Hello friends. Dan Ryan here, you… there. Thank you so much for checking in and if you like what you see please comment and share. Back when Geekade was more than a podcast platform we used to do a thing called 31 Days of Halloween. Every October the entire writing staff would post articles related to Spooky Season through the lens of their particular geek. Mine, obviously, had to do with video games but included movies, music, wrestling, and beer. And honestly, I kind of miss it. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of work according to Kris, and brought some great content. So it is in that spirit that I decided to do this column here, every Friday in October, to highlight some of my favorite retro, and retro adjace, “horror” titles. Submitted for your approval this is Friday Night Frights: Sweet Home. As with all reviews here on the blog I will be using the wholly original, not copied at all from any defunct gaming magazine, patent pending SAG Pod Ranking System, which is explained below…

Developed and published by Capcom in 1989, Sweet Home is a legendary Japan only release for the Famicom that we here in the states have been able to play thanks to localization patches. It was developed at the same time as the film of the same name though the game is largely considered to be better than the film. The games director, Tokuro Fujiwara of Ghosts n’ Goblins fame, was given license by the director of the film, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, to make changes to the script to better fit the storytelling of a video game. Fujiwara was given a tour of the film’s sets and ultimately expanded the narrative of the film, an uncommon occurrence in gaming. The story goes that about 30 years prior to the events of the game, artist Ichirō Mamiya hid 5 frescos in his mansion and then disappeared. Fast forward to present day and 5 filmmakers attempt to enter the now ruined mansion and rescue the paintings only to be trapped by a woman’s ghost. The ghost promises to kill all trespassers leading to the team deciding to split up and find a way out. It takes some pretty dark turns from there that I won’t spoil here but ends up at a super satisfying conclusion. If you are looking for something “scary” to play this Halloween season, Sweet Home certainly fits the bill.

The story isn’t the main reason to seek out Sweet Home however. If you’ve ever enjoyed a “survival horror” game like Resident Evil or Silent Hill, you have Sweet Home to thank. The mansion setting, used in so many games since, was done incredibly well in Sweet Home. It feels alive, undead?, in a way few games of that era do. The piecemeal nature of the storytelling, through various notes and logs found in the mansion, added to the tension and laid the groundwork for later games. The limited inventory and health items practically became a genre staple. Hell, the door opening animation made so famous by Resident Evil is directly taken from Sweet Home. Overall, if nothing more than seeing the foundation on which survival horror was built, you need to check out Sweet Home. And we’ve got a fabulous way for you to do so.

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Graphics: 4.0 Sweet Home is a good looking game most of the time and a great looking game some of the time. The environments are nice and detailed and make each area feel unique. Player models are varied as are the enemy types. Certain encounters lead to average looking monsters while others offer very nice sprites. The frescos really stand out though and look awesome.

Sound: 4.0: The soundtrack and overall sound design here is really well. The music does a great deal of heavy lifting in setting the atmosphere. It's spooky and creepy and hits those horror tropes you look for in a scary game. The sound effects do a decent job as well in helping define the overall atmosphere of the game. The creaking door in particular will sound eerily familiar. While you might not be whistling these tunes as you work they do make a decent spooky night soundtrack.

Controls: 4.0 Working within the limitations of the 2 button NES/Famicom controller, the developers did a wonderful job making each character feel unique and the process of using said character as painless as possible. This is a JRPG though so expect a fair amount of menu digging and action selecting as you progress through the game. As long as you go into it with a realistic expectation you'll find a relatively intuitive control scheme, especially for 1989.

Fun Factor: 4.0 Sweet Home really works and holds up well. It's especially fun when playing with a group of people and taking turns controlling each character. The perma-death ups the ante in a play through like that and keeps everyone sharp. Solo the game works just as well. The overall design and pace suffer a bit from outdated design theory but few retro games don't. This game really does deserve its place in the annals of horror game history and is absolutely worth your time.

 But I want to know what you think. Join the Stone Age Gamer discord, or you can find me on Bluesky to let me know your thoughts. In the immortal words of Billy Joel, “Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes; I'm afraid it's time for goodbye again.” See you soon.