Savage Halloween Review (Nintendo Switch)

by Jim Smale · April 20, 2021

Every year the monsters are invited to the big 24hr Halloween rave, but this time no one came home, as an evil vampire used a spell to block the passage back to the afterlife because, according to him, the party could not stop.

Pros:

Brilliant 8bit graphics.
154MB download size.
Chiptune soundtrack.
Platformer gameplay.
8-way shooting controls.
Guns-you have a selection of guns available and you collect ammo for them and can jump between them at will.
3 characters each with unique stats-James, Lulu, and Dominika. A handful of character color palettes.
Funny guns like Frog guns, Chicken guns, ghosts, and spread.
Bullets all act uniquely like Frogs will bounce off walls, ghosts will stay around you and chickens explode.
Endless runner style levels.
Shmup style levels.
Two-player local support.
A lot of variation.
Levels have hidden rooms.
Crates-contain ammo for particular guns.
Death-instantly respawn, run out of lives and continue from the last checkpoint.
Seven stages.
Each stage is made up of levels and a boss fight.
Clever level design.
Retro feeling.
A couple of sections feel like a homage to other games of the genre.
Big boss battles.
Two difficulties-normal and hardcore.
Health pickups.
Can shoot when on the ladder.
Crouch and shoot.
Can stand still and shoot in all directions.
Find extra lives.
Collect special action tokens.
Some really nice-looking levels with animated backdrops and cool lighting.
Progress on the stage select screen is saved even if you get the game over.
The best score is shown on the main menu.
End of stage score breakdown.
The score pops up as you kill enemies.