Every year during October, I play one to a few spooky games — usually games from my backlog. In 2025, I started with Alan Wake II which I hope to finish later this year — look out Spooky Season 2026! There were two other games I barely started around that time. Two smaller games — Terrifier: The ARTcade Game and The Rocky Horror Show Video Game. Both are based on great films to watch during Spooky Season.

This past week I returned to these games and rolled credits on both of them. Terrifier: The ARTcade Game is your classic, retro-style beat ‘em up and The Rocky Horror Show Video Game is an old school platformer. Neither of these games re-invents these genres or adds much there. It’s more about the novelty of playing through the films.

I’ve said in the past how I prefer games that take the world of a film or franchise and create a brand new story — like recent Star Wars games, Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man series, and even Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. The Rocky Horror Show Video Game and Terrifier: The ARTcade Game take you through familiar scenes and beats from the films, but in a less serious, retro setting.

These two games are very different in gameplay style. Still, they have many things in common. First off, they are both inspired by two films with large cult followings — the newer gory Terrifier series and the classic musical-to-film The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Both take a retro game approach of retelling the story of these films. It’s the familiarity with characters, specific scenes and settings, the music, and more that makes these games fun to play for their short runtime — which is close to that of a film (1-2 hours). I could have made it through quicker, but I died so many times in each game. In the end, The Rocky Horror Show Video Game informed me that I had died over 250 times.

Art the Clown | Terrifier The ARTcade Game

Terrifier: The ARTcade Game is a gory as hell co-op beat ‘em up featuring characters (and real-life people) from the three Terrifier series of films. You may play as a team of four or go at it alone. Other horror games turn the villains into the boss fights, in Terrifier: The ARTcade Game you play as the villains, terrorizing this town. The roster includes: Art the Clown (or course), Little Pale Girl (his evil sidekick), Victoria Heyes (the possessed faceless victim), or Adam Burke (aka Chris Jericho).

The game features bits from all three Terrifier films, but it’s also very meta featuring real-life characters, like the writer/director Damien Leone. Terrifier: The ARTcade Game is a movie within a game within a movie. In reality, I’ve only been able to watch the first Terrifier film. I still have one scene burnt into my brain from that movie — if you’ve seen it you should know what it is.

Art the Clown is such a fun, sinister character but that first movie really messed me up. I’ve always loved silly, psychotic villains. The kind of villain that will be laughing with you one second, and punch you in the face the next. I plan to try to make it through the second Terrifier film soon, even if I just watch it in the background while I do something else.

A beat ‘em up for Art the Clown is the perfect game genre for the Terrifier series . While these are horror movies, he is still a clown so the silliness is still there. If you happen to love classic beat ‘em ups you can play this without knowing anything about the films or these characters. If you love the Terrifier films and/or Art the Clown, then you should play this game. 

The one thing that stands out in this game from other recent beat ‘em ups is the level of gore. There’s so much blood and body parts flying onto the screen, plus after defeating normal enemies you may perform signature executions with the simple push of a button. However, other than that this is your basic beat ‘em up. It is pretty short, but there are also extra game modes to unlock and replay.

Dr. Frank-N-Furter | The Rocky Horror Show Video Game

My one big critique for this game is that Bit Bot Media and FreakZone Games should have titled it, The Rocky Horror “Pixel” Show Video Game. That was a real missed opportunity.

Other than that, The Rocky Horror Show Video Game is basically a retelling of the film/musical in a single-player platformer that feels like many classic Nintendo games I grew up on. My favorite part is the chip-tune versions of all the hits from the film/musical.

The old school, retro platformer is the perfect vibe for The Rocky Horror Picture Show as a video game, since the movie is now fifty years old. At some point this game was kind of Celeste-like since I kept dying over and over again while trying to reach the next checkpoint.

The only combat in The Rocky Horror Show Video Game involves picking up and throwing box-shaped objects at skeletons, flying skulls, floating brains, and certain boss characters. In an age where retro-inspired games now feature boss fights with intricate patterns to learn (Hollow Knight), the boss fights are chaotic in this game. After a few attempts you may learn their moves, but you will never be ready for what comes next. Whenever I conquered a boss it was usually done by cornering them and throwing the same box over and over at them until they died. There’s also no three-knockdown rule from classic platformers where bosses had only three hits to die.

Overall, The Rocky Horror Show Video Game was a short retelling of the film. It’s a game for those familiar with the film. I was in love with the chiptune versions of the classic songs along with the dialogue, which is a mix of the script and some added quips here and there. I’d love to see what other classic movies this team can reinterpret into a video game.

More Silly Movie Games

While both of these games and movies are very different, they were still very much the same in many ways. The main reason I featured them together is because these games kind of proved my recent “movies as games” theory wrong. There is a way to create a game that is mostly a retelling of the film, but it has to be done in a creative way — like creating an unexpected retro game version.

An example would be something like, what if a small team took something like the Top Gun movies, and turned it into an old school Ace Combat or plane shooter. That’s just a quick example.

I can see a small indie team taking whatever classic movie and turning it into a video game from that same era. They may even take a new film or series back in time to a different time in gaming. Stranger Things 3 (The Video Game) did something interesting, since they took a new show that takes place in an earlier time period and created a Beat ‘Em Up as if it were created back then.

If the teams behind The Rocky Horror Show Video Game and Terrifier: The ARTcade Game want to create something original next, they may have to go bigger. However, if they want to continue working on small games based on existing films, shows, or franchises they can continue doing this style of game. I’d love to see and hear more chiptune versions of musicals.