Mixed feelings about this one. The presentation is good, nice graphics and music, with tolerable voice acting and limited animation. The story is original and interesting, too.

The areas are very interactive with hot zones that simply provide amusing commentary. There are also a lot of locations with very little backtracking.

A nice little extra is that you can buy items to decorate a back yard with halloween items.

However, this game contains extremely illogical puzzles that are almost unsolveable except by trial and error. On several occasions I simply had to use the hints button to progress and even then I remained stuck until I just tried everything on everything else to proceed.

It also begins to suffer from bad translation errors near the end, possibly because playtesting didn't get as far as often? ("Watter pistol" etc.)

What's worse, is that in some of the later hidden object puzzles in this game the descriptions and the item you need to find simply do not match up. Example: I need to find a knife, but none of the knives register. Instead, I needed to click a trowel as shown by the hints button.
That's why I almost wouldn't recommend this, in a HOG you cannot lie to the player like this!

Yet the game does show a lot of care in other matters and is worth a playthrough. Overall therefore a careful recommendation.

This is one odd game. It's a casual adventure with a lot of puzzles and hidden object scenes, but it's certainly not meant for casual players. The 'hints' for the puzzles are riddles itself (like for example a three letter puzzle and the hint is 'what do I need?') and this makes the game really way harder than it should be. The adventure elements aren't really logical and involve a good amount of try and error which gets frustrating rather quick. The voice 'acting' is laughable and while the backgrounds look nice, the characters close-ups are bad. I could have abused the hint and skip function of the game to see the end, but I think I'd rather play a good game than this.

If you like really obscure puzzles and unintuitive adventure elements give this one a try, but don't expect a casual adventure.

I would have to give this game a provisional "thumb up" due to the difficulty. This is not a game for the casual player, the easily and not so easily frustrated, or anyone who does not take notes while they play. This is a very difficult game to play. (Reminds me of Deponia.) This game has some very obscure references and reading the dialogue is extremely important. (Skip dialogue at your own risk.) More importantly is remembering some absurd remark or off-topic thought of some character a chapter or two later. The clues are there, masked behind riddles that in some cases are very, very oblique, referenced in the boy's journal, various diary pages, or in some dialogue remark earlier in the game. I would like to thank Micheal who posted his playthrough in the community videos, they were very helpful. (Oddly enough he and I never got stuck in the same place. Note: Micheal's playthroughs are in German, but do not let that deter you. The playthroughs are easy enough to follow.) I would also like to thank those in the discussions threads, I found valuable clues and an answer or two.

Storyline: The Boy (whose name is, by inferred references, Lautrec Van Hollow) steals/takes his father's book "Halloween" on October 30th. Being a clever little boy, he says so himself (and quite determined), he wants to find out what Halloween is and why Halloween is never celebrated in his town of Dern. To do this he needs to decypher the book, escape his room (I think he is grounded or it is past his bedtime) and go talk to adults who were around when Halloween existed.

Just a note here: The game dialogue is rather snarky, full of off-kilter remarks, and is very absurd at times. I found most of the dialogue amusing, in a disbelieving type of way, since all the adults seem crazy until the end (and they are hiding a secret). Leave normal reasoning and logic at the door since having both will only deter your gameplay. An example of what I mean is this: The raven, whose name I inferred was Lester, wants a golden pipe, a newspaper, a pair of slippers, and a glass of wine for nightcap before he moves out of the boy's way. Absolutely illogical and utterly absurd, but rather funny too. The whole game plays like this, so be warned.

Gameplay: Difficult, very difficult in places, but not impossible as some of the negative reviews claim. (I personally did not run into a game breaking glitch at the end and running in circles meant taking a break to clear my head.) As I said this game is difficult, and the logic obscure, at best.

