WarioWare-inspired horror game Spookware gets a late August release date

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It's the perfect start to Spooky Season

Spookware
(Image credit: Beeswax Games)

For folks who love WarioWare-style madcap minigame collections, the next month just got at least 90% spookier.

Before WarioWare: Get It Together hits Nintendo Switch on September 10 with a new, co-op friendly take on microgame action, Spookware will debut the first of four episodes on Steam on August 26. What is Spookware, you may ask? It's like if all of WarioWare's games were about assembling skeletons out of bones or sawing some dude's head off and other horror stuff. It sounds grim, but it looks like its video nasty VHS aesthetic is counterbalanced with just enough goofiness to keep you laughing at least as much as you're shivering.

Developer Beeswax Games revealed the release date for Spookware today, also sharing the Steam wishlist trailer that introduces you to its three horror movie-loving skeletal heroes. You'll guide the trio on a roadtrip through the land of the dead, completing "hundreds of hand-crafted fast-paced microgames" as they bungle their way through exotic locations such as a school, the docks, and their basement.

If you can't wait for the full game to arrive in a few weeks, you can get started early with the smaller, pay-what-you-want prototype version on Itch right now. As for playing Spookware on anything besides PC, publisher DreadXP told me it's looking into options for releasing on consoles and mobile but doesn't have any announcements to share right now.

As someone who welcomes the gradual encroachment of Spooky Season onto every part of the year that isn't already the uncontested domain of a non-Halloween holiday, and as someone who loves WarioWare, I am officially jazzed for the next few weeks.

You can kick off your scary times right now by playing through our guide to the best horror games. 

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.