All month long, we've been looking back at what the critics said about some of the spookiest games of all time, including everything from Splatterhouse to Friday the 13th. Now that Halloween is here, it's time to take a look at three 16-bit classics that are all memorable for completely different reasons. I'm talking about Decap Attack on the Genesis, the pinball great Devil's Crush and Electronic Arts' ghost simulator, Haunting Starring Polterguy. Yeah, those are all horror games, but are any of them actually worth playing? To answer that question, I decided to flip through the pages of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Sega Power, Video Games & Computer Entertainment and more classic magazines that reviewed these games back when they first came out. Don't get too comfortable in that chair, because the furniture is coming to life in this fright-filled episode of Halloween Review Crew!


Before there was Decap Attack, there was Magical Hat, a Japanese anime from 1989 that ran about a year. This simple story of a boy who falls into a volcano and discovers that he's the descendant of the Magical Hat was turned into a Genesis game by developer Vic Tokai. When Sega decided to release the game internationally, they ran into a licensing snag that forced them to make major changes to the art, story, music and even level designs. The result was Decap Attack, a horror-themed action game starring Chuck D. Head, a headless mummy that, you guessed it, throws heads at a bunch of ghoulish enemies. It's weird, baffling and extremely morbid, and completely overshadowed by the rest of Sega's 1991 line-up, including ToeJam & Earl, Streets of Rage and a little game you might have heard of called Sonic the Hedgehog. But we've already covered those games, so let's see where the critics landed on Decap Attack.

Despite being overshadowed when it first came out, Decap Attack was largely praised by the critics. In fact, there was really only one outlet that didn't like it – Mega Play. Giving it an average score of 5.5 out of 10, Dave explains that “this game gets an ‘A' for originality, but in the end it's just another very average action game with a cute gimmick. The presentation of the graphics and play just didn't stay for me.” Mike, on the other hand, liked the game enough to give it a 7: “This shows a lot of promise. It has an original theme and solid gameplay that make it one of the more interesting action carts available. The end bosses are also animated extremely well.”

From there, we see that most of the magazines gave the game around an 80%. GamePro, for example, went with a 4 out of 5, while Video Games & Computer Entertainment went with an 8 out of 10. That's the same score we saw from Game Informer in their very first issue. Andy, the Game Dandy, noted that “Decap Attack starts out easy enough, but it gets harder as you go along. There's a lot to learn about hidden treasure, purchasing potions and tricks like bouncing off the walls. It's easy to enjoy and tough to master.” He concluded that “this game is addictive. There's enough to keep even the best player busy for weeks.”

Moving on up, we see Sega Pro give the game an 81%, while Mean Machines Sega went with an 82%. Speaking of which, you also saw an 82% from MegaTech. Perhaps out of crazy pills, Game Zone gave Decap Attack a 5 out of 6 and wrote this surprisingly coherent review: “Massive and complex graphic adventure. With more than a nod toward the likes of Sonic and Mario, Decap is highly addictive and very well put together. Nice one, Sega.”

When it comes to the highest score, look no further than Sega Power, who gave the game a score of 93%. That's one of the highest scores they gave in 1991. They praised the speed, the playability, the huge levels, the lack of cheap deaths and so much more. “You won't find much that's very new in Decap Attack, but it's still a really superbly executed game. It's easy and logical enough for anyone to get into – and once you start playing, you just won't want to stop! The animation and the cartoon-quality graphics are great too. Unmissable.”

This is one of those games where there's an outlier on both sides of the average. Seven out of the nine magazines ended up giving Decap Attack somewhere between an 80% and an 83%, which means that basically everybody was on the same page. When we include the outliers, the overall average is a still solid 80%.

If you were a pinball fan who also liked horror, then you really only had a couple of options in the early 1990s. Either you could pick up that Pinball Jam game for the Lynx that came with Elvira and the Party Monsters or you could get Devil's Crush on the TurboGrafx-16. This was actually the follow-up to the 1989 pinball game Alien Crush, only this time around developer Compile traded in science fiction fun for demonic horror frights. There are skeletons marching about, dragons breathing fire, cultists summoning demons, bubble-blowing skulls and, at the center of the board, a woman's face that slowly turns more and more possessed as you play. It was a video game pinball game that took full advantage of the video game element, creating mini-games, boss fights and ghoulish enemies that simply couldn't be done in a real pinball machine. I loved this game as a kid, but what did the critics say?

I normally like to check in with Electronic Gaming Monthly first, as they tend to be in the middle of the pack when it comes to review scores. However, this time, they are on the very bottom. It's easy to look at the 6.75 out of 10 average and say that they didn't like it, but that's not the full picture. This is one of those games where there was a big disagreement, with one critic bringing the average down. In this case it's Steve, who gave Devil's Crush a 5 out of 10: “This is a decent follow-up to the first Turbo pin, Alien Crush, but there really isn't that much to it. Sure, it plays like an entirely different pin, but the same formula of bonus rounds and scrolling playfield leave something to be desired.” Sushi-X, on the other hand, strongly disagreed, giving it an 8: “Despite a few inherent flaws, this video pinball is a blast to play. Beautiful graphic presentation and sophisticated music kept me enthralled for hours. Lots of secret bonuses and bonus rounds enhance play. For ALL ages!”

