Bones Of Halloween Review

Bones of Halloween is a casual arena shooter that will see you face off against a multitude of pumpkin skeletons in a dark forest. This Halloween themed game is Developed by Petite Games who are also responsible for other titles such as; Arenas of Tanks, Inksplosion and Super Destronaut DX. Bones of Halloween being published by Ratalaika Games also means that on top of taking down pumpkin after pumpkin, you will be able to add another easily obtainable 1000 gamerscore to your gamertag.

Whilst this game isn’t going to sell you on its graphics, it might just be able to pull you in for a Halloween themed shoot ’em up. Dumped into a dark forest with nothing but some weapon pickups and lots of enemies, how long will you survive?

With Bones of Halloween, you get take your pick and jump into one of five modes:

• Classic Mode – This is your standard arena shooter style mode. You can collect money from fallen enemies, buy weapons with that money and also unlock fortune cards, which is change the pace of play.
• Arcade Mode – There is a lack of money and fortune cards in this mode. Weapon pickups are free around the map however, so find ’em and go nuts.
• Hardcore Mode – Similar to “Classic Mode” but you will find enemies more of a challenge here.
• Money Dripper – In this mode you will lose money as time goes on, so you will have to quickly hunt down the skeletons and collect that coin in order to be able to bag yourself a better weapon or an ammo refill!
• Explosive Mode – If you want explosions, this mode has you covered. All enemies are suicide skeletons and you’re armed with a rocket launcher and unlimited ammo, fill ya boots!

Personally, I found the Explosive Mode the most fun, as you can just run around spamming the fire button. I mean, c’mon, who doesn’t like the sound of an unlimited rocket launcher? The Classic Mode is of course where I started off and the fortune cards in this mode help mix up play.

Fortune Cards can influence play and are earned every so often throughout play. They can change up the game in a helpful way or even work against you, depending on the luck of the draw. A choice of 4 random cards can influence aspects such as faster or slower enemies, more or less fog density, and a faster or slower fire rate for your weapons – plus more.

Alongside the five main modes available to you, you can dive into the challenges, with a total of twenty in total to complete. Accompanied by a choice of 4 difficulty modes ranging from easy to extreme, of which I played on Medium and found it a little too easy, so I’ll take it up a notch in my next run.

The challenges consist of tasks such as earning levels of coin, blowing up a certain number of enemies or even just finding a weapon pickup.

The game may offer nothing groundbreaking but there’s plenty of variety when it comes to modes to choose from, which the same can’t be said for the maps, as there is only one. Whilst modes are of course important, it would have been nice to see a couple of different environments throughout the game.

Speaking of variety, you’ll come up against suicidal skeletons, ranged and melee skeletons and also a couple more enemies equipped with different lasers/zappers depending on range.

More variety comes with your arsenal. You start off with a pistol with unlimited ammo which surprisingly packs a punch but as always, we want bigger and better. A sniper rifle, rifle, LMG and rocket launcher are also at your disposal should you find them on the map or play a particular mode.

As previously stated, Explosive Mode is the most fun because, of the rocket launcher, which is a lot fun once you get your hands on it!

Overall, this is a decent little Halloween romp if you just want something to mindlessly shoot after a long day at work. It’s absolutely perfect for that sort of need, whilst of course being accompanied by only eleven easily obtainable achievements that you can just tick off one after another, so if you’re trying to hunt down your next easy completion, look no further than Bones of Halloween.

Whilst I can’t see this one having longevity, it’s a decent Halloween themed shoot ’em up for only£5 (current sale price at time of writing £3.99). If you’re really not in the mood to think or follow along with a story, this could be perfect for you.