'Tis the season for Haunted PS1's gore-filled advent calendar
Full of festive fear.
Truly, not even the festive cheer of the Christmas season is enough to shoo away the low-poly scare-makers working under the Haunted PS1 label. This week, the collective kicked off their latest collaborative project, the Haunted PS1 Madvent Calendar, a delicious selection of 24 bloody treats unlocked over the 24 days running up to Christmas. Trust me, there's no chocolate waiting behind those blurry, low-res doors.
The Madvent Calendar opens its first door with Rip, a short, first-person hall-wanderer from developer Pastasfuture. We'll open more doors as the days go on, but here's a peek at some of the entries you can expect to gobble up over the next few weeks.
As per advent calendar law, each "door" in Haunted PS1's Madvent Calendar will open every day for the next 24 days. That means, at time of writing, all we have to play is the aforementioned Rip - a lovely, lonely home-wandering exploration game that lets you use uncomfortably photographic arms to tear apart curtains I'm 99% sure the PS1 wouldn't be able to simulate.
Nitpicking aside, it's a neat short dose of tension, and I'm excited to see how the other creators respond to the set-up of festive fear. The trailer gives us a good, broad mix of games to expect too - from third-person exploration to fake computers-within-computers and a bloody fishing minigame to boot.
It's a small thing, but I've really gotta shout out the main menu, too. Haunted PS1 have gotten really, embarrassingly good at these 3D frontends for their short game compilations, a level of incredible menu artistry that I haven't seen folks attempt since the golden age of demo discs - whether it be C.H.A.I.N's CD wallet or a fake E3 show floor. This time, it's a Christmas tree made out of small brick houses, chained shut until their time to open comes.
Haunted PS1's Madvent Calendar is free to download over on Itch. If you're looking for a less frightful festive countdown, we just kicked off our own RPS advent calendar. Go on, get in the Christmas spirit and all.