Spooky SNES Games: Seven Cartridges for a Halloween Night With the Lights Off

Every October we get the same question. What is a good scary game that does not need a new console, a subscription, or a download the size of a small car? Our answer usually involves pulling a stack of SNES cartridges off the shelf.

The Super Nintendo never leaned on gore the way the consoles after it did, so horror on this machine had to work with mood, music, timing, and the fear of whatever is around the next corner. A lot of it still lands. Here are seven spooky SNES carts we reach for when the lights go down, from goofy monster movie nonsense to one game that genuinely makes people put the controller in their lap for a second.

Zombies Ate My Neighbors: Best Two Player Monster Movie

Zombies Ate My Neighbors arrived in 1993, developed by LucasArts and published by Konami, and it is still the most fun you can have being scared next to a friend. You run around the suburbs rescuing neighbors from zombies, chainsaw maniacs, giant ants, pod people, blobs and martians, armed with a squirt gun, soda cans, exploding tomatoes, and whatever else turns up in the garage. A level ends when the survivors are safe or when the last one gets grabbed, so there is always one more panicked sprint across a lawn. The two player co op is the main event, and the B movie soundtrack does half the work.

Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts: Gorgeous, Gothic and Mean

Capcom's Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts came out in 1991, early enough that it was still busy showing off what the SNES could do. Arthur runs through graveyards, haunted ships and crumbling castles while zombies claw out of the dirt behind him. One hit knocks his armor off, the second knocks him down to his boxers. The double jump is new here and you will need every bit of it. Fair warning, the real ending asks you to clear the whole game a second time with the right item in hand. Rude, but that sunset graveyard still looks fantastic.

Demon's Crest: Play as the Monster for Once

Demon's Crest puts you in the claws of Firebrand, the gargoyle from the Gargoyle's Quest games, and it is one of the most atmospheric cartridges Capcom made for the system. Released in 1994, it gives you a ruined world to fly over and a set of crests that turn Firebrand into different forms. One swims, one tunnels, one flies properly. Hunting down the crests you missed changes which ending you get, which makes a short game much longer. Dark, moody and criminally overlooked.

Castlevania Dracula X: One Bad Night for Richter Belmont

Konami put Castlevania Dracula X on the SNES in 1995, and PAL players know it as Vampire's Kiss. Richter Belmont whips his way toward Dracula while the people he cares about are held somewhere in the castle, and the stages branch, so alternate routes decide who you rescue and which ending you see. It is stiffer and harder than Super Castlevania IV, with less of that floaty whip freedom, but the music is superb and the bosses hit hard. Pick it up when you want Castlevania to fight back.

Clock Tower: The One That Actually Scares People

Clock Tower is the odd one out, and the one we recommend hardest to anyone who thinks 16 bit horror cannot get to them. Human Entertainment released it in Japan in 1995 as a point and click survival horror game. You play Jennifer, a girl exploring a mansion she should never have walked into, while a man carrying oversized shears moves around the building. You cannot fight him. You can hide, run, and push a bookcase down the stairs. Where he turns up changes between runs, and there are several endings depending on who makes it out. The game never got an official English release, so any English version of it is a fan translation rather than an official localization.

Nosferatu: A Haunted Castle That Punches Back

Nosferatu is a cinematic platformer in the Prince of Persia mold, all heavy animation and deliberate footing, except this hero throws punches and kicks at whatever blocks the hallway. You climb a vampire's castle against a timer to reach the woman he has taken, and that clock turns every small mistake into a real one. The controls take a stage or two to click and it is stiff by modern standards. Push through that and you get one of the moodiest castles on the system.

Ghoul Patrol: The Sequel Nobody Talks About

Ghoul Patrol is the 1994 follow-up to Zombies Ate My Neighbors, with Zeke and Julie back after a library book lets something old loose. Same overhead view, same two player co op, same frantic hunt for the people you need to save, except now it is spirits, pirates and samurai instead of suburban monsters. It is not quite as charming as the original and the difficulty climbs earlier. If you and a friend played the first one to death, this is the obvious second helping.

Where to Start

If you want a Halloween night with a lot of shouting and laughing, start with Zombies Ate My Neighbors and find a second controller. If you want to be alone with something genuinely uncomfortable, Clock Tower is the pick. If you want gorgeous and punishing, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts and Demon's Crest are both worth the bruises. Dracula X is for the player who already knows the Castlevania rhythm and wants a tougher version of it.

Press Start on Your Halloween Stack

Pick one, pick all seven, or build your own haunted shelf. We carry Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Clock Tower, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts and the rest of this list for SNES, in NTSC and PAL versions, and every cartridge is tested before it ships. Blowing on the cartridge optional.