Halloween Apps

All month long we have been taking a look at some of our favorite spooky games, from the terrifying Five Night at Freddy's to the goofy but highly recommended Skullduggery. This week instead of highlighting just one game, we're going to cover some of the noteworthy titles that have been updated with Halloween content.

Junk Jack X ($4.99) The 2D sandbox game Junk Jack X has been updated with a new Halloween biome, new monsters such as zombies, new dresses and other Halloween goodies and collectibles.

App Store Link

You can't escape the IRS even in death and those who do try should be expecting a visit from the "semi-organic autonomous skull" agents of Skullduggery. In the game you play as an upstart collection agent for the Infernal Revenue Service who must seize assets from "deadbeats" who tried to beat the system by taking their riches with them to the afterlife. You do this by stretching your brain to snap your skull around various levels in the underworld.

The premise may be zany, but Skullduggery's gameplay is a lot like Angry Birds, or any other physics-based games available on the App Store. Unlike Angry Birds or Crush the Castle, the goal of the game is not to just knock stuff over, but it's more of a platform title where you pull back on your skull to slingshot yourself forward and through obstacles. Skullduggery offers a very easy one-touch playing experience, and its "Bullet Time" feature gives it a more fluid Matrix-like control where you can slow things down midair and change your trajectory. The controls are simple to master, and once you do, you will feel like you are playing any other platform game.

Zombie Highway 2 is now available for free on the App Store. The Zombie Highway trilogy is a series of survival / endless runner-like games, including the spin-off Zombie Highway: Driver's Ed, where players must survive a drive on zombie infested highways.

What makes Zombie Highway unique is while most racing games discourage hitting obstacles, players are encouraged to sideswipe overturned cars and barricades to scrape off zombies clinging to the sides of their car. Players can also run over slower zombies and use various weapons to blow them away, but ammo is limited and the best defense is smashing into things. However, you can only sideswipe obstacles, hitting them head-on will end the game. Only grazing obstacles isn't that easy when you have two to three zombies rocking your vehicle back and forth making it harder to control.

When I first saw customer reviews that said things like, Five Nights at Freddy's "is officially the scariest game I have ever played," I was skeptical. I thought there is no way an iPhone game, or really any video game, could be scary, but I was wrong. Five Nights at Freddy's has actually made me jump while playing it, and even if it doesn't scare you, it is still an intense game that is perfect for Halloween.

Like any cheesy horror movie the plot of Five Nights at Freddy's requires some suspension of disbelief, but its over-the-top premise is what gives it its charm. You're the new night watchman at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, a Chuck E. Cheese's-like restaurant and arcade. Your job is to watch Freddy Fazbear and his animatronic pals from the safety of your office, which turns out not to be so safe. Freddy and his pals like to wonder around at night and awful things happen to humans who accidentally bump into them. Luckily you have two security doors to keep you safe, but due to corporate budget cuts you only have a limited amount of power to run your lights, security cameras and doors.

There are a lot of free iPhone / iPod apps that offer Halloween sound effects, but most of these are not great options when it comes to Halloween themed music for parties or haunted houses. You can of course download plenty of Halloween music albums from iTunes for around $10 and up, or pay $0.99 for the popular Halloween music app for the iPhone and iPad. The Halloween app by Eugene Yu offers a Halloween countdown, creepy sound clips, scary stories, Halloween themed recipes and spooky background music.

You can also use the free "Halloween Party" station on Pandora, or any of the several "Halloween" themed channels on Spotify if you're prefer music over spooky noises and sound effects.