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Sure, we’re a little late on hopping onto the Halloween bandwagon, but since it’s Friday the 13th, I think we’re in the clear to take a look at some of the more bizarre and occult happenings that have surfaced in the music gaming scene. While rhythm gaming might be one of the genres some might least expect to see some disturbing images, some games in the genre take to Halloween-centric themes in a more cute or humorous way. Regardless, enjoy the full moon hovering over Bemanistyle today as we take a quick look at horror-esque music gaming themes.

beatmania IIDX
L.E.D. (Horror sampling) – We’ve seen a hearty thread developed on this topic in the Bemanistyle.com forums, but who can forget firing up Outer Limits for the first time to hear the eerie mashing of low tolls and creepy, high-pitched melodies accompanied by a video of a foggy environment masking a mysterious entity that has his back turned to the camera? As user Malev points out in the aforementioned thread, L.E.D. appears to have a heart for the 1950s B-movie “The Brain from Planet Arous ,” from which some of the samples from his songs are snatched from. It doesn’t matter where the material comes from, though, as long as his songs provide the intensity and variety as they always have among the IIDX soundtracks, he can sample from the movie “Baby Geniuses” for all we care.

Vanessa (IIDX 14 GOLD) – You’ve probably seen them in haunted houses and they are a staple in pretty much any movie or classic cartoon that features a haunted house, but when you boil it down – wall portraits with moving eyes are pretty darn creepy (or amusing, take your pick). Perhaps taking cues from Konami’s Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, this IIDX song entry’s video is nothing more than a traditional painting of what might be considered a Renascence man, whose eyes constantly wander around. As the song progresses, odd occurrences can be spotted in the background, culminating to flames engulfing the bottom of the portraits frame. The moving eyes could be considered creepy enough, but if you play this song in one of the DrumMania entries, things get downright bizarre at the end of the song. Go look it up. We’re not spoiling it for you.

Spooky (IIDX 7th Style) – Pulling back from 7th Style, we come across a song so eerie, good-cool decided to put Spooky right in the title. Fortunately, this tune walks away from the creepy side and introduces us the fun, cute and entertaining side of the spectrum, featuring a haunted house occupied with TaQ as a vampire, DJ taka as Frankenstein and good-cool as a werewolf. The video hits all of the clichés you would expect to find in an ‘80s animated Halloween special or maybe an episode of Scooby-Doo, but it’s a perfect fit for such a light-hearted song. If you’re ever in the Halloween spirit or just want to see a werewolf’s tongue for about two minutes, Spooky will always be there for you if you own a copy of 7th or 9th Style.

Ghostbusters (IIDX 14 GOLD) – These past few years have had to be a royalty wet dream for Ray Parker Jr., but before the Ghostbusters video game and LEGO Rock Band, it might freak some people out to know the Japanese got down and dirty with the Ghostbusters anthem with beatmania IIDX 14 GOLD. Of course, the IIDX entry provides a more cultural approach with the song by putting DJ Yoshitaka in the role of crafting the entry. Unfortunately, we just get one of beatmania’s lame stock videos to accompany the tune, but there are some people who feel the new lyrics are quite scary on their own merits. Others, though, will probably find them unintentionally hilarious and the shift to disco, as labeled by the game make for one of the most interesting remakes you might ever hear.

DrumMania
Day Dream (3rdMix) – We don’t normally play music games have images permanently engraved into our nightmares, but there is just something about Day Dream and its quick fire of creepy faces that make us a little nervous. The images look like they have the quality of those taken by the Game Boy Camera, but these lifeless faces complete with bizarre gestures flashing in and out almost hypnotically just glues them to the back of one’s mind. Just picture the Blue Man Group, expect these folks come in a multitude of different colors, scream at you and look like they want to kill you. Maybe that’s an over exaggeration, but it’s still creepy as all get out.

DDR
Paranoia Hades (SuperNOVA2) – The fact that Paranoia went to hades just for the sake of being remixed should clue you in on this song’s creepy factor, but, then, it’s hypnotic background pulls you in to reveal a floating, insane head tries to eat you. Well, maybe it is laughing manically or is in pain (I’d assume a face from hades would be in pain), but the fact it looks like an ICP imitator with fangs ups the creepy factor just a bit. Sure, everyone is probably too busy full comboing the song to notice or let it bother them, but when you suddenly have someone else in your house watching you play SuperNOVA2, you might find yourself quickly going to lock the front door.

Devil Zukin – Well, here we still get an association with the nether realm, however, in this case, the result is far less creepy; unless you consider the character to be so cute it creeps you out. It’s your call. Devil Zukin debuted in DDR 3rdMix and has had a number of other reappearances as well. In 3rd Mix, specifically, however, her inclusion allowed players to access the transplant beatmania song Jam Jam Reggae. We’re not sure on the correlation between those two aspects either, but, hey, we’re not going to argue over it years after the fact.

