The Rotting Zombie's News Round-up for July 2026

Another month of me being lazy when it comes to this blog. Since returning to work back in May, I've really struggled to find a way to fit both day job and blog into my life equally. This week though, for sure there will actually be five posts going up! (news flash; there wasn't!) Onwards to the news.

Cinema Epoch have acquired worldwide distribution rights to Vito Trabucco's giallo comedy thriller - The Delicate Art of Cooking Italian and Killing Your Wife. This follows a man whose weekend is upended when he kills his wife - from this point nothing is quite as it seems for the man. The press release states it pays homage to the suspense traditions of Brian De Palma, Claude Chabrol, and Alfred Hitchcock, and stars Vince Cusimano (Blade: The Iron Cross), Tania Fox and Katt Balsan. The Delicate Art of Cooking Italian and Killing Your Wife has a worldwide digital release planned for late October.

The first teaser trailer for corrupted The Wonderful Wizard of Oz inspired; Dorothy: The Haunting of Oz has been released. The story takes place on Halloween where a viral internet challenge results in nightmarish characters appearing in a Californian town. This is to be the feature length debut for 22 year old writer/director, Elijah J. Alvarez, and will star Adrienne Tabag, Caia Bonner, Jordan Sklansky, Aziah King, Andrew Wang, and Thomas Shan.

Bloodstream premieres supernatural horror Evil Follows on Tuesday, August 4th, alongside its TVOD debut. This is written and directed by Brendan Rudnicki, and is a demonic possession horror (one of my favourite sub-genres of horror). In the film, a mysterious box unleashes an ancient evil when Sarah opens it. With her now possessed, her husband and a spiritualist look for a way to defeat the entity.

SEGA Europe and Creative Assembly have collaborated for an event during the UK's premier horror film festival; FrightFest. Over the five days of the festival; Thursday 27th August to Monday 31st at the Odean LUXE Leicester Square, guests will get to play the prologue of upcoming survival horror video game; Alien Isolation 2. The first game is often said to be one of the scariest horror games ever made, and so it is with good reason people are looking forward to seeing what a sequel brings. Staying on the topic of Alien; that original stone cold classic will be playing in the main Dolby Cinema auditorium screen on the Sunday at 15:30. For more info, check out the FrightFest website.

Joe Pellegrino's short horror film, Nymphal, is streaming for free worldwide on YouTube currently. This surreal and psychological story sees a man and his daughter trapped in their trailer backyard and has been described as 'Lynch meets Lovecraft'.

Finally for today, production began this month on psychological horror anthology; The Hours That Keep Us. Writer/director Tommy Jay Dwyer is to bring together three interconnected stories of love, loss, and obsession. Leading the cast are mixed martial artists Paige VanZant and Mickey Gall, Zack Ward (Freddy vs. Jason), and pro wrestler Vinny Pacifico (Mr. Reset and the Society of Turnbuckle & Bone). Produced by Greatest Gram Productions and HollyWoot Film Group, The Hours That Keep Us will shoot on location in Massachusetts.

The Mortuary Assistant (2026) - Horror Film Review

The Mortuary Assistant is a film adaptation of the video game of the same name in which you surprisingly play as a mortuary assistant. I haven't played the game, nor do I know much about it, but I can say it has been sat in my wish list for a while, so eventually I will get around to playing it. I decided to use my time with the movie trying to see if I could decipher what the game itself would involve; a fun little side quest I set myself. This was directed by Jeremiah Kipp (Crestfallen, Contact), with the screenplay coming from Tracee Beebe and Brian Clarke (the later being the creator of the video game this is based on).

Rebecca (Willa Holland - Gossip Girl, Straw Dogs), is a new mortuary assistant who has recently completed her training, allowing her to work unsupervised. She is also a recovering drug addict who has made it to one year free, important as it gives the character a dark backstory. Her creepy boss, Raymond (Paul Sparks - House of Cards, Thoroughbreds) had told her she would never be needed in the mortuary at night, but one dark and stormy evening he contacts her, telling her he is out of town, so she is needed to deal with some bodies that have been delivered there. Things begin fine, but then Rebecca begins to experience strange goings on. Power fluctuations, ringing phones and doors being knocked on, but no-one being there, and hallucinations of a manically grinning white humanoid. It isn't much later that she discovers she has become possessed by a demonic entity that had been residing in one of the corpses she had been working on, and now it is feeding off of her trauma to try and fully take control of the woman. Luckily for her, Raymond is all too aware of this risk of the job, and he has knowledge of how to deal with the situation. He is also someone looking to save his own skin, and so, rather than assist in person, he instead locks Rebecca in the mortuary and gives her some obtuse instructions via the phone.

Watching this, I hoped it would be doing something similar to the excellent The Autopsy of Jane Doe. Setting wise and situation wise those two films were quite similar. This film mostly takes place over a single night, with Rebecca all alone doing her best to adapt and survive to the hell she has found herself in. The hallucinations she experiences have consequence for her outside of being scary, as these hallucinations are able to physically hurt her. She is visited by these deadite style imitations of people who were/are close to her, with their torment revolving around an incident in Rebecca's past that the film keeps flashbacking to. In the present, Raymond does his best to bring both our protagonist and the viewer up to speed on the lore of the film world. I thought Sparks was great in his role, an interesting character who comes across as neutral rather than good or evil. The help he offers is sincere and legitimate, but he is also someone that doesn't want to put himself at unnecessary risk.
Her journey has her shunted through a series of hallucinations and dream sequences heaped on top of each other, transporting her through time and space. This created a dreamlike feel where I could never be too sure what was really happening and what was imagined, which caused the film's stakes to be drastically lowered. It is hard to fear for the safety of a protagonist when a lot of what she is facing may all be in her head.

