Halloween Nightmare

Halloween Nightmare – Think of Lemmings on acid...

Bunnies are cute, they’re cuddly and they’re pretty adorable (unless you’re Elma Fudd). But what if these white bob-tailed little critters became zombies? Well, then you’d end up with something quite like Halloween Nightmare I imagine...

In this rather dark game, you are put in charge with assisting in the cull of a seemingly endless supply of rabid rabbits. To do this you must first help direct the hapless rabbits get from the entrance through a variety of obstacles and arrive to their nasty and sadistic demise (which range from a big hammer, acid bath, flame-thrower and grinder to name just a few).

For those of you who’ve not played any of the similar games (Easter Nightmare or Suicidal Squirrels), this title is an evolution of the Lemmings style game. You are either initially equipped with a number of tools to help you get the job done, or you must use your logic to work out how to do things and complete the level.

As with the other games in the series, the first six levels serve as a tutorial of how to use the equipment available to you (pneumatic drill, rope, jet pack, blow-torch, wall and tightrope). Each of these special abilities can be triggered by pressing the associated key once you’ve selected the bunny of your choice. Some of these skills lay latent until they come across a place to use them (e.g. at a ledge), others work instantly. So this gives you a mixture of logic and action in one neat game.

It’s important to get your bearings with every level as nearly every one has a fiddly pitfall which if you’re not just as devious as the game’s creators, you will end up having to re-do the level again. Fortunately, you aren’t penalised for re-playing each level and indeed you will probably have to; either due to making a crucial error or being beaten by the clock.

As you’d probably expect, each level you progress to seems to be even trickier than the last one. This has the dual effect of making it a challenge and cranks up the level of addictiveness. I must say that I used to love rabbits but due to having to repeat the levels and making so many silly errors with the controls, I find it quite therapeutic watching the little suckers meet their maker at the end of each level.

As with the previous titles, the games controls are set up in the same way. Using the d-pad you move the cursor around the screen and when you select your bunny, you then use the keypad to determine the action of choice (i.e. arming it with a drill or jetpack). Additionally, you can speed up the play and watch the mayhem ensue.

Unfortunately as highlighted in my previous reviews of the earlier titles, the controls still have the same flaw as always, which is inaccuracy. This means that when the bunnies are criss-crossing each-other, you may inadvertently select the wrong one, wasting a piece of equipment or causing a domino effect of critical errors – meaning you will more often than not, have to repeat the level. Needless to say my phone has become a little more broken looking from the frustrated tosses to the floor (particularly if it’s been an incredibly hard level and you’re one click away from success).

However, overall this game lives up to its name of a nightmare in a few ways (namely the controls and the devious designs which keep you playing for hours). This game will keep you hooked for many hours and will test your mental agility as well as your reactions in equal measure.

Rating 75%

Positives

Sadistic and quite evil

Good graphics

Challenging and highly addictive

Negatives

Repetitive

Controls (or lack of)

Game designs haven’t really developed from the previous rendition