App Weekly: Treat yourself with these fun Halloween apps

It’s Halloween in a certain part of the world. While we do not celebrate the dead as much in India, it might not be the worst thing we could copy from the West. Here is a collection of scary apps and games to send shivers down your spine as you realize you may not be alone in the dark. [caption id=“attachment_4182519” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] It’s Halloween![/caption] In case you do not like scaring yourself, you can still join the fun by playing games like Bubble Witch Saga 3 or simply outfitting your phone with the Halloween House Launcher. Creepy-pasta Creepy-pasta is the Internet’s best user-generated collection of horror stories. Featuring urban legends such as the tale of Slenderman and the Untold Story of Timothy, the app will keep you awake long past bedtime. If you have never been introduced to Creepypasta, the **app** will help you sift through the very best of them and find just the right story to send chills down your spine. Unlike traditional horror stories, Creepy-pasta have the advantage of being based on the very latest trends and pop-culture phenomenon. Distraint Distraint is a pixel horror game about an ambitious person called Price who makes a deal with the devil. The game does not rely on jump-scares to scare you but creates a gloomy atmosphere which will fill you with a growing sense of dread. The background score makes an impact at just the right moments. The story is built up through dialogue with characters the protagonist is sent to torment and clues hidden in the places he visits.

Even though you may not sympathize with the protagonist at first, as the story progresses and horrible things keep happening, you will. The game is restricted to just a strip down the middle of your phone, with the blank space serving as the area for controls. This approach keeps you focussed entirely on the story and unable to look away. Halloween House launcher If you really want to get into the Halloween spirit and show your respect for the dead, you could try the Halloween House Launcher. The launcher turns your default app icons into creepy objects like a misplaced eye, cauldrons and a black cat. The background is a beautifully illustrated haunted house. Bubble Witch 3 Saga If you want to celebrate Halloween but watch horror movies with your eyes shut, Bubble Witch 3 Saga is the app for you. Bubble Witch 3 Saga is one of the immensely popular series where you match three bubbles for the sake of magic. Even if you are not a fan of match-3, Bubble Witch 3 Saga may win you over with its whimsical music, cute characters and casual gameplay. The saga here is your fight against Wilbur, an adorable cat who is supposedly an embodiment of the purest evil.

Five Nights at Freddy’s Five Night at Freddy’s is the gold standard for horror games. If you haven’t played this yet, Halloween is the perfect time be learn about Freddy’s. The game is based on Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a restaurant which started using animatronic robots to please the crowd. When these started misbehaving with the guests in potentially fatal ways, you were appointed as the security guard to watch them through the night.

The game allows you to switch between cameras to see what the robots are up to. Your battery is limited and you have to somehow survive five nights in this restaurant from hell. There will be no ghosts and no mention of the occult, but the grins of Freddy and his friends will haunt you through the night. Boo! Boo! is a special Halloween game about solving the dilemma of painting pumpkins. The game is a version of Factory Balls by Bart Bonte, where you try and match the given pattern by using different objects and layering paint smartly. The visual puzzles are greatly rewarding to solve.

The elements of the game are pretty simple including a few cauldrons of paint, eye-patches, and a witch’s hat. But, the beauty of the game is that given these limited objects, the patterns that you can create are endless. The crisp design and smooth animation will keep you hooked until you solve all 16 levels of this game. Stranger Things: The Game Stranger Things, the Netflix show, was immensely popular when it came out 2016. Timed perfectly to meet the arrival of Season 2, Stranger Things: The Game is a pleasant surprise. Rather than create a match-3, as so many of our beloved movie and TV franchises inexplicably do, this game stays true to its source material. The game looks and feels like a game the show’s characters might have played and locations from the show are recreated in the game.

You can play as the different characters you love like Lucas and Nancy. Each of them has a unique ability based on their strengths as seen in the show. This is a TV-based game done right, because it holds its merit as a standalone game. This Halloween, treat yourself and install the game.