Ludography
25/100
Players1 rating
Castleween cover

2002 · Kalisto Entertainment · Halloween · Platformer

Castleween

Alicia and Greg set off with their friends one Halloween night to look for a house in the forest where they could stock up on goodies. Upon reaching the house, Greg and Alicia's friends are turned into stone by a bogeyman. To save their friends, the two heroes must enter the world of the dead. In order to find their friends and set them free, they need to make it through cemeteries, haunted houses and sinister laboratories.

Released
29 November 2002
Platforms
GameCubePlayStation 2
Genres
HalloweenPlatformer
Developers
Kalisto Entertainment
Publishers
—
Modes
MultiplayerSingle-player
Perspective
Third person
Themes
ActionHorrorKids
Country
France
Age ratings
USK 6ESRB E
Languages
English, Japanese

About

Castleween (Spirits & Spells in North America) is a 3D platform video game developed and published by Wanadoo Edition for the PlayStation 2, before being ported to the GameCube. A separate version developed by Magic Pockets was released for the Game Boy Advance.

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Story

Alicia and Greg set off with their friends one Halloween night to look for a house in the forest where they could stock up on goodies. Upon reaching the house, Greg and Alicia's friends are turned into stone by a bogeyman. To save their friends, the two heroes must enter the world of the dead. In order to find their friends and set them free, they need to make it through cemeteries, haunted houses and sinister laboratories.

Only one person at a time is allowed to enter the world of the dead, so Alicia and Greg must take turns to make their way through the danger that awaits them. Friends like the Goblin and Jack O'Lantern will teach them magic tricks that will help them to overcome obstacles along the way. They must find the Mad Scientist's laboratory to get their friends home safe and sound.

Development

Wanadoo Edition announced the game in December 2001 under the name of Halloween, with Kalisto Entertainment handling development of the project. The PlayStation 2 version was planned for a December 2002 release, while the GameCube and Game Boy Advance versions would be released in 2003. Kalisto previously entered into a publishing deal with Wanadoo earlier in the year.

During the game's development, Kalisto Entertainment filed for bankruptcy. This led to the project being put on limbo, which would lead to Wanadoo Edition hiring most of the development team to continue the project in-house, and as such, Kalisto is not credited in the final product.

Reception

The Game Boy Advance and GameCube versions received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, where the GBA version was ported and published by MTO on April 24, 2003, as Mahō no Pumpkin: Anne to Greg no Daibōken (魔法のパンプキン 〜アンとグレッグの大冒険〜, Mahō no Pankin 〜An to Gureggu no Daibōken〜; lit. "The Magic Pumpkin: Anne and Greg's Great Adventure"), followed by the GameCube and PlayStation 2 ports on June 19, 2003, Famitsu gave the latter two console versions a score of 20 out of 40 each. Nintendo Power gave the GBA version an average review, over two months before it was released Stateside.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
PlayStation 213 December 2002Europe · Japan 19 June 2003
GameCube30 May 2003Europe · Japan 19 June 2003 · North America 29 September 2003

Editions and related releases

Ported as
Spirits & Spells
Built on it
Spirits & Spells

Games like this

Collections2 collections

Platform libraries

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.