The Mortuary Assistant had good atmosphere to it, but ultimately was never scary. The tendency to introduce moments of surprise terror with a musical intro led to those parts always falling flat. The confusing story led to moments when I wasn't exactly sure what Rebecca was trying to achieve, nor how she knew to do it. Within this, there are a few scenes of intense action, which were always fun to watch. The special effects were decent enough, and the make-up work on the various corpses looked neat. The prime antagonist here wasn't that iconic looking, appearing like no end of similar looking creatures in multitudes of short horror films. I do appreciate he was based on the creature from the video game, so not like there was any wiggle room to change its look.

I liked The Mortuary Assistant but I didn't love it. It will be interesting to play the video game and see if this movie retroactively improves or worsens the experience. There was atmosphere in spades here, but with a confusing story and a lack of scares, that atmosphere was squandered. Shudder original The Mortuary Assistant came to Blu-ray and DVD on 20th July thanks to Acorn Media International.

SCORE:

Luna Abyss (2026) - Sci-fi Horror Video Game Review (Xbox Series X)

I almost decided I wasn't going to review action game, Luna Abyss. A weird meld of sci-fi and horror taking place in an even weirder location. I haven't actually heard anyone talking about the game though, myself, I just stumbled across it on Xbox Game Pass. This meant I felt compelled to write a review in appreciation for the hours spent there. While flawed, this was still something that had something to it. My synopsis is based on what I believe was going on, shall try and keep spoilers to a minimum.

A couple of hundred years ago, a second moon suddenly appeared in the space around Earth. This moon was red, and upon being explored, was discovered to have a seemingly endless abyss going all the way down through it. The arrival of a second moon led to problems on Earth, with the red moon's gravity affecting the planet. With this disruption, some people decided to travel to the new moon and form a colony there; mining the abyss for the valuable resources contained within. Others were practitioners of a new religion who believed God was at the bottom of the abyss, and so travelled to the moon to be closer. Eventually, enough people went there that a city was formed. All was fine until one day a strange rot began to emerge from the depths of the abyss, anyone caught by this rot transformed into a mindless monster. After all had fled or been taken by this rot, the city was abandoned, and in present day, the moon is used purely as a penal colony. People born with red eyes on Earth are rounded up and sent away, as they are seen as being evil. It turns out these red eyes allow the humans to remotely pilot artificial constructs using their mind. This is put to effect in the abyss, were constructs are sent to scavenge for resources.
You play as Fawkes; a teenage girl imprisoned on the moon, she is told by an A.I construct; Aylin, that she has been chosen by an all powerful being named the 'All-Father' to use her red eye power to search the abyss for essential items.

The chaotic and sprawling world reminded me of Blame! The structures, while artificial looking, seem to spread on for infinity. Stone staircases, pipes, vents, and vast rooms make up the endless structure, so gargantuan that it doesn't seem possible that it was ever man-made. The signs of human settlements within the abyss gave some nice Bioshock vibes, that is reinforced with the many audio diaries scattered around the levels, buoyed up by lots of environmental storytelling. Outside of a handful of locations though, the meat of the game is abstract constructs devoid of life. With you travelling around the abyss, you never really get a good feel for the layout of it. Due to this, it never felt like too much of a 'lived-in' location, more like a collection of levels connected by pipe networks.

Luna Abyss is a first person adventure game that is a mix of shooting and platforming. There are also friendly characters you can interact with, though outside of hidden rooms, there are no side quests to be found. Over the course of the roughly 12 hour game, you get access to four sci-fi guns. These are essentially an assault rifle, shotgun, sniper, and rocket launcher disguised as something far fancier. Rather than ammo, the guns work on a cooldown timer and can overheat. In addition to using these to kill enemies (using a lovely Metroid Prime style lock-on ability), the guns can be used to assist with the platforming. The shotgun can be used to destroy blue forcefields, the sniper for purple ones, the rocket launcher can fire multiple rockets at the same time to hit switches. Enemies for the most part are made up of floating orbs of various types, and demonic humanoid creatures. There are a bunch of epic feeling boss battles against huge constructs, which is when a more 'bullet Hell' type of gameplay begins. As fun as the bosses were, they all take place in a formulaic way, with circular battle arenas for each one.

The meat of the game is platforming, the abyss is very vast in size, with Fawkes traversing this world with a combination of double jumps, boosts and the handy ability to take zero fall damage (you fall from some dizzying heights here). There was a steady stream of new abilities to help with the platforming, such as forming platforms out of ice, a grapple beam, and most fun - unlocking the ability to possess specific constructs to move around the levels. One of these has you on a train track, another allows you to magnetically stick to floating platforms, and one puts you inside of a heavily armed killbot. 

The look and feel of the game world is chunky, with environments feeling thick with substance. This allowed for a cohesive stitching together.
Voice work was a highlight, with many of the accents coming out of the weird constructs being regional British ones. Never was not strange to see a grotesque construct speaking with a soft northern accent! As a whole, I thought the voice acting was great.
There was a decent story here, with plenty of flashback cutscenes to try and explain vaguely what has been going on. Much of the story is revealed via audio diaries and notes however.

