Review: RetroRealms: Ash vs. Evil Dead & Halloween

Hail to the king, baby. And other Ashphorisms

Right. I can’t be professional about this. I’m buzzing, mate. Buzzing like Ash’s chainsaw. This game is great. I absolutely adore it. Everything about it feels like it was laser-targeted at my specific interests. I love horror. I love The Evil Dead. I love Halloween. And this game has all of those things, mashed up together in what I think is one of WayForward’s best games. You’re dropped into an arcade, RetroRealms, which is the freely downloadable base camp for a feast of gory madness. Two games are available now as “DLC”, which is an odd structure but makes for something quite interesting. Owning both games means you can play through either scenario as any of the available characters, which changes up the story, level design and your approach to each game.

But what is it? I would describe RetroRealms as a cross between Splatterhouse and Ninja Gaiden. In each adventure, the enemies are absolutely relentless, pouring pain onto the screen in an absolute rampage of nastiness. But you’re Ash Williams. Carve the Deadites up with your chainsaw, blast them with your boomstick. You’re Michael Myers. Stab your victims in the face, impale them with pitchforks. No matter who you play as, you’re an absolute death machine. You can attack in any direction, even execute a macabre variation on the DuckTales pogo jump. It’s hard, but you’re harder. Hail to the king, baby.

The primary feature of RetroRealms, and the basis of its story, is your ability to warp into the Dark Realm at any time. This shifts the level geometry, allowing access to more and better items and collectables, but your Nightmare Meter (metre, ugh) will gradually drain as you spend time there. Thankfully this can be extended by merking fools, but enemies in the Dark Realm are tougher and more numerous, as well as being able to respawn. It’s a fun mechanic and a cool feature to explore – there’s a nice risk/reward to the way it can actually make the traversal of some areas easier, but you’ll need to deal with the increased enemy population to take advantage of it.

It looks absolutely brilliant, with best-in-class pixel art for every single visual element of the game. I can’t stress enough how much love has been poured into RetroRealms; it’s practically oozing out of every pixel. Cute easter eggs are abundant – yes, I spotted that kid in the Silver Shamrock mask – which solidifies my impression that these developers adore classic horror and reflect that appreciation in the game. It’s just full to the brim with cracking little touches, my favourite being the absolutely hilarious surprise that happens at the end of stage 5-1 in Ash’s campaign. I won’t spoil it. Just play it, you’ll see.

The release strategy and pricing will evoke scepticism in some. Please don’t think you’re being undersold; while the individual games are short, they are challenging and satisfying. Both campaigns gets you 20 stages as a baseline, with the additional characters theoretically adding another 20 each. They’re different enough to make it worth your time, especially since the damn thing is so freaking fun. Even writing this, I’m itching to get back to Michael Myers’ story and see what kind of carnage the developers have in store for me on the final levels.

Hidden in each stage are tokens which can be used in the hub – a first-person little thing which recalls Namco Museum – to buy souvenirs and watch videos about the game’s development. These are a neat extra, but what really interests me is the four other arcade machines sitting alongside Ash Vs. Evil Dead and Halloween – a potential four more campaigns to come, each of which can be mixed and matched with what’s already here. I truly hope this comes to pass and that people don’t sit on RetroRealms, because it’s one of the best throwback games I’ve ever played. Yes, it’s simple, but I like that. I want to run and jump and decapitate tradesmen, not fanny around with XP. There are upgrades to buy after each level, but they’re permanent and affordable; no grinding necessary.

I needed a game like this and I’m delighted I got it. I prostrate myself at the feet of Boss Team Games and entreat them to put in Freddy Krueger. And Jason Voorhees. And Chucky, why not. The world of horror is your oyster, licensing pending.