The past few Halloweens over at the Comic Book Heroes podcast (hosted by myself and good friend Rob Van Brunt), we’ve made exceptions to our nerd rule and chosen Horror movies to yap about. Mostly because Halloween is awesome but also because October 31st just happens to be Rob’s Birthday! This month leading up to our new spooky episode, I’ll be reposting those shows beginning with this one from 2022 featuring Joel Schumacher’s 1987 blood sucking take on teenage mutant ninja vampires: The Lost Boys!

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It’s a cold, overcast morning here in the bay area. The sidewalks are covered with fallen, dried up leaves and cawing sounds from crows the size of small dogs fill the air. The perfect atmosphere for, yep you guessed it: Hitting the art supply and hardware stores for those last minute Halloween craft decoration projects and throwing some pumpkin bread into the oven.

With the Fall season officially here as of last weekend, I’m calling it: Anyone reading this site is gonna be up to their sweet little candy corns in Halloween related posts. And for the next however long it takes to finish, I’ll be counting down my top ten spooky games to play on Nintendo’s hybrid console. First up is a title anyone who grew up at a time when they could still go to a mall or pizza parlor and be welcomed by that warm glow of multiple arcade cabinet screens will likely be familiar with, only now updated with a fresh coat of high definition pixel paint.

*cue the creepy organ music*

The House of the Dead Remake.

I can clearly remember my first time seeing Creepshow 2. It was back in the sixth grade and a friend of mine managed to talk the guy who worked at our tiny neighborhood video store into letting us rent it. This despite the fact that it was rated R and we were only 11 years old. We took it back to his place since his parents weren’t home (my friend, not the video store guy) and popped it into the VCR. We were clearly doing something “bad” which only heightened that viewing. It also meant that even if the movie ended up not being any good (spoiler alert, it’s pretty good) it was still going to be fun. Oh and there’s also that minor detail about it being one of my earliest memories of seeing a woman topless.

Nintendo is of course synonymous with game systems and software but any child of the 80’s will clearly remember staring at that red logo branded across just about every type of merchandise imaginable. Comic books, action figures, lunch boxes, breakfast cereal…you name it. And like any responsible adult, I’ve still got a pretty solid collection displayed and readily accessible. Today’s example is one that I clearly remember taking home from a Toys R Us at the ripe old age of eight. Back when video games remained locked inside of your imagination until you took a little slip with the receipt stapled to it back to the bullet proof glass window behind the cash register.

Rob and Ray return to throw our thoughts at the highly divisive penultimate installment in the DC cinematic universe before James Gunn hits a big ol’ reset button. And Batwinging along with these nerds is Michael Keaton once again donning the cape and cowl for the first time since before the great dial up internet days!

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I’ve got a serious soft spot for the original Pet Sematary. I can clearly remember counting down the days until the end of August when it would finally premiere on HBO back in 1989 (this also ended up being the night before I’d start the 4th grade). There was something about it that I was completely drawn to from the second it started. The simple yet beautifully atmospheric score along with the gorgeous location that it was shot in. The somber performances, not to mention the dread of the story itself. Every element added together really created an impeccable tone, making it one of those movies that I throw on every now and then simply enjoying a sense of “being there.”

I couldn’t get enough of it, I wanted more and 3 years later, was about to experience that whole “be careful what you wish for” thing.

Ray manages to tear Super Nintendad away from Trombone Champ for a moment to help run down the list of games talked about in today’s Nintendo Direct. Lots of excitement and opinions about the announcements listed below are but a click away!

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When it came to useless peripherals, the original NES and Game Boy were never in short supply. There were all kinds of third party products attempting to hop aboard Nintendo’s money train at the time, selling themselves as clever new methods of enhancing the gameplay experience with very few of them actually even y’know working properly. Still, a lot of the concepts were cool enough to spark the imagination of even the most cynical grade schooler. Typically they would revolve around some “awesome” new method of control that promised nothing short of stepping into a future world once plugged in. The U-Force had kids waving their hands sans controller into a refurbished battleship folder. Konami’s Laser Scope was an early attempt at manipulating your game’s actions via voice command. And of course there was the immortal Power Glove which if you’re not familiar with, I’ll probably yap at length about somewhere down the line. These are all still cool in theory yet ended up being nowhere near practical which brings me to today’s topic: The Light Boy for Nintendo’s original pea green portable system.

As a kid the VHS box cover for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2 scared the everloving bejesus outta me. I grew up on a steady diet of scary movies and trips to The Video Park in my hometown were a regular occurrence, specifically the haunted castle themed horror section. Apart from staying up past my bedtime on Saturdays to catch the Whitey Gleason hosted "Fright Night Theater" (of which I'll go into further detail someday, I'm sure) a great way to score a quick creepy fix was by staring at those great VHS covers and reading the summaries on the back. This is how I first came across many movies that would eventually become all time personal favorites (Your Creepshows, Your The Gates, Your Phantasms and Pet Sematarys, etc.)

But there was something that felt so…off about this particular box which really got under my skin. So much so that I couldn't even bring myself to read the back of it.

If like me, you grew up in the 80's loving video games, E.T. and for whatever reason Dabney Coleman, chances are you've seen Cloak & Dagger. It follows this kid named Davey (Henry Thomas) who's obsessed with an Atari game featuring super-spy Jack Flack (Coleman). In fact he's so into it that he actually runs around town acting out his own secret missions complete with an imaginary version of Flack popping up in his head to offer advice and support.