The easy parts: The Hidden Object scenes were fair and the objects not unfairly hidden. The items found in each scene basically match the area found, though littered with unusual items. I did not find the actual puzzles overly challenging, but they are brain twisters. The puzzle variety includes music, sliders, logic, recipe and picture puzzles. I would call the "knocking the sock down", "candle", and "lock picking" puzzles, mini-games. The "candle" and "lock picking" puzzles, my son, a player of FPSs and fast paced RPGs did both in about 15-20 seconds, first time, though I took much longer and required several tries. The point is, both are doable with patience and speed, respectively. I only had trouble with one puzzle, and not the "candle" or "torch" puzzles so many have issue with. (The torch puzzle actually made sense to me, and I did it first try.) My trouble puzzle was the gate puzzle going into pumpkin-head town between chapter 4 and 5. The riddle on the gate makes no sense as most riddles in this game seem to do. It really is not nonsense, just extremely oblique. Once I knew the answer it made perfect sense afterwards (even the riddle).

The hard parts: The point and click gameplay is uneven. Some of it is very easy, other parts are very difficult. I think some of the difficulty comes from the size of some objects needed to be found. (The thimble on the train set comes to mind. It is very small.) I hunted and hunted for what needed to be done in that scene and found the thimble by accident. (Oh by the way the cursor does change into a little octopus so careful searching of the entire screen is needed quite often.) The other difficult part of the point and click scenerios is just the flat out oblique logic used and odd use of items (the golf club once totally disassembled comes to mind). The logic of this game really reminds me of Deponia: strange, weird, and HUH? Also the game inhibits the player from moving ahead in the story before the present tasks are completed or gaining items too soon in the story. A good example of this is the guitar string in the toy shop. A player may 'twang' the string early in the game but can not take it until later in the game when needed. I can only presume the string's 'twang' is a subtle auditory reminder that the string is there and will be needed later.

On a more even note: the boy uses a gizbelt, a clever invention of his. The gizbelt carries his gizstruments which by the end of the game include a pairs of scissors, a hatchet, a slingshot, and a pencil. These gizstruments upgrade (or down grades in the case of the pencil) through gameplay as they are used and the pair of scissors that could barely cut paper at the beginning of the game can cut through metal chain by the end. So if the gamer knows they need to cut something and can not do it wait until the scissors upgrade then try it again. These items are used to do certain things and should not be overlooked when needing to do something like cut, break or retrieve things though the gamer might have to wait for the upgrade.

There is a fast travel map once the gamer leaves home and the map is completed. The first chapter takes place at the boy's home which includes 2 upstairs rooms and hallway, the main entrance (called lobby), the basement, the front of the house, the front yard, and the fountain. (No map). There are six chapters in this game. Up until Chapter 6 the game play is linear and the gamer can not move forward until every task is completed for that chapter, and there is no going back. Chapter 6 goes everywhere but once all the tasks are completed in an area, the areas close off. The map will show with "an exclamation mark" if something needs to be done. Using the hint button I would say is a must, if the gamer does not use the map. It will at least get the gamer to the place something needs to found or something needs to be done. The hint button can be refilled by looking for little bats in scenes.

A word about candy, in this game the gamer can collect various types of candy found lying around on the floor, on shelves or stuck to furniture or buildings. The only thing candy is good for is buying Halloween items from the store and decorating the Van Hallow back yard. This has nothing to do with the game so do not fret about missed candy pieces. It is just something fun to do if so inclined.

In conclusion, despite the game's difficulty level and lack of normal logic, I found this game much more enjoyable to play on a replay then the first frustrating and hair pulling time though.

Evil Pumpkin is a seemingly harmless hidden object/puzzle game, but under the cartoonish surface hides a merciless entity with the sole aim of torturing any casual game fans… or even seasoned adventure game veterans.

If I’d have to sum up Evil Pumpkin: The Lost Halloween in one word, I would choose ‘confusing’. It seems like an average hidden object game, but in reality it’s something made for the most hardcore puzzle game fanatics.

