Tiny Epic Zombies

A Haunting Game Night – Our 2018 Halloween Game List

It’s Fall and that means one thing. I have the song “This is Halloween” running through my head none stop for the next 60 days. Also, it means that it’s the perfect time to gather some friends and family around the table to play some creepy games. This is our third year bringing you a Halloween gaming list and we feel like we’ve only scratched the surface. (You can find our 2016 and 2017 lists here)

Halloween is my favorite holiday and it’s the best time to build community and share laughs with the people around us. This year we have 5 games that will be hitting our table during the month of October. Some are more kid-friendly than others, so we’ve shared that info in the content below.

Haunt the House

Publisher: Kids Table Board Gaming
Number of Players: 2 – 5
Play time: 30 Minutes
Kid Friendly? Definitely
Purchase at Barnes & Noble | Full Review

Haunt the House

Haunt the House is just one of the incredible family games that Kids Table Board Gaming has published. In this beautifully illustrated game, players are ghosts trying to frighten ghost hunters that are exploring different rooms in your haunted house. Every component in this game is top notch and the light strategy is great for kids and adults.

The game incorporates bluffing, set collecting and managing a small deck of cards that matches your ghost meeple. Haunt the House scales really well at the different player counts and has lots of replay-ability. The game has 9 different rooms that give players abilities when activated. These will be random each time you play the game. If you’re looking for a deeper gameplay experience, throw in the phantom cards which add another element to this already solid game.

Monster Crunch: The Breakfast Battle Game

Publisher: Big G Creative
Number of Players: 3 – 5
Play time: 30 Minutes
Kid Friendly? Definitely
Purchase on Target.com | Full Review

Monster Crunch cards

Big G Creative did a phenomenal job in creating a fun, accessible card game using the iconic Cereal Monster characters from General Mills. Players chose a deck of cards themed with Boo Berry, Count Chocula, Fraken Berry, Fruit Brute or Yummy Mummy. Each have 2 special abilities that can be activated during the course of this 30 minute game.

Monster Crunch has you playing cards that have an equal or higher value than the player to your right. Using milk tokens allow you to combo cards and force your opponents to player higher values. The gameplay is simple to teach and a solid choice for kids and adults. The game isn’t just a nostalgic trip for kids of the 70’s and 80’s. It’s actually one of our family’s favorite filler games. Because this is a Target exclusive, gamers outside the U.S. will have to find other ways to get this great game to the table.

Tiny Epic Zombies

Publisher: Gamelyn Games
Number of Players: 2 – 5
Play time: 45 Minutes
Kid Friendly? Probably 10+
Purchase on Amazon

Tiny Epic Zombies

No Halloween gaming list is complete without a zombie themed game that makes your friends green with envy. Earlier this year, Gamelyn Games ran a Kickstarter for Tiny Epic Zombies, a new game in the Tiny Epic lineup. Similar to Tiny Epic Quest, this game packs a ton of gameplay into a box that may get lost on your game shelf.

There are 5 ways to play Tiny Epic Zombies which adds a ton to the replay-ability of this game. You can roam the stores of the mall cooperatively with up to 4 players, play competitively against your friends or have a 5th player that controls the zombie hoard as they shop for delicious meeple brains. The game comes with ItemMeeplesTM and lots of weapons that you can pick up and equip on your character. Whether you’re working to complete goals or mowing down zombies, Tiny Epic Zombies will be a great choice for a Halloween game night.

Clank: The Mummy’s Curse

Publisher: Renegade Game Studios
Number of Players: 2 – 4
Play time: 45 – 60 Minutes
Kid Friendly? Probably 12+
Purchase on Amazon | Full Review

Clank! The Mummy's Curse Review

The Mummy is a classic movie monster that creeped me out as a little kid. This linen wrapped undead haunts more than my dreams now with The Mummy’s Curse expansion to Clank!, one of our favorite board games. In Spring 2018 Renegade released this expansion to the original base game of Clank! A Deck-Building Adventure. As players explore the tomb of the cursed mummy, they roll a die to move the Mummy Meeple around the board. If the Mummy shambles into your section of the board, you’ll gain a curse token which gives you -2 points at the end of the game.

The added mechanics are really fun and attacking the Mummy in the tombs will help you shed some of the curse tokens that you accumulate during the game. The expansion comes with new cards, a double-sided game board, additional tokens, a 4-sided die and a very cool Mummy Meeple. If you’re a fan of Clank!, this may be a great addition to haunt your table this Halloween.

Last Friday

Publisher: Ares Games
Number of Players: 3 – 5
Play time: 60 – 120 Minutes
Kid Friendly? Teens and above
Purchase on Amazon

Last Friday

Last Friday is as close to being a licensed game without actually having the Friday the 13th license. This is a 1 vs. many game which puts one player in the role of “The Maniac” (cough) Jason (cough). Everyone else plays the role of helpless campers that are seeking shelter in one of the cabins around the camp.

Players move from dot-to-dot trying to avoid the killer as he moves number-by-number on the huge map. The Maniac gets a screen to hide their movements as they document which number they are currently standing on. When a player is killed, the Maniac’s location is given away as tensions rise around the game table. The full game will take around 2 hours as you play through all 4 of the acts in the game. If you don’t have enough time, you can modify the rules slightly and play through 2 acts in around an hour. It’s not the best 1 vs. many game on the market but its theme takes me back to all the slasher movies I watched growing up. Last Friday can be a lot of fun if you carve out enough time and get the right people involved with the game.

Do you have a favorite game to play during Halloween game nights? Post your favorites in the comments below.

Ryan Gutowski

I'm a huge fan of strategy games and pretty much anything that involves "city building". My love of board games goes back to my childhood and passion for building relationships with others.

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