Just released this Halloween night, Monster Mega Mayhem is a casual adventure title with a twist, the latest creation of independent developer Icevalk. I was going to tell you all about this Halloween’s productions, with a scent of horror and a taste for the thrill, since The Witcher just hit the shelves, along with Hellgate London and Clive Barker’s Jericho but I changed my mind. These were all long awaited games which will enthrall your senses for months and years to come, thus I chose Monster Mega Mayhem’s simple yet effective play. In the flash-like game, tree monsters will slash, claw and rip as you command, three characters each with a different background. It’s a small jewel of relaxed gaming and you can take it in all at once, so read right on for a sample of storyline ingenuity and catchy gameplay.

First we have Jack, a native of Moonwalker Ranch which basically prompts him as a mix between Michael Jackson and the Pumpkin King (from Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas). Jack is a friendly pumpkin monster but has a problem with trick or treaters. As he puts it, last year they carved a pumpkin he went in school with and that demands retribution. Now buddy Branden got killed by his brother Eric, so you must become a messenger of vengeance. Swinging the reaper’s blade never gets old and that’s what Jack does best, except maybe for his classic move. As a special, he takes off his pumpkin head and bows for full effect.

Lucy is the vampire type, fresh from the graveyards of Gothic City - Romania. If it’s not Gotham, then Gothic will have to do. She loves to turn into a cloud of bats and haunt its victims, for you see, the evil Half Dollar mastermind sent fans to cut down her ancient oaks. The blatant 50Cent reference made my day so you can check out the in-game billboards for a good image. That’s what Monster Mega Mayhem is all about, making fun of real life clichés as your sidekick on this level is Batgirl herself. There are two main abilities each of your characters can use, one being a form of attack while the other a type of scare. Halloween would not be complete without tricks (and treats) so the three avatars need to scare someone in order to advance each level.

Kevin is the quiet one and lets the chainsaw do most of the talking, a regular habit between Frankenstein style children born out of recycled flesh and circuitry. His “father” Viktor created him for the sole purpose of killing Uwe Hohl, the worst director of all times. It seems he’s going to mutilate Farcrow next in his movie, yet another piece of gaming goodness thrown to the dogs. The developers say that each and all connections to people alive or dead are purely coincidence, so I guess there’s no way in hell all this can be translated into Uwe Boll and Farcry. Be sure to notice the big bad bouncer at the theatre entrance. He needs to be scared, in this case, a joke in German.

With each level you must raise the score higher by scaring characters or clawing at them for moderate blood effects. You don’t have all day though, since the small bomb at the lower middle of the screen acts like a timer. The fuse eventually runs out as your avatar moves frantically faster. Maybe you can get that last kill and complete the level in time. Monster Mega Mayhem has the casual addictive feel of time wasters and does it with a taste for comedy. I came to appreciate the real life tie-ins for a good laugh and eventually this crazed story pushed me further in completing the levels. You too can give it a shot by trying the demo.