Trick or treat?
One of the worst side effects of the supposed battle between "hardcore" and "casual" is the need to make everything drab and serious. If a game isn't full of angst, gritted teeth, knotted muscle and grim-faced violence then it simply isn't a game. Nowhere is this more obvious than in horror gaming, as adolescent gore and po-faced melodrama have become the main signifiers of the genre.
Remember when it was possible to be spooky and fun? PaRappa the Rapper creator Masaya Matsuura obviously does. Haunt, his Kinect-exclusive ghost-'em-up developed with help from the UK's Zoe Mode, is wonderfully silly and deliciously camp. It's also sort of scary, but not in the blood-soaked manner we've come to expect.
This is horror as you experienced it as a kid. It's a theme-park haunted house, full of cheesy "boo" moments that make you jump even as you're rolling your eyes. It's Vincent Price in a cape, not Jason Voorhees with a machete. It's Halloween (the holiday) not Halloween (the movie). It's about that enjoyable chill up the spine followed by a giggle at how daft it all is.
