CarnEvil (a portmanteau of "The Carnival of Evil") is a light gun rail shooter arcade game released by Midway Games on October 31st, 1998. As its release date suggests, it is a horror game that could be considered appropriate to play during Halloween. However age discretion should be kept in mind for younger children, as the game was considered graphic for strong, lifelike violence; it also heavily relied on black humor, which some may find dislike or even find offensive. Despite being considered Midway's most successful light gun game, it never received a home console or re-release treatment. It can be considered similar to games like The House of the Dead franchise, Blood, and Illbleed.
Plot[]
Inspired by the movie Carnival of Souls, an urban legend has come to surround the tombstone of one Ludwig von Tökkentäkker in a cemetery within the fictional town of Greely Valley, Iowa. The ringleader of a circus during his life, the legend claims that inserting a golden token into the mouth of a jester statue perched atop his tombstone will cause a haunted amusement park to rise from the earth.
When a group of children take Spooky Sam's spooky hayride tour which passes through the cemetery on Halloween, one of these children attempts to discover if the legends are true -- he discovers that it is. Now trapped inside the undead carnival, he grabs a shotgun from the shooting gallery to fight off the numerous hordes now out to get him while he finds a way to escape. Along his journey he meets another person trapped inside of the carnival named Betty and the two make their way—albeit separately—through a haunted house, Rickety Town, and a freak show, they board an airship to finally face Tökkentäkker himself.
Ultimately, the boy succeeds in killing Tökkentäkker and destroying his airship. Before it can crash he falls from it. He then awakens to find morning has passed, and the girl Betty is now beside him. The coin drops out of the jester's mouth and lands on the ground, and much to Betty's horror, the boy reinserts it.