Game Review - The Barn: The Game

Ah, the 90s.  A simpiler time when horror movies were as rampant and accessible to children as pornography would become twenty years later.
Hell, horror was practically kid-friendly.  There were Talking Freddy dolls, Jason made talk show appearances and horror anthologies were still all over basic cable.  And then there were the video games.  As far back as Atari, horror franchises have made attempts to become interactive experiences.  Both Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre had titles for the Atari 2600.  But the ones people seem to remember the most fondly, despite them not being very good, were A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th for the NES.  Both games featured our favorite slashers and a bevy of zombies, rats and demonic forces trying to keep you from your ultimate goal:  defeating the villian.  Well now we can relive the good old days of fighting pixels from Hell in The Barn, a new retro side scroller created by the team that made the new film of the same name.

While the film is yet to be released, the game tells the story of six friends who run out of gas on the way to a rock concert and have to escape three costumed creeps:  The Boogeyman, Candycorn Scarecrow and Hallowed Jack, on a trek to find gasoline.

The game starts with you as Sam and you have to search the cabins in each level to find and rescue your friends (sound familiar?).  Once you rescue a friend, they become a playable character.  Each character has their own stregths and weaknesses, weapon of choice and catchphrase.  There are three main levels to get to the titular barn, the final boss on each level being one of the baddies featured in the movie.  On the way, you collect power ups like candy corn, chocolate bars and candy apples that help you gain strength to pull off some great signature moves.

The style of the game looks like it would be very comfortable on the Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis, but is available for iOS and Android.  It's currently only $4.99, a small price to pay for a game that definitely has replayability.  Not to mention it isn't nearly as difficult as collecting bones, light torches or trying to kill Jason with a handful of rocks.