Excellent controls, quality voice acting, and a unique setting with an occasional U.K feel to it. I wish there had been more of a lean into Bioshock style human locations, as many of the levels here are more alien and remote in feel, while I found the lived-in areas to be a lot more interesting. Split between platforming and shooting, there wasn't too much variation throughout this, but it was good for what it was. Maybe missing something to really feel essential, Luna Abyss still worked at creating a compelling game world.

SCORE:

Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors (2026) - Horror Video Game Review

A few years back I got bitten terribly by the Vampire Survivors bug. On the surface it looked like junk shovel-ware, but just one play was enough to discover just how insanely addictive that rogue-like auto-shooter really was. Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors is aiming to do the same with card battlers that the other game did with auto-shooters. Boy, does it succeed.

Much like its predecessor, the story here has you setting out to discover the source of the evil responsible for unleashing hordes of monsters upon the land. Starting off in a village, you choose your character and leave, the assumption being that a vampire is the cause. Of course, exactly the same as before, the big joke is that there isn't a single vampire to be found anywhere in the game.

Again, this is presented with a charming pixel-art style. Indeed, the monster and character models are lifted whole-sale from Survivors, looking even more basic and janky due to being blown up to a larger size to fit the first-person card battling. Each stage follows a familiar rogue-like pattern. Defeating enemies with your card attacks gives you XP gems, which then level-up your character, each level giving you the option of three rewards. There are different attack types, buffs, and special abilities to add to existing cards. Each card has a value, usually between 0 and 3, these allow you to build up combos, with each subsequent card in line getting more and more powered up. You traverse maze like levels in first person, dotted around are candles to break for gold and other boons (gold being used at the village to buy new heroes at the tavern, buy permanent upgrades at the shop, and later, adding ability slots to cards at the blacksmiths). Levels are usually made up of five floors, with the exit to each floor being guarded by a boss enemy whose charging attack can be quite painful to receive if not countered.

Story-wise, of course this is very basic. Levels are identical to Survivors, woods, an enchanted library, milk factory etc. It is very addictive and I always felt I was making progress, each run taking anything up to an hour to get through. I found it fun to play both with and without podcasts as background accompiment. It was also lengthier than you might expect, my final play time being over 24 hours! Similar throughout, I still rarely got bored playing this, and by the time the end credits rolled it just about hadn't outstayed its welcome.

Vampire Crawlers, much like its protégé was crack in the form of a game. Highly addictive and with a good sense of progression, this was very much worth playing. Even better, it is currently on Xbox Game Pass.

SCORE:

Dead Space: Catalyst (2012) by B.K Evenson - Sci-fi Horror Novel Review

Last year I was taken by a sudden urge. In this heightened fever I decided that I would work my way through all Dead Space media in chronological order. Over the years there has been novels, graphic novels, films, audio dramas, and of course the sci-fi horror video games that started it all. I enjoyed reading Dead Space: Martyr and so a second novel from the same author; B.K Evenson was something I was looking forward to reading. While this one didn't do anything as surprising, it was still a decent follow up.

Istvan and Jensi are two brothers who grow up in a slum area on planet Vinduaga. From a young age, Jensi had to look out for his brother due to his mental health issues that caused him to hear voices, and to sometimes lash out in psychotic anger. Circumstances lead to Jensi being adopted by a loving family, but Istvan decides to instead stay in the slum area of the domed settlement they lived in, and become homeless. Time passes and his deteriorating mental state, and new voices in his head, lead to him assassinating a politician. His punishment sees him removed to a penal colony for political prisoners at the far reaches of the known galaxy, which also happens to house a top secret research facility that has a replica of the 'marker'; based on the ancient marker that was discovered 80 years previously on Earth. It appears that the marker has been using its strange influence to set up the circumstances that would bring Istvan there, seeing him as the perfect vessel to spread its message.
Jensi meanwhile hasn't given up on his brother, years later eventually discovering where he has gone, Jensi joins a supply drop crew and sets out on a fateful rescue mission.

Martyr was entirely set on Earth, this sequel entirely set off Earth, The lengthy first part didn't grab my attention. Charting the early lives of the duel protagonists, this had nothing to do with the more interesting parts of the Dead Space universe. I admit I fell off the book completely early on, only returning back to it some months later. The book improved steadily from this opening section, with the introduction of the planet the penal colony is based at where it felt the story really started to come into its own. The core of the story explores the markers influence on its victims, from the Unitologist head of research at the top secret base; Dr. Briden, to the prisoners of the nearby facility, and the guards in their ship orbiting the planet. This I still found interesting and didn't mind (much like Martyr), the iconic necromorph monsters not appearing until the final part of the novel. When they do appear, it felt very much like the games; from people discovering you need to cut off their limbs, and needing to stamp on their corpses, to the inclusion of cutting tools, RIGs, and even the inclusion of a mini stasis field. This all felt suitably appropriate.

I guess for me, the story here didn't really feel important to the overall lore. The whole story is based on an obscure note found in Dead Space 3, which itself was extremely light on details. Having gotten the origin of Unitology in Martyr, there were no surprising revelations to be found in Catalyst. The novel did pick up from its slow beginning, and told an enjoyable and exciting story, even if it really was just a side story rather than an integral piece of fiction.