Why? For example the hint system doesn’t give you clues or straight answers, it gives you riddles. The description of the puzzles are also written as riddles; sometimes you struggle to even find out what the aim of the puzzle is, let alone trying to come up with a solution.

The story isn’t faring any better. It goes all over the place, things happen out of nowhere, lead nowhere, and suddenly you just find yourself watching the end credits. Also, as a final insult, the voice acting is atrocious.

If you are looking for a nice casual game, steer away from Evil Pumpkin. But if you miss the torturous puzzles of the old Sierra games, then you just found a good spiritual successor in this hidden object title.

That game had potential. The story is interesting though it would have been better to add more background, like how the father was involved back then. The graphics are also nice while the soundtrack... well, it's not really boring per se but it's not really varied.

The puzzles and the hidden objects are really good. Yeah, good. When you understand them. The HOG aren't the problem here. Nope. While explaining the puzzles in riddles and poetry is a nice change, I wish that they were a little more... obvious. I'm maybe fluent in English but it doesn't mean that I can understand the puzzle.

And... I was in Casual. The easiest difficulty. Yet, I had an hard time to pass the chapter 1. I was kinda lost at what I had to do... You're kinda let on your own: How could I know that I had to put that rotten sandwich in the garbage OUTSIDE when I was expecting a creative way to use it, like attract some animals? How could I expect, in a later chapter, that when a spider was mentionned, I wasn't looking for the animal but something else?

Because I had an hard time in Chapter 1, I couldn't really enjoy the game as I would have liked. Yes, it may be interesting for hardcore casual gamers. But I'm among them. I've played a lot of casual gamings. And this one, well, even for me, it wasn't easy. And doing another playthrough because I've two profiles and that I unlocked one achievement in the second one but not in the first is preventing me to get the all achievements... when I've them on steam... no, too much.

The idea to collect candies for the backyard is a nice one. If only the candies weren't sometime so small that you can easily miss them. That's how I missed a gummy bear and couldn't buy the last item.

Honestly, I don't know if I should put "yes" or "no" as recommendation. I mean that it's not a bad game, it doesn't deserve a negative review. Yet, I can't see myself to recommend it as a must-buy.

I'm going to put a "yes" though. Because, well, like I've said, it doesn't deserve a negative review.

It is obvious that this game has a great potential.
The really neat, cute-yet-spooky artwork and the Halloween-themed story alone could make you easily addicted to this. If you're a fan of Nightmare Before Christmas, you may want to consider giving Evil Pumpkin: The Lost Halloween a try! :)


Wait for it to be on a HUGE discount before buing it, though, because absolutely no one thought the puzzles through O.o
The "mini games" are either painfully unintuitive or broken (or both). The game doesn't provide many clues, and when it does, they usually aren't exactly helpful.
This, combined with the annoying voice acting, becomes a major nuisance rather quickly.

This was the most annoying P&C/HOG I ever played.

The crappy translation and illogical puzzles will often lead you to a wrong solution, leaving you stuck.
Poor voice acting and storytelling do not improve the game experience for sure.

Avoid this product if you can.

It's rare that a game so thoroughly defeats me in the way Evil Pumpkin did. It's not that I wasn't able to finish the game - a slowly-recharging hint meter and the extremely helpful denizens of YouTube ensured I would be able to brute-force my way through the trickier sections. No, Evil Pumpkin foiled me by forcing me to resort to hints over and over again. A well-designed adventure game - and make no mistake, this is more of an adventure game than a HOG, to the point that the hidden object screens are actually optional - moves players through the story in a logical fashion, presenting them with obstacles to overcome and giving them fair clues and tools to allow them to struggle their way through.

Evil Pumpkin goes a different way entirely, loading itself up with nonsensical, sometimes buggy, puzzles and some of the least impressive HOGs in recent memory.

On to the HOG criteria!

Criteria 1: To what degree do the puzzle screens look like a thrift store vomited on my monitor?

