Gaming's Halloween-iest levels

This is Halloween, this is Halloween

If you're reading this sentence on October 31st, then Happy Halloween! If not, you have to wait until next year to revel in the spirit of All Hallow's Eve... or maybe you don't. Games with themed worlds love to take inspiration from Halloween when going for a change of pace in their stage motifs. Spooky ghosts, merry jack-o-lanterns, legions of classic movie monsters - they all lend themselves nicely to creepy and/or kooky levels that evoke fond memories of everyone's favorite candy-and-costume-fueled holiday.

What follows are the Halloween-iest levels in games (and games themselves, though I'll get to those in a minute). If you're the type that likes to appreciate the light-hearted fun of Halloween all year round, you really ought to give these a go. Best of all, dressing up is totally optional.

Hallowee Ville (Puppeteer)

If you ask me, there's no better embodiment of Halloween than a gargantuan pumpkin man that vomits pure frosting.

Halloween Demo (LocoRoco)

Do some of those jack-o-lanterns have three eyes, or is that just a very high-up nose? We report, you decide.

Moonlight Castle (BlazBlue)

True fact: "Blood Moon" is the colloquial term for a lunar tetrad, a series of four lunar eclipses in a row where the moon appears to be colored orange or red.

Pumpkin Hill (Sonic Adventure 2)

I ain't gonna let it get to me, I'm just gonna creep. Down in Pumpkin Hill, I gots to find my lost piece. If you're not down with Knuckles' rapping, that skybox full of monolithic pumpkins, or spending hours trying to find emeralds hidden in a totally featureless level, just get out of my face now.

Gloomy Gulch (Donkey Kong Country 2)

These vignettes really bring me back to my younger days spent trick-or-treating, when I often had to climb disappearing ropes of ectoplasm and was constantly being chased by giant crocodile ghosts. Oh, did that not happen during your Halloweens? Huh.

Halloween Town (Kingdom Hearts 2)

When it comes to costumes, Sora, Donald, and Goofy do not mess around. Just like the decorator who needed at least one pumpkin for each square foot of town.

Stage 2 (Harmful Park)

If Disney's The Haunted Mansion (the ride, not the death knell of Eddie Murphy's career) had a theme park all its own, this is what it would look like.

Threed (Earthbound)

Ness and Paula seem to be taking this alarming news quite well.

Niflheim (Ragnarok Online)

"What's the deal with using witch statues as city landmarks? I mean, my friend tells me to meet him at the witch statue - but which witch statue is he talking about?"

- Jerry Seinfeld's beloved routine about Niflheim