Dead Space: Catalyst was the last of the novels by Evenson, and indeed the last Dead Space novel to be written as of 2026. From here on in, the multimedia series this takes place in moves up to the time that the video games are set in. Here, there was plenty of gruesome violence and dark moments, and did feel like it belonged in the universe.

SCORE:

Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 'Safe Haven' (2025) - Horror Video Game Review

In-between playing mascot horror Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3 'Deep Sleep' and this latest (for consoles at least) entry; Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 'Safe Haven', I fell down a giant rabbit hole in the form of the very rough, yet equally addictive Garten of Banban series. I was so down this hole that even when I picked up Chapter 4, I still didn't return. Instead, playing through all 8 games in that other series before finally being able to come back. I had in my head that both game series were on an even level with each other, but playing this one, I quickly realised how much more polished and well made Poppy Playtime of course is. Unavoidable spoilers for previous games to follow.

As a former employee of the sinister toy company, Poppy Playtime, you had returned to the factory ten years after a disaster closed it down, following a cryptic letter you received in the post. Safe Haven begins with you descending into the darkest level of the secret underground facility, where there is no longer any pretence as to the twisted experiments being performed by the company. Between the underground prison and surgical wing lies the titular 'Safe Haven', a home for all the non-violent sentient toys, who hide there, protected by Doey the Doughman (a large creature made out of what appears to be Playdough). Poppy arrives and announces a plan that would see the complete destruction of the entire Poppy Playtime facility, as well as the sinister Prototype (the mastermind behind the initial disaster ten years previously). To carry out this plan however, the employee must travel to the domain of  'The Doctor', to retrieve a high access key card that he has in his possession.

Following the trend of the other games, this fourth chapter is again longer than any of the ones that came before, with my overall (Poppy) playtime being over five hours. Deep Sleep introduced more of a pure horror vibe, and that continues here, the bleak and brutalist prison area being a prime example. There is lore here in spades, with this chapter having more notes and videotapes to discover than ever before. The story that plays out during this chapter is also the most involved yet, featuring a big cast of characters. Helping you are Poppy, Oliver, Kissy-Missy and Doey. That later one was a fantastic new one, coming across as almost cartoon-like with his comical exaggerated movement and jovial way of talking, yet also containing within him a lot of darkness that occasionally bubbles to the surface.
Much of the chapter has you pitted against 'The Doctor', an antagonist who is more cerebral, watching you over CCTV rather than physically trying to kill you. He is a constant presence, taunting you, directing where you are able to go, and occasionally sending enemies after you, most notably, the lion-like yarn creature; Yarnaby.

There are puzzles to solve and chase sequences as always, but also an increased focus on stealth sequences that see you pushing switches while avoiding a prowling creature. The stealth is pretty simple as the creatures appear to have atrocious vision, only able to spot you when they are almost on top of you. I enjoyed the chase sequences, nearly all of which were fun to do. There was the odd moment of frustration when it wasn't exactly clear where you were meant to go while being chased. There were also a few boss battles, but all followed a similar pattern of pressing switches and pulling levers.
Safe Haven is graphically lovely, especially coming from the very simple and plain level design of Garten of Banban. I really enjoyed traversing the areas here, occasionally giving a Resident Evil 4 vibe with its mine areas and labyrinthian medical facility areas. All of this leads up to a cliff-hanger finish that was a return to form after the underwhelming end to the last chapter.

Playing Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 'Safe Haven' made me realise just how superior in quality this mascot horror game is to nearly any other one in the sub-genre of horror video games. I have a soft spot with both this and GOB, but with both games it feels like an ending really needs to come into sight, rather than treading water by stretching out the plot. Many had assumed that Chapter 5 would be the the final game, but apparently that isn't the case. Regardless, the second it drops on consoles, I will be plunging in feet first.

SCORE:

Trepang2 (2023) - Horror Video Game Review (Xbox Series X)

Originally released in 2023, but only very recently added to Xbox Game Pass, Trepang2; (despite the title this is a first instalment, the original one had you playing as a sea cucumber!?) published by Team17, is a Hell of a weird game to play. This first person military shooter/horror mash-up is pure schizophrenia, the quality going up and down like a yo-yo during the roughly 10 hour campaign. When it's bad it's really bad, but when it's at its peak - it can reach levels of near perfection.

You play as Subject 106 - a super soldier who at the start of the game is being held captive and brainwashed by the shady all-powerful global entity, Horizon. Broken out of your confinement by an equally shady mercenary group called Task Force 27, you are given an offer to join up with them once you have escaped the prison facility and transported to their secretive HQ. Task Force 27 really have it in for Horizon, and so your goals align, with each mission taking you to a different Horizon facility dotted around the world for you to attack and expose its secrets. At each place you uncover sinister experiments that the entity had secretly been performing on volunteers, with this information then published by the mercenary group in an effort to weaken the companies global reach, enough that a full frontal assault on their main HQ can then be initiated.

