Alien vs Predator. Freddy vs Jason. Dracula vs Frankenstein. For almost as long as horror movie monsters have been gracing our screens, the battle to decide which monster is the creepiest, scariest, or downright deadliest has been hotly contested. In the upcoming board game Spooktacular, you and your fellow players must become the beasts, stepping off the screen and into the theater to terrorize and devour humans and prove that you are the cruelest monster on the big screen.
Spooktacular is the next game from Level 99 Games, the studio behind titles like the hard-hitting board game Guilty Gear Strive, the tabletop horror adaptation Dead by Daylight, and the exceptional puzzle series Bullet. The publisher’s developer Marco De Santos and marketing director Crystal Tsui joined me and Alex from the Dicebreaker team to show us a digital demo of Spooktacular in Tabletop Simulator last week ahead of its reveal.
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De Santos compared Spooktacular to the monster massacre that occurred at the end of Drew Goddard’s affectionately playful homage to horror movies, The Cabin in the Woods. Each player takes control of a different monster inspired by cinema classics (cinephiles will see nods to everything from The Blob and horror legend Vincent Price to Stephen King’s killer car, Christine), captured on original movie posters spanning nearly a century of cinema from around the world. (De Santos added that designer D. Brad Talton wrote synopses for each of the made-up films, adding to the feeling of a thoughtful homage.)
Just as no two monsters are exactly the same, each of the 20 monsters in the Spooktacular movie is unique in how it plays. During our playthrough, I took control of Screamin' Eagle, a monstrous football mascot who carries a decapitated head under his arm like a pigskin. Alex, meanwhile, became the '80s-style Doombox, armed with a set of lethal speakers. De Santos and Tsui faced us as an evil killer car called, uh, Killer Car and the cowboy gunslinger Outlander.
The asymmetry of monster gameplay is manifested in their different decks of cards, composed of both generic actions and a set of abilities that only that monster can use. Each monster's player board adds variety between them, mixing up the order in which they perform the basic parts of a turn (moving, drawing cards, and playing cards) and introducing unique minigame-like rules.
Spooktacular has a party game feel to it – the kind of game you'd play on Halloween during a break from your movie marathon.
The different strategies and powers, without piling on the complex rules of an asymmetrical game like Root, remind us of the fast-paced, relaxed chaos of horror toybox Betrayal at House on the Hill, with the party’s selection of monsters altering how each turn plays out. Though the rowdy interaction between players won’t be for everyone, the light-hearted theme and carefree ruleset keep things moving at a fast enough pace that Spooktacular has a party game feel to it – the ideal kind of game to play on Halloween during an hour-long break in your movie marathon.
While each monster may act in a different way, their goal is ultimately the same: earn the most points by scaring or devouring the helpless guests fleeing between the rooms of the cinema building on the main game board. Scaring guests out of your monster’s room (something that reminded me of Pixar gem Monsters Inc, albeit with cheesy B-movie monsters) lets you earn points for each guest who can fit through a different door, while gobbling them up with a devour action helps you fill out a set of guest pawns in five different colors, earning you a movie ticket with a random point bonus for the end of the game.
In addition to the basic moves, each monster gets its own additional methods of racking up points and messing with its rival creatures. My Screamin’ Eagle added an extra set of guests to the map that only I could devour (counting as wild guests of any color for sets), while Alex’s Doombox jumped around the tracks of different playlists as it devoured guests, triggering bonus effects, and Tsui’s Wild West Outlander gained additional actions based on the color of swallowed guests, some of which also caused her to lose points. The full roster of monsters ranges from beginner-level abilities to the addition of more complex rules, inviting ways to let newcomers and more experienced players compete against each other while tailoring the game to how they like to play.
Though each player starts out being able to play just one card on their turn by default, the card you play and your monster’s unique powers provide the opportunity to chain actions together into enjoyable combos. Some cards require you to follow them up with a second card whether you want to or not, while your monster’s unique turn order presents the opportunity to carefully plan the most effective turn to move between rooms, scare guests, devour others, and then disrupt your opponents’ plans. Those who have played Level 99’s other games will see glimpses of them here: Bullet’s enjoyable puzzle-like piece manipulation as you shuffle guests, Guilty Gear’s single-action turns that extend into impressive skill chains, and Dead by Daylight’s top-down horror hunt. Those who are totally new will be able to jump in just as easily, though: Spooktacular is aimed very much at the laid-back end of board games.
Those who enjoy the joy of watching their best laid strategies crumble and the satisfaction of outsmarting their friends will find much to love.
Even on Tabletop Simulator, I had a lot of fun with Spooktacular, quickly grasping the basics of how to play before enjoying the sensation of figuring out how to best use my monster’s unique abilities to scare and devour to the max. The ease with which you can jostle your fellow monsters – pushing them between rooms, chasing away valuable guests, hoovering up those left behind – means it’s highly competitive and often chaotic, but in that way it feels entertaining and equally fair-unfair to everyone on the board. This isn’t a game about planning two or three turns in advance; it’s a game about reacting in the moment to your opponents’ moves, often throwing their own plans into disarray at the same time. Those who enjoy the joy of watching their best strategies fall apart and the satisfaction of screwing over their friends will find plenty to love, and keeping you on the edge of your seat only feels right for a game steeped in a love of cinema.
Spooktacular is planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign this fall, ahead of its planned release next year. The physical game will include unique silkscreened meeples for each monster (even as Tabletop Simulator pieces, they captured the game’s playful sense) with an official lo-fi soundtrack that remixes fictional horror themes to accompany the atmosphere. De Santos added that while future expansions could introduce additional monsters to the fray, all of the monsters developed by the team so far were included in the box.
As someone who loves the ghost train rollercoaster feel of Betrayal at House on the Hill, which plays out almost on rails, and is a sucker for classic movie parodies, Spooktacular struck the perfect balance between thoughtful homage and fast-paced party game. I'm not sure you're supposed to laugh this much during a horror movie, but it's hard not to smile when you're having this much fun.