Earlier in September, we reported on Haunted ROM: The Lost Cartridge, a new collection of mini retro games from developer Crit42 Studio, on Steam. The premise of the game is interesting, as a bunch of old carts have been found, and they appear to be haunted. Players make their way through each title in an effort to uncover a mystery. The developer has stated that there are purposeful bugs and glitches in the various mini games, and this adds to the immersion and horror. We’ve been trying this out for ourselves and bring you our first impressions.
Haunted ROM: The Lost Cartridge allows you to play all ten mini games from the start, as opposed to taking you through each one like levels. Each game has a distinct gameplay style and all have a retro aesthetic that ranges from 8-bit to early 3D titles. It’s worth noting that all the games are made in Unity and load in a new window as if it were a standalone title. Now, on the face of it, this seems like a good way to separate everything as you try to uncover the secret of the carts.
Purely from an accessible point of view, this meant having to constantly ‘alt-tab’ in and out of windows. In our opinion, this simply didn’t work, and it was frustrating trying to switch to a different title in the collection. From an artistic viewpoint, this may add to the immersion of the game’s carts being haunted and having glitches, but from our time with the game, it just felt confusing. This was also compounded when two of the games just simply wouldn’t load at all, and a few others required a restart.
All this is a shame, as we really like the idea of purposefully breaking games to create immersion. It gave Haunted ROM: The Lost Cartridge the image that the whole thing was actually haunted. It could just be that the developer needs to rework some of the coding, maybe even draw back a little on the purposeful glitches and errors. And if possible, we honestly feel that having all the games collected into one window wouldn’t break any immersion, but just help with the real-world accessibility for those playing.
Frustrations with Haunted ROM: The Lost Cartridge‘s menus aside, what we actually played of the mini games was certainly interesting. The retro aesthetic and gameplay were nailed down, if a little simplistic, in most of them. Also, the added glitches and errors we encountered were fun to see, and you can see what the developers’ intentions are in trying to break down the fourth wall. It’s commendable to take the idea of horror and put the player front and centre, not as an observer, but actually involved as they tackle problems.
As mentioned earlier, we had some problems launching some of the mini games and didn’t get to experience all of them. So, ultimately, we couldn’t uncover the mystery. From what we have managed to play, Haunted ROM: The Lost Cartridge is a very different type of experience, and the developer has created something very unique. We never like to say a game isn’t recommended, but Haunted ROM: The Lost Cartridge has some glaring issues that will need to be sorted before most gamers would find any joy from it. As it stands, those who really enjoy quirky horror titles, or something very far out from the gaming norm, may find something here they can get stuck into.