Trepang2 had the feel of a middle of the road Xbox 360 shooter, albeit, with a nice coat of paint and better quality of life improvements to the gameplay. As the super soldier protagonist, you infiltrate bases over six main missions and an equal amount of side missions (roughly, can't recall the exact amount), with the quality varying wildly throughout. At first this felt like it was going to be an immersive sim in the style of something like F.E.A.R. As you battle through levels, scenery gets blasted apart (reminding me of Black), and you get treated to the increasingly desperate radio chatter of the enemies commanders as you single handily mow down legions of faceless enemy soldiers. There are computers to hack, vents to traverse, key VIP boss-style specialists to defeat, and also...monsters (more on that later). You can hold two weapons at a time, later getting the ability to duel-wield, pick up and throw enemies, as well as use two different recharging super abilities. One of these puts you into a Max Payne style slow-mo/bullet time state, the other makes you briefly invisible. Oddly, you are unable to aim down the sights of your guns (of which I believe there were about 8 different types), instead, the traditional aim down sights button instead throws your grenades. Combat never gets more complicated than that, no upgrades to your abilities, though you are frequently fighting small armies of spawning enemies. Missions, especially the side missions, can become very video game-like in feel, multiple ones being nothing much more than combat arenas where you have to survive against waves of increasingly tougher enemies.

So, at first glance this did feel like it might be an immersive sim in the design of the levels. The places you go to are certainly full of environmental details, but it isn't long before it comes clear (in some of the levels at least) that the actual level layout can leave a lot to be desired. Main missions are typically set in labyrinthian locations, while at the same time also being extremely linear, legions of locked doors funnelling you ever onwards down the only unlocked ones. These missions can be extremely hit and miss, pure joy one moment, screaming frustration the next. Take the second mission that is set in a Horizon medical facility. The first half has you slowly ascending through the facility into the basement lab, where you discover patients had been experimented on and turned into essentially zombie type husks. Sounds cool, but then the second half has you fighting these zombies who really annoyingly explode upon death, leading to lots of swearing on my part as I constantly got swarmed by the blighters. Some of the main missions really do suck, one that sees you assault the mansion based HQ of a group of cultists was once such example that was a real slog to get through. Others though were startingly amazing. One mission sees you exploring a Soviet underground base whose inhabitants had mysteriously all vanished without a trace. From start to finish that level was pure joy to play through; a 10/10 mission stuck in an often middling game. Perfectly designed, atmospheric, and at times transported you ingeniously to Creepypasta 'Backrooms', linear spaces complete with soggy carpet and yellow walls - was so unexpected to discover!
Trepang2 is a crazed mix of military shooter and horror, with roughly 75% of the game the first part, and the remaining 25% when things occasionally gets weird. That other part makes for a real ride, where you are never really sure what to expect next. A moth-man, bio-organic blobs that communicate via computer banks, evil spirits, clones, zombies, and one side mission that sees you on an oil rig battling a giant U.F.O! This felt especially jarring with so much of the rest of the game feeling much more grounded. I was fully on board for the horror of course, a welcome atmospheric break from the pure action of the rest of the game.

Trepang2 was a weird game with a frequently wild and darkly humorous (though somewhat generic) story. At its highs, this has some of the best video game moments I have experienced in years, but it is so hit and miss in quality that the less well designed moments really bring the overall game down to something that at times is very average.
There is DLC in the form of battle arenas and two extra side missions, but I never played those.

SCORE:

Garten of Banban VIII: Anti Devil (2025) - Horror Video Game Review

I said in my review of Garten of Banban VII that I would be saving the most recent release in the series; Garten of Banban VIII: Anti Devil until it went on sale. With my month long holiday to Australia pending (at the time of typing but certainly not at the time of editing!), I relented and brought the game, once again playing the whole thing in a single sitting. This latest game is the most polished and longest yet, but there was also a notable reduction in horror in lieu of more action set pieces. Being both a sequel to Garten of Banban 0 and VII, unavoidable spoilers to follow.

After discovering the existence of a mascot creature that had been intended to never have been found, the ruler of the Banban Kindergarten sixth basement floor city - Syringeon, has put you in prison, to prevent you from revealing this fact. Eventually you are broken out, and in your wild escape you end up in a familiar setting. It is here that you find a creature locked away in a cupboard; Flumbo. A severely injured Banban appears (last seen about to take on a small army of corrupted mascots at the end of Garten of Banban VI) denying all knowledge of having been the one who imprisoned Flumbo and telling him that he is needed at Syringeon's surgery urgently. Realising during the train journey to the surgery that the master of this floor has it out for the player, Banban drops him off at an abandoned medical facility and tells them to meet them later at a central tower the surgery is located at.

I didn't like the increase in characters in the previous game, nor the 1930s themed city area, but here, having you in a more dilapidated area of the city made the early prison section quite fun. After that, the game came to feel like a mix of Silent Hill and Garten of Banban, with the player exploring a long abandoned dark and dingy hospital. Here, there is plenty of lore revealed about various creatures, which I of course loved. This is the first game playing as the the human protagonist that you don't have access the dodgy drone. I was pleased that infernal contraption wasn't in use as it has been terrible to control right from the start and rarely fun. Instead, you are giving a handheld device that can be used to open doors by zapping them with electricity. Interestingly, this is also the first game where you are actually able to directly attack mascot creatures (by using this device). The game is again a mix of puzzles and chase sequences, but nothing too taxing either way. Thankfully, the vast frustration last time around with some of those chase sequences are gone here.

Anti Devil took me about three hours to complete, a mix of horror elements and more action/story based stuff. There were huge developments here, but I can't help that the grander story involving huge amounts of characters have reduced the unsettling isolation of earlier games. There are all the familiar characters, and it even seems the goal of finding your missing child may be getting closer, but the set pieces while exciting and fun, could not be said to be scary. The highlights for me where the more spooky parts. Investigating the hospital was an early highlight, a chase sequence in a storage unit building was also great, having the most unique enemy of this chapter feature. There were a handful of boss encounters, neither of which were particularly great, one was a bit dull, the second a bit annoying. There was yet another Stinger Flynn dream sequence, I always enjoy those. The mid game point took a surreal turn to a tribal village, I did not expect that, and it made for a more sedate change of pace, but again, those alien type creatures are often a bit too comedic for my liking (an early section with a demented doctor was quite freaky I will admit).

