Halloween haunts for video gamers

Video games and the horror genre are no strangers. But according to Reuters, horror video games are having a record year in 2009. In the US alone, sales of horror video games has reached $147 million through September compared to $131 million in sales for all of 2008.

Overlay for the Odyssey Haunted House game

While the popularity of such games is growing, getting scares out of your video games is not new. The Magnavox Odyssey boasts the first scary video game ever, Haunted House. We had this game. I barely remember it. Released in 1972, you had overlays that you actually taped to your television. You can imagine why it never really caught on. But with the Odyssey, the home video game system was born and has been evolving ever since.

You may be surprised about how many horror video games there have been over the years. I won’t try to list them all. You can visit The Video Game Critic’s Halloween Review Special for a great list. From big titles like the Resident Evil series and Silent Hill, to older, less scary games like Castlevania, there have been a lot of thrills and chills coming out of game consoles for many years now.

I’m not a big fan of the genre myself. The scariest game I’ve played in recent years was Luigi’s Mansion. Yeah, not so scary. When I was in high school, my brother and I rented the Friday the 13th game for the Nintendo NES. With the movies still fresh in my head, that game creeped me out. It had the same music from the movies that to this day can give me goosebumps and make me want to look over my shoulder. Basically, it was your job to save the camp counselors from Jason and eventually you would fight Jason. I never made it that far. Poor counselors. Didn’t stand a chance with me trying to save them from Jason.

Other games that aren’t within the horror genre try to generate some thrills and chills for Halloween. Well, they at least have some holiday events planned. Team Fortress 2, WAR, and WoW , to name a few, are all offering up Halloween events for gamers. Champions Online is offering both a live event and a free to play weekend.

There’s lots to do for gamers this Halloween. So after the Trick or Treating is over, treat yourself to some virtual death and mayhem.