The leaves are changing color, a chill is in the air, and Pumpkin-Spice everything is here. It is officially Autumn, and that means spooky season is upon us. A symbol of the Halloween festivities is the Jack O’Lantern, a gutted pumpkin carved with an excitable grin that lights up the Halloween night.
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Video games traditionally embrace the Halloween spirit, either with horror-focused games or games with playfully creepy sections. So lobotomized squash is not far behind, appearing in diverse forms, and often being more dangerous than they may appear. Here are a few incarnations.
7The Voxel Game That Wouldn’t Stay Off Of Lists
Just when it seemed safe to write a listicle, the dreadedMinecraftrears its cube-shaped head. It shambles onto the list with the moans of zombies andhissing of creepers, as the writer is left powerless to deny the game’s versatility and its immersive mechanics. This Halloween, prepare for the Minecraft Jack O’Lantern.
Yet another example of the fact that anything can be done inMinecraft, Jack O’Lanterns can be created using a pumpkin, a set of shears, a torch, and a crafting table. If one wants to get trick-or-treaty, it is even possible tomake custom faceson them. They could light the way if one ends up getting lost on their map, like Hansel and Gretel.
6The Pumpkin King Is Here Once More!
It wouldn’t be a list of Jack O’Lanterns if it did not include the Pumpkin King himself, Jack Skellington. Theromantic master of scareshas captured the hearts of Goths and emo kids all over the world since he appeared in Disney’sThe Nightmare Before Christmas.
Jack returned in thespooky musicalvideo gameThe Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revengeon PS2 and Xbox, thanks to Capcom and Buena Vista Games. Jack’s Pumpkin King costume has the sinister, stretched grin that will put a chill down anyone’s spine. The costume also grants Jack fire abilities that let him torch enemies in his path.
5Animal Crossing’s Jack Spreads The Spirit Of The Spooky Season
Animal Crossingalways hassomething new to discover. Gameplay revolves around the system’s internal clock, whose passage of time between play sessions determines events at any given moment, making the village feel like a living, breathing world.
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Animal Crossingcomes to life, or afterlife, during Halloween, when the villagers dress as Jack, a pumpkin-headed spirit that visits every Halloween, hoping to get candy from the series’ iconic villager. Jack has wide, round eyes and a big, toothy mouth, making for a face that is spooky, butinviting to kidsat the same time.
4The Jack O’Lanterns In Pumpkin Valley Are Always Watching
While the Sega Dreamcast was ultimately the end of SEGA’s time in the console market, the system went out kicking and screaming withSonic Adventure 2. The game follows the same story through the perspective of two separate casts of characters: Sonic’s team including Tailsand Knuckles, and the villains’ side including Shadow, Eggman, and Rouge.
The game sees both Knuckles and Rouge visiting Pumpkin Hill. The spooky vertical environment is watched over by giant Jack O’Lanterns sitting on top of pillars and mountaintops. Their malevolent faces give the sense that something treacherous is always watching the echidna and the bat.
3Sora’s Innocent Face Can Be Deceiving
Ah, yes, the Disney Empire rears its mouse ears once more, this time in the form of theKingdom HeartsRPGs from Disney and Square Enix. This franchise throws together classic Disney movie characters and worlds with characters from Square Enix’s ownFinal Fantasyfranchise.
As Sora, Donald, and Goofy hop from world to world, they occasionallyswitch up their formsto blend in with the locals. This is the case in Halloween Town, where Sora dons an appropriately spooky black outfit with a Jack O’Lantern mask that covers part of his face. The mask’s sly wink tells residents that they can trust him, but those devil horns allude to a more mischievous side.
2It’s Scary Season In Stardew Valley
The great thing aboutStardew Valleyis that the game doesn’t have any sense of urgency. It is all about appreciating life and all it has to offer from the perspective of a new farmer who is making a living in the quiet community of Pelican Town.
Community functions are held in the town square often, including the Spirit’s Eve Festival, which takes place on the 27th of Fall in-game. It includes a spooky maze, living skeletons, and a booth where farmers can buy special items from Pierre, including a Jack O’Lantern that will spook things up on their home’s front lawn.
1Pumpkaboo Is So Cute, Except It Kills.
It is easy to lose track of how many Pokémon exist, being that close to a thousand of them are around at this point. Many Pokémon designs are based on real world objects. An appropriately spooky Pokémon for the Halloween season is Pumpkaboo, based on Halloween Jack O’Lanterns.
At first glance, this seems like something appropriately adorable from the Nintendo brand, but it isactually pretty terrifying. These things are possessed by restless ghosts that guide souls to the afterlife. Its evolved form, Gourgeist, will deliberately trick adults and children alike into being spirited away.