Silent Hill Invades DDR (Extreme CS) – Akira Yamaoka pretty much defines Silent Hill. When he broke into the realm of crafting DDR tunes, however, not many were able to put two and two together. With the console entry of Extreme in the U.S., two songs were plucked straight from the pants-wetting universe of Silent Hill and placed into the game. While both songs were quite upbeat, the videos carried themes and CGI straight from the Silent Hill experience. The content of the videos were quite tame, but, personally, I found the character models in Your Rain to be quite creepy. What? I’m the only one, eh?

Bust a Move (Groove)
Bi-O (Bust a Move 2) – What is your reward for trying to be a firm father and disciplining your child? Well, your skin melts off and you get an axe lodged into your head, of course. This gruesome addition to the Bust a Move cast is openly described as the father of Gas-O, which begs us question what kind of last name the letter O is for a family. Even though Bi-O is nothing more than a living zombie, his unique Michael Jackson-esque dancing style makes him no less bizarre than the wily cast of the series. He might borrow a little too much from Thriller for his own good, but his haunted ship and intense “Zombie Hopper” theme stood out as a highlight in the game. If you feel sorry for Bi-O, however, it kind of sucks that you have to own the Japanese version just to cut him a break and get that axe out of his head.

Um Jammer Lammy
Lammy Goes to Hell – I’m sure the users of our site are quite familiar with how Um Jammer Lammy’s sixth stage was switched up for the game’s U.S. release, but, even so, you can’t ignore how brilliant the original intention of the stage pans out to be. Instead of snagged clothes and volcano idols, the Japanese version has Lammy in such a rush after crafting her new guitar, that she slips on a banana peel, cracks her head on the sidewalk and dies. She wakes up in hell and the game cracks a joke in running the game credits and making the scenario out to be the end of the game, however, Teriyaki Yoko’s manager runs out and snags Lammy and throws her on stage where the story runs parallel to the U.S. version. Still, playing for waves zombies in hell is fairly risqué for the series, but, nonetheless, the game teaches you the great lesson that fax machines can bring you back to life. Now you know.

DJ Hero
Day of the Dead Venue – It takes a bit of work, but, eventually, players will unlock this unique venue for use in gameplay in DJ Hero. George Romero might get a nod for making this phrase a tragic horror scenario, but most people rooted in reality like to make it an excuse to party in recognition of El Dia de los Muertos at the beginning of November. As part of a holiday, I suppose this creates another excuse to party and have a bunch of fun. Seemingly, fun is a more appropriate focus for the theme, as zombies and carnage doesn’t really seem to tie into the DJ Hero universe too well. However, given how hot zombie games have become recently, it might not be too absurd to imagine downing denizens of the undead with vinyls. Hey, if Guitar Wolf can fight zombies on film, why can’t we do it in a video game?

pop’n music
Characters – This might be a bit of a cop-out, but even in its cuteness, pop’n music character designs do try to throw out a creepy character or two, even if the results aren’t remarkably scary. Ash the werewolf, Yuli the vampire and Smile the mummy make a good amount of appearances throughout the series, with some of them being fan-favorite characters – Konamistyle even made a plush out of Ash! You also get some funny business in the apparition that hovers about MZD and there is a small host of other spirit-type characters littered throughout the franchise. Some of the song genres that accompany these characters can also get into the spirit, but, overall, instead of cowering, we’re inclined to believe most of these pop’n music themes just put a smile onto everyone’s faces - the facial gesture, not the mummy.

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!
The werewolf and oni (Moreo!) – Of course nothing is frightening in Osu!, it’s just plain funny. That doesn’t stop the developer of the series from sticking in themes that try to pull on the strings of our hearts or try to tap into spooky creatures like the werewolf and oni found in the Japanese game’s sequel. Players are supposed to sympathize with the werewolf, as he just wants to take a girl out on a date without cluing her in to his ailment. On the other hand, another scenario places Japanese legend Momotaro against an island of demons once again if he wants to collect his pension checks and hilarity ensues. The series as a whole is quirky, so these normally frightening entities are cast in an amusing light – perhaps what is most frightening in the Osu! sequel are the Mario and Luigi imitators that try to help a young boy with his chronic nocturnal uresis.

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Of course, there are many more themes to discuss on this topic, but we don’t want to be here all day and we want to have material for future features. If you think there is a great theme we missed in this feature, be sure to let us know in the comments or in the forum and if we agree, maybe we’ll feature it next Halloween.