It's pretty bad. While the game does a passable job of restricting its searches to areas that would logically be cluttered, many of those areas are littered with items which make no sense given the setting - and that's just in the logical areas. There are also plenty of screens where a load of nonsense is tossed in. A church pew? Seems like a good place for a gold bar, straight razor, bullet and tree! It's just a mess for mess' sake. And that's not even getting into the rampant cheating that goes into item placement. There isn't much size cheating - the game has a good grasp of perspective, at least. That doesn't stop it from defying gravity, changing colours, and going transparent whenever it suits the developers' purposes. Just shoddy work here.

Criteria 2: Are the searches justified by the premise/story?

Only in the most cursory fashion. There are the standard 12:1 item finding sequences, but beyond that, no justification is given for the searches. This is largely because the game is far more interested in its puzzles than its searches - on the 'difficulty select' menu, HOSs only appear as an element on the lowest difficulty setting, aimed at 'casual' players'. This suggests that serious adventure gamers wouldn't bother with hidden object searches, and should focus on the game's other, more nonsensical puzzles. Given this attitude towards the genre they're working in, it's no surprise that the game's hidden object screens are so lacking.

Criteria 3: How well do the various puzzles and object searches meld together to form a coherent whole?

Not well at all. The story follows a little boy on a journey to find out why his town is the only place in the world without a Halloween. It's not a bad premise, but his method of investigation never makes much sense, and the conclusion he comes to seems utterly random. This isn't helped at all by the game's terrible puzzles, which range from annoying to buggy. This isn't just a case of my distaste for sliding block puzzles rearing its ugly head once more. There's the equivalent of a jigsaw puzzle with pieces that don't fit together and offer no clue as to where they're to be placed on the board. There's an 'eliminate the subjects' game whose rules are so oblique that I could see people being driven mad. Then there's a puzzle which is just plain wrong - as in the developers forgot their own world's rules when crafting it, so the answer doesn't make any logical sense.

With its lacklustre HOSs, frustrating puzzles, and hint/skip meter which takes forever to charge, Evil Pumpkin: The Lost Halloween is a disaster on every level. Literally the only thing that the game has going for it is a wry wit that surfaces in a bevy of puns offered for nearly every circumstance. For anyone uninterested in wordplay or adorable talking animals, this game offers nothing to recommend.

It was a quite nice hidden object point and click, until it bugged in a way that was absulutely game-breaking. I tried everything to get around the bug, to no avail. It was early enough into the game so I don't feel I got my money's worth, even at $10.

Pros: Looks good, solid gameplay

Con: Literally game breaking bugs

This was definitely the toughest HOG I've ever played. I believe some of that is on purpose, and some of that is due to the game's rough translation to English. I think certain elements of the story also suffered for the same reason, but, oddly enough, the devs were able to accurately translate a fair amount of humor (even including an Airplane! reference).

It's a smart game that forces you to pay attention and actually use your journal (unlike most HOGs). If you're going for the achievements, you're going to want to use an achievement guide (there currently is a good one on Steam) because there is an achievement for getting all the other achievements in one playthrough--and some of those achievements are easily missed.

There are a few complaints about bugs on the forums, but, personally, I only encountered one in the optional, non-story bonus backyard decoration element (which is cute, but isn't executed in the best manner). There was also one instance of a HOG item being labeled "pot" when it actually is a chain.

If you like HOGs, and you have a bit of patience, I think you'll find Evil Pumpkin enjoyable; however, unlike with most other HOGs, I highly recommend playing the game on casual as I imagine hard will have you tearing your hair out.

You really, really, really need to use your journal--I can't stress that enough.

In summation, it's a smart, enjoyable, and pretty Halloween game, although it suffers from some bad translation/spelling (the voice acting is hit-or-miss too), and it can be very difficult to connect some of the dots--and you will not get all the achievements in a single playthrough without consulting a guide.