10 of the best apps to spook on your smartphone

 10 of the best apps to spook on your smartphone

It’s that time of year when things go bump in the night. Spooky things, obviously, rather than just your partner/neighbour/cat thumping the wall in anger when they fail at a Candy Crush Saga level, which is a year-round thing.

Yes, Halloween is here with its army of ghosts, witches, werewolves, zombies, vampires and monsters – all knocking on your door demanding chocolate with their parents hovering apologetically in the background.

There are apps for that too (Halloween, not hovering apologetically) with a range of games and apps offering suitably spooky thrills. Here are 10 worth trying out.

You might think an app to make your photos and videos look like they’ve got ghosts in them is a niche, yet this one has been downloaded more than 8m times so far. It’s neatly done: you choose from a selection of backgrounds and filters then shoot your own mini ghost clips or shots. Basic features are free with others unlocked by in-app purchases. 

Alright yes, surely now everyone who wants Minecraft has got it, given its 70m sales across all platforms. Yet just in case, Halloween might be the perfect time to pick up Mojang’s wonderful sandbox. Not only does it come with zombies, skeletons and eerie Endermen as standard: it’s just added a Halloween Costumes skin pack as a 79p in-app purchase to spook up your character.

If you’re new to the Five Nights at Freddy’s series, you may want to start with the first game and work your way through. The fourth and final game was released this year, and is arguably the best. All see you pitting your wits against horrific-looking animatronic toys – initially in the shop where they’re installed, but in this game, the action moves to your own house.

This is part game, part story and part fitness app, and it remains one of the most inventive ideas on the app stores. It’s an app to get you running in the real world, with the carrot (or stick) being a horde of zombies chasing after you – at least, according to your headphones. But there’s also a proper story here from novelist (and – disclosure – Guardian columnist) Naomi Alderman to keep you interested.

The Hunting Part 1 (Free)

Has mobile found its Blair Witch Project? The Hunting is one of the apps hoping to fulfil that role: “the world’s first interactive zombie movie app” as the blurb puts it. It’s a film shot from a first-person view, which sees you deciding what to do in order to survive. There are plenty of frights, and while this first part is short, it’s a free taster for the second and third episodes.

Toca Boo (Free - £2.68)

Here’s an app for anyone who’s ever run around their house with a sheet over their head giving it their best “woooooo” – i.e. everyone. This children’s app from developer Toca Boca gets kids to control Bonnie, a little girl who dresses up as a ghost and floats around her house stalking family members then jumping out at them from behind the furniture. It’s great fun.

With The Walking Dead back on TV screens for a new series, this brand new tie-in game is providing fans with a new way to put themselves into the story. It’s an absorbing roleplaying game (RPG) with a mixture of turn-based battles and careful team management. Weekly challenges promise to keep you playing beyond the current TV season too.

Deathless: The City’s Thirst (£2.33 - £2.49)

There’s some fascinating stuff happening around the interactive fiction genre – see this recent roundup of book-apps for examples – with publisher Choice of Games one of the leading lights. This is a suitably-spooky sample of its work: a 150k-word novel by award-winning author Max Gladstone with all manner of undead, necromantic goings on. Your choices drive the story, but this is something you’ll enjoy reading as much as playing.

Skullduggery! (£2.29)

Finally, the best action game featuring “semi-organic autonomous skulls” that money can buy on the app stores. Admittedly, it’s the only one. But this is a well-crafted game blending action and puzzles, as you ping your skull through a series of platform levels by stretching its brain out and then letting it go. It works beautifully on the touchscreen, and while it’s not specifically a children’s game, my two sons (aged six and eight) enjoyed it as much as I did.

Audio Defence: Zombie Arena (£1.49)

Somethin’ Else is the company responsible for the Papa Sangre audio-only games, which were critically acclaimed on iOS in their day. Audio Defence used the same technology, with you playing a blind warrior caught in the midst of “Dr Bastard’s zombies” – fighting them off by moving, swiping and tilting. “It’s oculus thrift!” claims the developer, but this is anything but cheap.

Posted in: Gaming