By having the story of the dictatorship of Syingeon take centre stage, the horror was diminished greatly. I do enjoy the story, but the horror is what I am really here for, not all out action, so I hope the next instalment (painfully not due until August this year!) will head back more into horror territory, and maybe have the player once again more isolated rather than surrounded by allies.

SCORE:

Garten of Banban 0 (2025) - Horror Video Game Review

It had to happen eventually, this past month (at the time of typing back in February) I have had a whale of a time playing through the Garten of Banban mascot horror games. Sure, sometimes the quality has been less than ideal, but I really grew to love the liminal low-fi world, the sometimes janky controls, and the story. With Garten of Banban 0, I have for the moment reached my personal end. There is an eighth game out, but I don't currently own it, and with the ninth game not due out until way later in the year in August, I want to pace myself (ok, it turns out I in fact did not pace myself, a review for the eighth game dropping some point soon!). For once, spoilers for previous games not to follow, as the title might suggest, this time around we have a prequel.

You play as an unnamed young creature who one day wakes up in a small room with no idea who you are, where you are, or why you are there. The door to your room is soon opened up by someone; a young red creature that introduces himself as Banban. He leads you out to a vast underground play area, where you are introduced to further creatures. After playing a few games with your new friends, the day ends and you return to your room. You are disturbed later that night by Banban. He tells you he has something that he wants to show you, leading you to an intimidating gigantic locked door...

This was the second game in the series to be free, on Playstation 5 it had a much reduced price than recent others, so I figured it likely wouldn't be the longest game. It took me roughly an hour to complete, and on the whole I had a lot of fun with it. I'm sure important lore is given, and it was interesting to see the characters I've come to love appearing as children rather than grown adults. As to when the game is set, or where it is set, I don't know. I have a feeling the location might feature in the eighth instalment, time will tell. I thought the location looked great, and while the first half is light on horror, things do pick up when the night time sequence begins. It leads to an introduction of a fearsome and creepy looking new antagonist, making for a fun finale. I will say that on my playthrough, the game crashed in this final section, causing me to have to restart the game and replay a small part. It did take me out the story somewhat.

As per usual, along with a chase sequence, there are a few puzzles to do, the hardest of which had you trying to line up spinning symbols in a room rapidly filling with poisonous gas. Though with that one, when the timing clicked, it clicked immediately; a Herculean task suddenly fun and easy. With you as a creature, and set before the events that led to the protagonist of the main games entering the facility, there wasn't much explanation or deep story. A few notes were scattered about that gave some neat early lore about Banban, and as mentioned, I thought the location this game took place in looked fantastic.

With a cheaper price, I figured this would be bite size, but I still had fun along the way. I'm going to miss this series, which is crazy as I initially grudgingly picked it up as a stop gap game while waiting for Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 to go on sale. Something I forgot to mention; shout out to the great end credits sequence, the first time one of these has had credits, and the charming illustrations show the entire series story from start to current end.

SCORE:

Garten of Banban VII (2024) - Horror Video Game Review

I have been barrelling through the Garten of Banban series of mascot horror video games these past weeks, mainly due to travelling to Australia for a month (at the time of typing). Hopefully I am still able to put up blog posts there using my laptop (I am!), this review is written four days before the long 25 hour plane journey starts. Garten of Banban VII is the first game in the series not to be released in 2023, and was the only one to be released in 2024. I also have to say it was mightily disappointing. As ever, unavoidable spoilers to follow.

After descending yet another elevator of the secret facility hidden under Banban's Kindergarten, you arrive on floor six - the domain of Syringeon. The previous floor having become overrun by Sir Dadadoo and his small army of corrupted creatures. You had fled the area with the intention of retrieving the missing piece of Queen Bouncila's magical sceptre; the only item capable of sending the giant slug and his naughty one minions back into her pouch. After finding the surgeon, he instructs you with locating Jumbo Josh, the green giant being somewhere in Syringeon's improbable city, and who the creature believes is the only one capable of stopping Dadadoo.

I have to say, I did not expect a city to be found on this particular floor of the facility. I reckon by now we must be getting on for a good half a mile under ground. After a brief but fun horror opening, you make it to the city. The rest of the game takes place in this small open world area, with you tasked with heading to various locations, such as a bar, apartment block and theatre, as you search for clues on Josh's whereabouts and find the items you need to capture him. Unfortunately, this is the most frustrating game in the series by far, frustration popped up at several annoying moments. Chase sequences are back, but there was one here that required a mix of running and pixel perfect jumps. I must have taken at least 50 increasingly angry attempts until I finally did that section. Then there is the drone, it has another upgrade that lets you control it directly. I had hoped this would make it less cumbersome to control, but alas, the controls are poor and its range is limited by invisible walls. There are also a lot less puzzles to be found here, a handful of ones that mostly revolve around memorising patterns.

