Boo! Bet that scared you. It’s spooky-time, and that means it’s time to settle in with our favourite high-quality Halloween entertainment: horror movies. If you’re a big fan of horror cinema, then you’ll probably get a big kick out of RetroRealms Arcade: Ash v.s. The Evil Dead & Halloween. This double feature includes two retro-styled action platformers based on The Evil Dead and Halloween franchises, with NES chops and more references to the source material than you can shake a big stick at.
If you’re enjoying this, we also did another retro-themed review with our perspective on Aero the Acro-bat, a 16-bit platformer of a bygone era. For a game that’s a little more up-to-date, check out our review of Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, which is only from the last few decades instead of the last four.
What Is RetroRealms Arcade: Ash v.s. The Evil Dead & Halloween?
Apart from a game with a mouthful of a title, RetroRealms Arcade: Ash v.s. The Evil Dead & Halloween is an arcade-style 16-bit pixel art 2D platformer, or rather, it is two arcade-style 16-bit pixel art 2D platformers for the price of one. Both games are action-packed interpretations of the Halloween and The Evil Dead universes, filled with references, gameplay challenges, and more pixel-art gore than is reasonable.
The entire thing is also wrapped in a fully 3D explorable horror-themed arcade, complete with two mini-museums to fill up with movie memorabilia. In both games, the evil Overlord puts you through a gruelling battle, and you’ll have to smash your way through wave after wave of Deadites or innocent(-ish) victims to confront the villain yourself.
G-g-g-gameplay
RetroRealms Arcade goes for a hack-and-slash platformer gameplay style, akin to something from the NES era, despite the 16-bit graphics. It’s basically a cross between Castlevania, Ghosts n’ Goblins, and possibly even Nightmare on Elm Street on the NES, and that’s true for both games included in the pack. It’s a hardcore platforming hodgepodge, with a bunch of extreme platforming challenges, tonnes of enemies to dodge, and even a dual-world mechanic (hence The Nightmare on Elm Street comparison.)
If you’re into NES-hard platformers, then you’ll certainly get a kick out of this. The difficulty level is somewhere between Super Mario and Ninja Gaiden, depending on how hard you hunt down the extra collectibles and bonus rooms. You have a plethora of moves to use, some of which tie well into your movement needs, with some harder collectibles and power-ups requiring you to use down attacks to bounce off of enemies in sequence to acquire them.
Level-Up?
Strangely, there are also some light RPG elements throughout the game. As you go, you pick up random currency lying around the levels (actual currency in some cases), then, at the end of each level, you go to the store and can buy more hit points, ammo for your sub-weapon (Castlevania-style), and even new moves and increases for your combos.
These different extra abilities often give you a certain amount of replayability as certain collectibles are only available once you have access to certain moves from your move set. You also tend to find that you’ll need the later abilities to make certain enemy types easier to deal with, such as your second combo attack, and certain bonus abilities like the backstab and spinning/decapitation moves.
Why, Oh Why?
The honest only real issue with RetroRealms Arcade, apart from the NES-level difficulty being off-putting to some, is the inclusion of this store. I understand wanting to make your game a bit more replayable, but for the love of Murgatroyd, there is no way that your second combo attack should be gated behind beating World Four out of five worlds total. I spent way too long in the game feeling like I was being frozen after using my attack, only to realize down the line that it was because I was missing half of my normal 3-hit combo.
While we’re on the subject, the shop also really should have included a feature that tells you which combo or button activates each move. There is a move list in the pause menu, but even that can’t be simple. You have to navigate to Options>Controls>Move List, which is just far too many clicks for something that should be easily conveyed to the player. In many ways, it would have been better to just drop the store entirely; have your character gain news moves/upgrades between levels automatically, if that’s what you want. Just make it clear what these new moves do and how to use them from the get-go.
Still, Lots to Love
While there are certainly complaints to be found, there’s so much joy to be found in RetroRealms Arcade: Ash v.s. The Evil Dead & Halloween. Each world you complete nets you a mini-diorama of the world itself in your 3D arcade overworld, and you’ve also got memorabilia for each franchise that you can buy using the collectable tickets found throughout the game worlds. You also have access to a VHS room filled with tapes of behind-the-scenes content on the creation of the game, though I struggled to figure out how to unlock more than those I started with.
There’s also a lot of love for the franchises in question in each of the games included. The are references to the films/shows themselves in the dialogue and events, but there’s also the insanely well-done pixel art. As you explore each level, the background events are inspired by various parts of the franchises, and seeing them come to life in all their pixel-art gory glory is fantastic. There’s also the art and animation of the available characters, with Mike, Ash, Lori Strode and Kelly Maxwell all having unique animations and move sets, though you should bear in mind that Lori and Kelly are both sold separately.
The Conclusion
RetroRealms Arcade: Ash v.s. The Evil Dead & Halloween is a smashing horror-themed platformer for anyone who doesn’t mind punishing themselves a little bit. Big-time fans of either or both franchises will get a kick out of the included extras, and the pixel-art renditions of some of the famous characters and scenes from each are a site for sore eyes. There’s certainly a little clunk here with the way the shop and unlocking new abilities happens, but in general, this is a fantastic concept that deserves to see some serious expansion with other horror franchises in the near future, if only so I can collect even more slasher villain costumes to stare at in the museum room.
Developer: Way Forward Games
Publisher: Boss Team Games
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release Date: 18th October 2024
Gaming Respawn’s copy of RetroRealms Arcade: Ash v.s. The Evil Dead & Halloween was provided by the publisher.
