Goosebumps HorrorTown is a mobile game set in the original Goosebumps Universe. Take control of your very own town and inhabit it with your favorite monsters from the book series. Collect rare items and sell them at the pawnshop in exchange for in-game currency. Scare humans to collect special materials that enable you to level and become the scariest town in the entire Goosebumps universe.
I found Goosebumps HorrorTown to be a nostalgic twist on the city building game genre. Yes, you are still building properties that produce materials over time, and yes, you still need to collect materials from those properties in order to advance in the game. What separates this game from other city building games is its lack of “free time”. In other city building games, you are granted materials from properties after waiting a long period of time. While this is still the case in HorrorTown, you are given the option to do other activities while you wait. For example, some properties allow you to release monsters into the city to scare the citizens. Once they start terrorizing the town, the citizens begin to drop “scare tokens” that you can collect to level up your “scare-o-meter”. Once your scare-o-meter gets to a certain level you receive in-game rewards. It’s a great activity when you’re sitting around waiting for your properties to produce materials.
Because this is a game built around the Goosebumps universe, you may have assumed that there was an in-depth story. Sadly, this is not the case. HorrorTown throws you straight into the game with no explanation of how or why the town is there. In my opinion, this is just lazy storytelling. It did have some good dialogue between characters though. In the game, you are required to build houses that bring more citizens to your town. Throughout the game, these characters will interact with each other and create somewhat compelling conversations with each other. While they’re not as interesting as the R.L. Stein Novels, they’re still a nice addition to the game.
The game also has several characters from the original Goosebumps series. One of the most notable characters from the book series that appears in the game is Slappy, the Dummy from the Night of the Living Dummy saga. Slappy helps you learn to play the game and guides you through several tasks. It’s interesting to see such a sinister character play your friend but it’s a game for kids so none of the content is very scary.
Goosebumps HorrorTown is a good game for your phone. It’s not a game you need to be playing for hours at a time but a few minutes will provide you with plenty of entertainment. I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys the Goosebumps series. The content definitely appeals more to the younger generations but older generations will easily find the entertainment value in it. Goosebumps HorrorTown is now available for iOS and Android.
