I’m not the most “gamer-y” person out there, but I do enjoy playing from time to time. I play mostly sandboxes, racing games, side-scrollers, party games, etc. In 2005, my brother bought me The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King for my birthday, and it absolutely took over my flame-red Game Boy Advance SP, and my life. One of my favorite movies about my favorite holiday was in my hands, ready for me to live out my dreams of going through Halloween Town with the one-and-only Jack Skellington.
It’s now a few days out from Halloween and we’re on a crash course with the obnoxiously loud Xmas music around every corner, so I thought it’d be the perfect time to bring out my SP and dust this bad boy off — a nightmare before Xmas, if you will. If you like 8-bit renditions of your favorite songs, The Pumpkin King is a great choice to play because from the very beginning it’s pumped through those Game Boy speakers like a magical river of spooks and ghouls. Honestly, I love this soundtrack so much, I sometimes find myself playing it as background music while I’m at my 9-5 job.
Story-wise, you play coolest skeleton ever, Jack, as he traverses the empty Halloween Town to help its citizens against the bug infestation caused by Oogie Boogie and his henchmen, Lock, Shock, and Barrel. You see, Oogie Boogie is the “Big Bad” of Halloween Town and highly jealous of Jack Skellington, so he uses his bugs to try to bring it back to the glory days of “Crawloween.” This adventure leads us through many of the locations we see in the movie, plus more. We battle bugs in Dr. Finkelstein’s laboratory, go through the pumpkin patch and town square, and have a final confrontation in Oogie’s Lair. It’s a grand ol’ time for my nostalgic heart.
And it’s actually what I’d call a mid-level game, because it’s harder than the average “little kid” game — think Goosebumps — but it’s not so hard that you’re getting molly-wopped on your Twitch stream. The Pumpkin King is the perfect level of gaming for its age demographic, which is around 10 and up. It’s rated E for Everyone, so fun can be had by the whole family.
I’ll admit that it is a little hard to distance myself from my feelings as a Tim Burton and Nintendo fan, but I really do think that The Pumpkin King does have a lot to go for it. It’s a kid-friendly, intro-to-horror level of scare that perfectly fits in with the rush from beating a boss character in a game. It’s enjoyable, and there were few times, if any, that I was frustrated at not being able to do something. The Pumpkin King is in a sweet spot where it’s simple enough for kids to play, but not so simple that adult me would find it boring. And the link to the movie is the best part; you’re Jack Skellington, the embodiement of Halloween, saving the coolest place on Earth from a creepy-crawly, evil potato sack monster, all to the tunes of your favorite musical. Trust me, I was singing all of the words! The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King was, and is, one of my favorite games of all time, so much so that when I lost the cartridge a few years ago, I scoured the internet to find another one just so that I could play again.
Got any horror games you like? Let us know which ones in the comments!