Like I said, EGM's score is the outlier here, with every other magazine giving it at least an 80%. That includes Video Game & Computer Entertainment, which gave it an 8 out of 10 in their 21st issue. “Devil's Crush offers a much greater variety of bonus screens. Several even include two sets of flippers, mounted side-by-side. Another improvement is the inclusion of the two-player alternating mode. No TurboTap or second joystick is required. Like Alien Crush, you can shake the table slightly with the II button, and you can also choose between fast and slow ball speed. In this game, even the slow setting is a decent challenge. Devil's Crush is a must-have for those who enjoyed Alien Crush (or for those who thought the original was too simple). It's loaded with more clever animation, impressive graphics and fast, frenetic action than the original.”

As we continue our ascent, we see MegaTech give Devil's Crush an excellent 91%, which just so happens to be the same exact score Raze gave it. While the highest score belongs to Computer & Video Games, who gave it a 94%, I would rather check in with a magazine we've never covered before – Zero. Giving it a 93%, they told you to “forget pinball machines like Star Trek and Kiss, this computerized pinball game shoots the balls off the opposition. Unlike conventional computer pinballs, Devil's Crush is set on three main screens which scroll into view. Computerized pinball games haven't proved very successful in the past – Devil's Crush has the best attempt yet. The game manages to combine the excitement of traditional pinball machines and the explosive action of shoot ‘em ups. The graphics, sound effects and gameplay in Devil's Crush shadow any computer pinball game so far.”

Even with a low score from Electronic Gaming Monthly, Devil's Crush still managed to earn an overall average of 87%. That makes it one of the best-reviewed pinball games of all time, and a true gem on the TurboGrafx-16. This is one of my favorite games of all time.

If you've ever watched a ghost movie and thought about how much fun it would be to haunt a house and scare unsuspecting victims, then you're not alone, because that's precisely the jumping off point for Haunting Starring Polterguy. Having already dominated the sales charts with both Madden and the Strike series, this was an example of Electronic Arts having the luxury to take a few chances. In this case, it's a game about a teenage ghost who gets his kicks scaring the stuffing out of cartoonish characters. It's a legitimately fun concept, but were the critics into it?

The answer to that question depends entirely on which magazines you subscribed to. Several magazines loved it, a few hated it and then the rest are somewhere in the middle, all circling around 75%. Let's start at the bottom and scrape out way up. When Sega Power reviewed the game in their 47th issue, they were not impressed. Giving Polterguy a score of 51%, they called it “strictly a one-hit wonder – once you've played it through and seen all the animations, it's only good for filling space on a bookshelf. And what's with the huge price tag?”

Working our way up, we see Hyper give the game a 60%, while Computer & Video Games went with a 75%. This is the same score we saw from Sega Force Mega, however, it's VideoGames: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine that I want to look at. Giving the game a 7.6 out of 10, they argued that “this kind of fun lasts for a while, but it begins to wear thin when you realize that, aside from a few cosmetic changes, this is all the game has to offer. And the game has a propensity for insultingly stupid inter-titles – the result of lots of wasted time reading irritating messages from a tragically hip antihero. Still, there is a method – and a mission – to all the madness: Bring Polterguy back to the living. And that will keep you playing long into the night.”

Picking back up where we left off, Game Players ended up giving Haunting a 78% only five issues into their 1993 resurrection. Electronic Games also gave the game a 78%, though they were 13 issues into their 1992 resurrection. GamePro, on the other hand, went all the way up to a 4 out of 5. “Haunting is a spookfest that's over too quickly. It isn't going to give you nightmares (no gruesome graphics or crunching challenge). Just the same, this game qualifies as a fun fright to the finish.”

So, if GamePro wasn't the top score, then who was? Mean Machines Sega certainly made a strong play for it, giving the game an 86%. However, the biggest fan of Polterguy was, believe it or not, Game Informer, who went all the way up to an average score of 8.9 out of 10. Paul, the Pro Player, exclaimed: “Whoa! Your mission is to literally scare a family out of their shorts, which makes for some super animation of the family and effected objects. I don't think I'll ever look at my furniture the same way again. It has great background music and sound effects. You'll find tons of enjoyment and laughter in one of the creepiest carts around. Move over Beetlejuice, there's a new spook in town.”

While most agreed that there was fun to be had in Haunting, the general consensus was that the game was too short and didn't offer enough variety. Not a bad game, but also not great. The result was an overall average of 75%. It has a great concept, but the execution misses the mark.