Happy Halloween! With the spookiest holiday of the year upon us, arcades have plenty of ways to celebrate. Let’s get into it:
House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn
Sega Amusements is taking advantage of the fact that they have the perfect game to celebrate the day with. That title, of course, is the brand new House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn. While I’ve not heard of locations beyond Dave & Busters receiving their units yet, the game is out there, enough to the point that Sega fan sites like Segabits have been able to review it.
Sega themselves posted this new trailer to the game today, reusing some of Japanese JAEPO footage while splicing that with newer direct capture content and English info overlays.
Sega is also celebrating on Twitter:
Allen wishes you all a very Happy Halloween! #HappyHalloween #Halloween2018 #HouseOfTheDeadScarletDawn #SEGA #Zombies pic.twitter.com/aSP4q3BsTJ
— Sega Amusements International Ltd. (@SegaAmusements) October 31, 2018
If you’ve had the chance to play this one already, what did you think of it? What is your favorite arcade game to play this day?
The 20th AnniverScary of CarnEvil
Perhaps the most iconic Halloween game of all time is Midway’s CarnEvil. Released on October 31st, 1998, the game is officially 20 years old as of today. I have had one of the standard upright units since I opened 10 years ago, and have always been amazed at how well it does (although I probably need to replace the pump shotguns…again). For this October, I decorated the game with one of those fake tombstones, but I think I’ll leave it there afterwards:
I was contacted by one of the original artists on the game, Scott Pikulski, who mentioned the official CarnEvil fan Facebook page. That page is going all out on the anniverScary, with special posters being made available at the Galloping Ghost Arcade.
Also related:
The hot new trend I'm seeing from arcade operators this year – something all ops and collectors fear…#halloween pic.twitter.com/H65en06qVf
— Arcade Heroes – The Saviors of Coin-op Newsblog (@arcadeheroes) October 31, 2018
I’ve still yet to come across the new house of the dead game but I can’t imagine having to wait much longer hopefully.
I’ve never played carnevil as there were too many other video arcade games at the time to play but I do wish I got to play it or come across it at some point.
CarnEvil is a really fun game that also employed a hefty amount of tongue-in-cheek humor. Some people were offended by it (either by the gore or the boss battle where you fight a zombie baby (that could be turned off by the operator)), but from a game design perspective, it had character. I am surprised it never saw a sequel.