Halloween: The Best Ghosts in Gaming

It’s Halloween, which means it’s time for Source Gaming’s annual Halloween celebration. We’ve seen plenty of horror-themed articles over the past month, but we’ll be wrapping it all up like a mummy with our SG Choice. Video games have been kind to ghosts over the years; this list of our favorites can’t even pretend to have scratched the surface. For instance, no one referenced the Ghost Dancers from Casltevania, and that is a shame.

Despite our deep failings in that, we put to you a motley sort of some truly lovable, nasty, spooky, scary, eerie, creepy… well, now I’m mostly just listing horror comics, which is not the point! The point is that ghosts rule, ghosts rule in video games, and here’s a list that’s very large despite only giving you a hint of what apparitions can be like in this medium.

Wolfman Jew: Let’s start with the answer that’s the most basic, but also arguably the best anyway: Boo. The Mushroom Kingdom’s adorable little specters have set the standard for video game ghosts since Super Mario Bros. 3. Their basic gimmick—they chase you when your back is turned, shy in nervousness when you face them, and can almost never be killed—all but perfected what ghosts are in games. They’re scary, dangerous, but also cute. And in so many flavors! You’ve got the Fishing Boos, the Atomic Boos, the gooey Stretch Boos, the Boo Bombs, and icons like Lady Bow and King Boo. Really, this article could’ve just been “favorite Boos,” and it would probably end up just as long.

On the note of entries that could stand to get follow-ups throughout this thing, the entire Ghost type in Pokémon also counts. It’s where Game Freak’s creativity always hits a fever pitch as its artists and designers come up with one wonderfully spooky revenant after another. But I’ll go with my favorite Ghost type of all: the original Gengar. It’s a classic for a reason: that delightful Cheshire grin, that pretty dark purple body, that habit of living in the shadows and haunting all manner of man and ‘Mon. Gengar is arguably the single best-designed member of Pokémon’s First Generation, and it’s stayed popular and relevant and reused for three decades for a reason. But again, it’s far from the only one worth mentioning.

…Like Gholdengo! That’s my favorite member of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, and for all the opposite reasons. Where most Ghost-types are mean and scary and almost exist to power listicles explaining how Nintendo games are really evil and twisted, Gholdengo’s affable and positive. Its first form Gimmighoul has a fun (if occasionally exhausting) gimmick, where it spends its afterlife picking up the thousand ancient coins that become Gholdengo’s shell. It surfs through the air! It has an attack called “Make It Rain” and an Ability called “Good as Gold!” It’s the rare Steel type that’s good at Special Attacking! But overall, this lovable Academy Award tube man is just great at showing the breadth of the Ghost type, and why it’s not just about being eerie or ominous.

Cart Boy: When I think of iconic, charming ghosts, my brain defaults to Blinky and the Ghost Gang of Pac-Man fame. But Blinky isn’t a character I can adequately discuss in one paragraph, and sometime in the future, we’ll tackle him together. But Pinky’s cool, too! She’s one of the smarter ghosts and tries to cut Pac-Man off when chasing him. The psychology behind her character is fascinating, too: she violently pursues the mascot out of her ghoulish duty despite having an unrequited crush on him! Even if she ever catches Pac-Man—which she won’t; she’s been at it for over four decades and hasn’t come close—they can never be together, because her touch is debilitating to Pac-People and he’s happily married. Within Pac-Man’s fiction, the ghosts are often treated as punching bags, but there’s something kinda tragic about this one.

…Though D of Another Code: Two Memories is a far more tragic figure. Without giving his whole backstory away, we gradually learn about him and his family, the Edwards, throughout the game by investigating specific antiques. You’ll learn that the Edwards’ downfall entails illnesses, betrayal, and the untimely death of a young boy. And then, that boy lost his memories and has been wandering around the aptly-named Blood Edward Island alone for nearly six decades. If you pick up Another Code: Recollection next year, do D a solid and help him finally pass on. You really should: his familial drama is frankly more compelling than that of protagonist Ashely’s.

AShadowLink: Oh boy. I’m talkin’ ’bout Suda 51 again. Well, it’s the work of his co-writers, Masahi Ooka and Sako Kato. Let’s talk about The 25th Ward: The Silver Case, and more specifically the ‘Placebo’ chapters. You see, protagonist Tokio Morishima has ‘remaining consciousnesses’ in his head. These are a sort of imprint of the dead. Among them is a ghost of an online friend he made who was killed, named /, or Slash.

Tokio’s ability to retain the consciousnesses of the people who have died around him initially completely overwhelmed him to the point of torture. After a suicide attempt, he is hospitalized by government types. he only reason he’s still around is because they had his memories locked away.

But ghosts in The Silver Case are interesting. Ghosts… are real. Ghosts can exist on the internet. Tokio messages Slash, who acts independently from him and can do various hacking tasks as well as distribute files.

In the epilogue YUKI, which was added in the 2018 remake, the eponymous new main character, Yuki, also has the ability to see and interact with the dead. She has her own ‘Slash’ in ‘Rina’, a dead girl who texts her. Ghosts continue to manifest in this story, only now they are tangible, though invisible to most people, and are a threat to society.

She is recruited to solve a case dealing with the lingering dead by a mysterious man, Hiiragi, who looks a lot like a young Tokio Morishima– specifically the one in the epilogue added to 2016’s re-release of The Silver Case. She is eventually rescued by the now 12 years aged real Tokio Morishima, who offers to mentor her.

These events beg a question- YUKI confirms that Tokio created ‘Slash’, along with Yuki creating ‘Rina’. These two beings seemingly have no physical body, and only exist on the net. But ‘Hiiragi’, the younger Tokio Morishima, has a physical body. He is not like the other ghosts. He exists. He orders frappuccinos. He sits alongside Tokio in the ending. What’s the deal with him?

Masahi Ooka recently dropped that Tokio Morishima died off-screen after YUKI, which is a hell of a gut punch for me. But thanks to lingering consciousnesses, he’ll always be around as long as Yuki is there. And maybe he can manifest the same as ‘Hiiragi’ did. I guess Tokio Morishima himself is my favorite video game ghost now.

PhantomZ2: This will probably be a very out there choice as we haven’t talked about the series much, if not at all, on either the channel or the website. However, as I’ve been a fan of the series since Markiplier’s initial playthrough, and it’s been incredibly fun seeing how the original set of games unfolded, concluded, kept going, and unfolded more – I’d have to say some of the best ghosts in gaming are The Missing/Dead Children from Five Nights at Freddy’s, especially Charlie. With the ability to possess the animatronics that they were stuffed in or killed nearby, The Missing Children from FNAF are driven by their agony and fear to attack adults, and thus the player, due to being murdered by William Afton. That in it of itself, although making them an opposition for the player, also leaves them as characters that we should feel sympathy for. But, in the case of Charlie, it looks as if that no matter if she would like to move on – if Afton won’t, neither will she. To assumedly pass on, just to come back to take the true villain down back to the depths of hell where he belongs, that feels pretty raw to me.

Hamada: We’ve all heard it by now: Kirby’s adorable exterior betrays what’s possibly Nintendo’s most powerful character. He smites gods, demons, and vengeful spirits on the regular, so why don’t we go big and honor the greatest of the latter? Kirby’s Return to Dream Land introduces us to fan favorite Magolor, serving as its final boss and complete with a rematch as the menacing Magolor Soul. Back in the day, this fight already ruled, courtesy of its incredible theme, difficulty, and the schemer’s Dark Matter-esque design. Who could’ve expected Return to Dream Land Deluxe to somehow make this iconic foe even better? Upon reaching the end of its revamped True Arena and encountering Magolor Soul as expected, you’re blindsided by a remake-exclusive phase. Suddenly, Magolor’s eyes fade from his grotesque form (completely detaching its look from the cutesy fellow it’s taken over), the pause screen and music now feature him pleading with Kirby to destroy the crown, and he even helps out by tossing you an apple from within his prison. On top of all the classic hazards, watch out for attacks emulating the new Mecha and Sand abilities, hold on to what little health you might have left, and you’ll make it through. There are plenty more Kirby bosses that bring the adrenaline, feels, and tension like this one does, but for laying the groundwork and managing to return with such a vengeance, I’ve gotta give this incredible specter the admiration he’s long past sentient enough to enjoy.

Creaks: I’ve got a reputation among friends for having a fascination with fictional monsters, and ghosts in particular are a staple part of my personal brand. There’s certainly no shortage of the supernatural in my favorite games, but none of them take advantage of the unique abilities of a spirit quite like Capcom’s Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Created by the same team as the original Ace Attorney trilogy, and (possibly) set in the same universe, Ghost Trick delivers a completely fresh experience with the same great writing and logic puzzles. Your protagonist, Sissel, is an amnesiac ghost who finds his dead body caught up in some sort of criminal conspiracy. In order to find out who he was, and why he was killed, Sissel has to move around by possessing objects and “Ghost Tricking” them to activate them. He can open umbrellas, activate cranes, travel through phone lines, and much more. This flow of gameplay is unlike anything else I’ve played, turning every single chapter into an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine. It also happens to have one of the greatest stories in gaming, featuring time travel, the best fictional dog ever, and… well, you’ll just have to try the recent remaster for the rest.

While I’m here, I’d also be remiss if I forgot to mention my personal favorite ghost, The Snatcher from A Hat in Time. Between Yungtown’s hilarious and bombastic vocal performance, one of the best boss battles in a 3D platformer, and just enough hidden lore to make him somewhat compelling, it’s really no wonder that he was popular enough to get an entire challenge mode themed around him!

NantenJex: Obviously, on a list of gaming’s most iconic ghosts it would be wrong of me to not mention very well known and beloved John Raimi from Nintendo’s Geist. Truly an icon of the shooter and horror genre, John is a ghost both in death and life and has to possess his enemies and use their ‘assets’ to his advantage while he searches for his own missing body (all while fighting off the demons of hell that every evil corporation works to unleash onto our world).

But in all seriousness, I think a lot of my colleagues have already touched upon most of the big ghosts of gaming in this article, at least from our Nintendo-focused perspective. For me, one of the more iconic usages of ghosts that has yet to be mentioned here has to be from The Sims but I can’t think of any one specific ghost that stands out. Everyone in that game has the potential to die and come back as a spooky ghost, and I think that is kinda neat and adds to the supernatural parts of The Sims franchise that adds to its charm.

If I had to pick one though, I want to go for a ghost in a video game that actually scared me, so let’s talk about Kackle from Donkey Kong Country 2. As a kid I used to be terrified of skeletons. Nowadays, that fear has been lessened as I realized I had everything they could ever have and then some, but kid me really didn’t like them in his video games and Kackle is a ghost skeleton so that made him extra scary. Donkey Kong Country 2 was already a dark and twisted follow-up to the first game and has a lot of very off-putting moments in it but Haunted Hall was a stand-out for me. You’re already constrained by the Skull Coaster you’re forced to ride in but then you’re chased by this giant cackling skeleton crocodile ghost. It’s panic inducing but it also caused it to haunt my nightmares even after the game was turned off and that makes it a pretty effective ghost. It managed to actually haunt me irl, some real creepypasta nonsense going on.

Liquid: This is an entry where we get to talk about some mechanics tied to player choice. Let’s talk about The Sorrow from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

The Sorrow is a member of the Cobra Unit, the quirky miniboss squad for Snake Eater specifically. His entire shtick in lore is that through his powers as a medium, he can interact with the dead, whether to commune or take upon their abilities in combat. By the time of the game’s events, he is actually dead, and his spirit roams throughout Tselinoyarsk, where the game takes place. The Sorrow shows up periodically throughout the game to observe and sometimes help Naked Snake before engaging in a “direct” confrontation late into the game.

The Sorrow’s “boss fight” is less of a fight and more a monument to your sins, in that the Sorrow throws the ghosts of every enemy you have killed lethally towards your general direction while you slowly dredge forward and avoid them. As such, the difficulty is directly proportional to the amount of enemies you’ve killed personally (inducing environmental kills such as quicksand, drowning, electrocution via electric fencing and baiting wild animals not being sorrowful crimes, I guess); more is harder, less is easier. Even on non-lethal playthroughs, the minimum amount of ghosts to encounter is four given the appearance of the Cobra Unit members you’ve fought since they all explode upon death regardless of your actions. Snake Eater is rife with developer foresight as far as boss manipulation goes, and this is one of the better examples in that your pacifism is rewarded with reprieve from an army of ghosts.