The city was fine, populated by alien looking creatures who talk in a variety of languages, it wasn't anything exciting. It had a kind of 1920's American gangster type feel, the bar playing jazz music, and a misty vibe to the streets. I can't say I liked that aesthetic, for much of the two and a half to three hour game there was barely any horror to be found. You get the obligatory dream sequence which to be fair was pretty fun, but the lore here was minimal. The story of containing Sir Dadadoo started to feel like a bit of an unimportant sub plot, divorced from the bigger story of finding your missing child. I liked the twist ending, but other than that there wasn't many interesting events to be had, outside of an epic finale, and the death of a major character.

I figured that each subsequent game in the series would be better and more polished. Garten of Banban VII however felt a bit of a mess. It felt like it was too ambitious for its own good, the amount of times I encountered invisible walls during my playthrough was ridiculous, and those moments of absolute frustration really hampered my enjoyment. This was ok, but really lacked the quality of the last few games.

SCORE:

Garten of Banban VI (2023) - Horror Video Game Review

Surprise surprise, it is yet another review of one of the games in the prolific mascot horror video game series; Garten of Banban. If you have been following these, you may be wondering where my review for Garten of Banban V is, seeing as the last review I put up was for Garten of Banban IV. This has caused me no end of confusion. Initially I believed that for some bizarre reason the fifth game just hadn't been added to the Playstation store, but it turns out that as of now, that fifth game still hasn't been released, despite there being eight games released. What I do know about that missing game, is that it was for some reason planned to be missing, and that rumors suggest it was meant to be a prequel, taking place on the day that the event happened that caused all the staff and children of Banban's Kindergarten occurred. 
Anyway, onwards to my review of the fifth released game - Garten of Banban VI, and as always, spoilers for previous games are bound to follow.

Due to Bittergiggle's meddling, the 'naughty ones' that had been contained within Queen Bouncelia's pouch have been released once more. Arriving on the fifth floor down, Sheriff Toadster leads you to the locked room where the Queen's allegedly magical scepter is kept, with it assumed that the scepter has the power to return the mischievous monsters back to the pouch. He asks you to work your way around the floor, pressing the three switches that will open the door to the scepter room, and making sure to avoid the dark, for that is where the naughty ones like to reside.

This was another great entry in the series, and the final game to be released in 2023. To have five games released in the space of a year was really impressive. The games have come on leaps and bounds from the very rough and basic first game. This, like the game before, took me roughly two hours to complete. All of that time I was having a blast. It is more of the same to be fair, there are chase sequences, scripted story moments, an obligatory dream sequence, and plenty of vaguely challenging puzzles to solve. If any of those elements were not fun then it might be an issue; it might seem repetitive. That isn't the case though, some of the puzzles here were the most complex yet, even if they are still simple to do. There wasn't really much new in terms of the puzzles. You had one kind of similar in style to the operation puzzle from Garten of Banban III, there was a boss encounter that required mild puzzling to solve (thankfully far less frustrating than the last game's boss fight!), and there was a platforming section, which to its credit did ask for something more than just jumping around a bottomless chasm.

The lore is where it is really at for me. The biggest thing this has over Poppy Playtime is how much personality these mascot monsters have. I love that each floor of the mammoth facility leads to the introduction of new monsters, while never forgetting about ones that have came before. I love all the interactions between these monsters, and their interactions with you, each new game it feels like less and less of the creatures have it in for you, even when you forge new alliances and end old ones. Finding key cards and notes is still the order of the day, but this was the most open level yet, with chasms in short supply, and your upgraded magical drone (sure is clumsy how it operates still), now able to shine lights into dark places. Darkness is a key part of this game, and becomes a puzzle itself. The locations are as ridiculously huge and unbelievable as ever, but thinking of these places as liminal spaces has made them a lot more interesting to me. 

I'm completely engaged in the story by this point, I can't wait to play the next game in the series, though feel a twinge of sadness knowing that there are only three of these micro-games to play and I will be caught up...completely. Really enjoyed Garten of Banban VI, who have I become?

SCORE:

Garten of Banban IV (2023) - Horror Video Game Review

I think something has broken within me. I initially picked up Garten of Banban as a stop gap mascot horror game to play while I was waiting for later entries of Poppy Playtime to go on sale (being jobless at the moment, my limited budget doesn't stretch to buying full price games, even as relatively cheap as these all are). Since then Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 has gone on sale and I have brought it. I also picked up a bunch of the Garten of Banban games at the same time, and despite the low quality...I am completely hooked on them! A part of me knows that this is a subpar series, but I just cannot stop playing the damn things! With a choice of the fourth Poppy Playtime or Garten of Banban IV, I somehow chose the later. As always, unavoidable spoilers to follow.

Having escaped finally from Stinger Flynn at the end of Garten of Banban III, you have descended down to the mysterious fourth floor of the seemingly infinite basement complex hidden under Banban's Kindergarten, with a chick creature in tow. It isn't long before you have once again been captured, this time by new creature - Sheriff Toadster. In a weird twist, Sheriff Toadster is a subject of a kangaroo themed creature called Queen Bouncelia, and both of these creatures are shockingly actually non-hostile to you. Sympathetic to your search for your missing child (children?), Queen Bouncelia instructs Sheriff Toadster to help you retrieve three parts of a damaged elevator from around her kingdom, which when repaired will take you back up to one of the higher levels where you can continue your search.

