three lives per run, they must last you through the six levels of Halloween 1985. A death is incredibly unwanted. So, you’re spending much of each level keeping an eye locked on the Vampire, Werewolf etc and their minions.
How To Kill Your Mummy
You do have counter-measures, if you can call them that. Each level has a convoluted contraption that can deal damage to the bosses. You can jump and pull a cord to open a curtain, which sends a lightbeam that might – if you timed it right – stun a vampire and do one-third of damage to him. Do this another two times, and you will even kill him.
It certainly makes a difference from bottom-bouncing your enemies. These are elaborate traps that require you to line up and trigger something with precision. It’s more reminiscent of Spy vs Spy than Mario Bros, if we’re going for old-school references.
Each level has a different trap (dropping blocks on the Mummy, pouring a cauldron on the Witch), which shows welcome attention to detail on the part of the devs. But they’re not foolproof. They are punishing to pull off, as the precision needed is difficult when so much is going on. The masters have minions, and there are projectiles whizzing about. And, presumably to avoid players spamming the same locations over and over again, you can only use each trap once. It’s a punishment too far, as it is too easy to miss the enemy. It leaves you with no chance of killing it outright.
The result is that, unfortunately, we stopped bothering to kill the bosses. There just didn’t seem to be any point, outside of an achievement. Taking them head-on only made us more likely to expend those valuable lives, and we weren’t having that.
Collections For The Dead
More attractive was the optional objective. The pumpkins light up randomly, so you can choose to collect them in that order. Doing so notches up more points, which – in turn – leads to extra lives. It’s by far the better test of the player: getting them in order is actually achievable, but still hugely challenging. When we were in the early game, trying to get to the sixth and final level (The Inferno with its Demon boss), we focused on surviving and catching every pumpkin. But once we’d notched that achievement, we tested ourselves with pumpkins in the correct order.
Completing The Inferno unlocks Expert Mode (each level needs to be played twice in a harder version) and completing that unlocks Speedrun Mode. We can’t tell you what Speedrun Mode contains as we’ve never been able to get there. Not for want of trying, of course: it’s just a gargantuan challenge that we’ve never managed (The Inferno is difficult once, let alone twice, alright?).
Halloween 1985 is not, then, a huge game. But not many arcade games were. It is replayable, though, and that’s the clincher. There’s the delicate pull of a highscore table and there’s always the sub-objectives, as well as a couple of modes to inch yourself closer to. Hell, you might even get to the Speedrun Mode. Let us know what it contains in the comments – we’ll be forever grateful.
Simple Thrills With Monster-Traps
For about the length of the Lost Boys (and the price of renting it) I had a jolly old time with Halloween 1985. Sure, it’s not hugely deep or overflowing with levels. But setting traps for Witches and Mummies was at least initially fun, and the desire to unlock everything kept me going beyond that.
It might not be the most obvious game to play this Christmas, but let a little Krampus into your life and you might get a kick from the nostalgic Halloween 1985.
Important Links
Is Halloween 1985 the Perfect Game for Halloween? – https://www.thexboxhub.com/is-halloween-1985-the-perfect-game-for-halloween/
Buy Halloween 1985 from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/halloween-1985/9N3KDRFQ0773/0010
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