Monster Mash is a free dating simulation video game wherein you get to romance some horror story legends. Developed by HeyMarmalade, this indie visual novel is a hilarious Halloween dating sim about monsters and finding a party date at the last minute. This game is a submission to Spooktober 2nd Annual Visual Novel Jam and features some pop culture references that make for a wacky short adventure.

Not the horrors you’d expect

Monster Mash may remind you of Monster Prom, a popular dating sim game about the supernatural. The love interests in this particular game are definitely of the supernatural kind, too, but what makes it different from the other title is its whole premise. In Monster Prom, you’re a teenage monster looking to bag a date with a fellow monster schoolmate. Here, you’re a human who’s desperate enough to summon a date through a ritual.

The game starts off simple enough: you’re given 8 items and you must choose 3 of them to combine. This will take some trial and error, as there are only 4 romanceable characters and so some combinations only lead to a bad ending wherein you failed your summoning. These characters differ in gender identity—and your character doesn’t have a distinctive gender either—so the game is mostly inclusive of LGBT relationships.

What’s interesting about the story is that its narration is written in second-person perspective. There aren’t a lot of exact dialogues for you aside from the dialogue options you have to choose to woo your would-be date. It’s also too bad that even after getting the good endings—of which there are 3 different endings for each character—you don’t get a gallery of the CGs to go back to.

Could use some more features

Overall, Monster Mash isn’t too revolutionary for a monster dating sim but it does have its moments. For one, while the writing has several grammatical errors, the content itself can be funny with the amount of pop culture shout-outs present and the discussion of the characters’ unique species. It’s not the best VN out there but it’s a cute game to try out if you want to meet new monsters for a date.