I played through this game in one single sitting, and I have to say it was by far the most polished and fun to play one yet. Your objective is clear from the start, and with this level split into four distinct sections, it is clear also where you need to go. There is a load of lore, notes mainly talk about Sheriff Toadster and Queen Bouncelia, later on you get audio diaries that talk about the rogues gallery of creatures you have previously encountered (who of course once again appear here). With each subsequent game, this distances itself more and more from Poppy Playtime. I loved that not all the creatures are hostile to you, and I liked how self contained this game felt. It both gives further beats to the main story, while also having its own little plot going on of a rebel jester creature that is on the level causing mischief.

There is the usual assortment of fun and easy puzzles, from spot the difference, to again more switch pressing with your magical teleporting drone. There were also a couple of chase sequences (one that starts immediately at game's beginning), and another kind of boss fight against a new giant creature occurs. That boss fight was a low point of IV though, involving you tricking it into running into giant switches, it took me many many goes before I finally worked out how to do that. According to my Playstation 5, this was the longest game yet, with me taking about two hours to finish it. Each subsequent game costs more than the previous one, but this was still well under £10. This is a brief experience, but it was also a fun one. There is something about the basic creature designs that just become more and more appealing with time.

It is crazy to me that four Garten of Banban games were released in the space of a year (actually five in the end). There has been a thankful gradual improvement with each game, this one being the most fun I've had yet. It wouldn't make much sense to pick up Garten of Banban IV if you haven't played the previous games, but from the growing quality (there are some actual attractive looking locations here, and the increase in background music is much appreciated), this one was by far the best one yet. Just don't expect anything remotely scary, the jump scares are once again ineffectual, and the content very horror slight.
With eight games in the series released, you would assume that the next game will be Garten of Banban V. That is not the case though. Tune in to the next review to find out more.

SCORE:

Garten of Banban II (2023) - Horror Video Game Review

It was about what I expected when I played through the first in the Garten of Banban series of video games last month. A mascot horror game that takes heavy inspiration from the much better made Poppy Playtime series. I did say then, that if I saw the subsequent ones on sale I would take a look of them. Less than a month later and those games are on sale, so I gave Garten of Banban II a try. Unavoidable spoilers for the first game to follow.

The first game ended with you descending on a hidden elevator into the depths of the Banban's Kindergarten, before getting attack by a giant creature. This one picks up immediately afterwards, the attack caused the elevator to crash, with you saved by the creature breaking the elevator's fall. You emerge into a secret underground complex, and it is there that someone spots you on the complex's camera system. A man's voice informs you that he has become trapped in the security room, and has asked for your assistance in finding the key card to free him. Can this man be trusted though?

Much like with Poppy Playtime Chapter 2, Garten of Banban II is more of the same but offers a larger experience than the roughly 45 minutes of the first game. It is hard to quantify exactly how long this one took, as I did have the game paused for minutes at a time due to texting a friend while playing. I reckon that this one took me just over an hour to complete, and at a once again dirt cheap price, I find it hard to complain about that length. Thankfully, while still obviously low budget (the signs on the walls and the notes you find still all appear like they were written on MS Paint!), this was a much better made game than before, and is made up of more than just one long corridor with branching rooms off of it. Again in first person, your main goal is finding key cards to proceed further into the labyrinthian underground complex. You still have a drone that you can send to press switches, though this seemed to be used less this time around. Puzzles were all easy, but they were fun to do, not so easy that they felt pointless obstacles to progress. These puzzles range from collecting a group of chick mascots and returning them to their nest, to pressing switches in a correct order, and one sweat inducing platforming section over a large pit, which was more fun than its similar counterpart in the first game. The highlight of this second game was when you find yourself inadvertently trapped in a classroom with a teacher mascot, having to answer the questions she gives you, with surreal break time mini-stories involving the other students, who were made up of non-sentient watering cans, bowling pins, and shade wearing basketballs! I really enjoyed that section, felt unique, doing something different in feel to Poppy Playtime at last.

Before there were only the two mascot antagonists, and both barely featured. For this second game there were at least six of the creatures. I can't recall their names, but these included the return of the bird from the first game, the teacher mascot, a giant snail, a large spider, and a hulking great green monster among others. Similar to Poppy Playtime, some of these mascots are able to talk. The voice acting wasn't great, it felt like they had just dragged random people off the streets to read the lines. In the context of these normal voices coming out of vaguely creepy looking creatures though, the voice work grew on me. There were plenty of jump scare moments should you get caught in any of the sections where that is possible, unlike my first experience, here, I jumped a fair few times. The chapter culminates in a chase sequence, that while not original, was pretty cool, mainly due to the wonderfully massive Jumbo Josh. Dotted around the game world are letters and video tapes. I never actually got a chance to use the tapes, but the letters added a surprising amount of lore to what had seemed to be a wafer thin game story-wise. There are still many lingering questions, but I had far more of an idea what was going on than I did previously.
Level design is better here, but again, the game world doesn't feel like a realistic place, you have dark chasms that stretch into darkness, and this place if real, you would have to assume was created by a maniac, due to the amount of artificial puzzles and level design. It is after all a game though, so perhaps I'm being a bit harsh on that front.

Garten of Banban II was a lot more fun to play than the first. It is still obviously low quality, but I found this to be better designed in general, and I didn't really find any of it frustrating to get through. It also delighted by doing some original things, rather than just feeling like a copied clone. Even with those new ideas, I could never escape the feeling that this is just a poor imitation of a better series, but I would be lying if I said there wasn't some fun to be had here, and would be lying if I said I didn't immediately boot up the third game at the completion of this one.

SCORE: