Image taken from https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8356842/spooktacular

Designer: D. Brad Talton, Jr.
Publisher: Level 99 Games
Artist: Javier Roa González

Now, I love me some spooky season games, so when I saw this, I was immediately intrigued. While it’s not perfect, especially in terms of solo, I had a lot of fun with it!

Spooktactular is a card-based action selection game where each player selects a monster from 15+ options, gains the five standard action cards, and then action cards that are specific for their chosen monster. In the solo game, you always play against the robot monster, so that’s the only one you truly can’t play as (solo only of course).

Each round, players perform actions based on their monster and how their turn structure works. Each monster is different so I can’t entirely blanket explain this, but the monster player boards outline everything needed to know, from starting components to turn sequences. The player’s turns are equivalent to a multiplayer game when playing solo, but then there’s the Killtron’s turn that must be facilitated. Their turn is simple, though: flip three cards and follow them as best as possible. Besides the fact the cards get a little repetitive after many plays, I have no major issues with this solo mode design. It’s easy to run and simulates another player quite well.

The monster variety is truly astounding. There are a few that are not fun to play solo, though! I tried every single one I could, and a few of them you can definitely see are meant to be played in larger groups and/or with human players. Most of the rest of them are super fun though! There were a few I didn’t care for, but with the number of options, that was bound to happen. It’s crazy but they do all play quite asymmetrically while still maintaining some semblance of a universal turn structure. The amount of creativity put into creating these characters is incredible. There is also a good distribution of monsters that are of easy, intermediate, and hard complexity to allow any type of player to enjoy the game.

Even though the meeples can get a little fiddly, this game is easy to set up and takedown, and it plays really smoothly. Like I said, everything is laid out on the player boards, and the standard base rules are pretty straightforward and intuitive.

The componentry is solid! All meeples are wooden and each monster piece is wooden and screen printed (or similar). I also have to mention the theme and the art. The theme is awesome! Playing as monsters coming out of the movie screen to terrorize the guests is amazing! The art is also stunning, truly. Each monster has their own look and vibe that gets expressed expertly through the card and board art. Besides being lovely to look at, I think the art also aids in the thematic immersion factor.

This is a really fun and fabulous game! It is the perfect game for a quick thirty-minute solo play, or any game night as it can accommodate a good player range and is easy to teach and provides multiple complexities of monsters to choose from. The replayability is also very high. I’ve played each monster I could, but there are definitely still ones I want to explore more!