While specific goals and stories vary widely across games, a common objective of playing is to successfully progress toward the end.  Corpse Party does share this quality, but it also contains numerous wrong endings that are unlocked when things do not exactly as planned.  Instead of failure being indicated by a simple game over screen that we have all seen countless times, failure in this game results in a short cutscene that may include a scene that involves cutting.  The amount of gore depicted varies, but death of at least one person is a constant in these.  One particularly unsettling instance is when the player character committed suicide by swallowing scissors, which one could imagine is more lethal than say swallowing bed springs or a window crank.  This feature slowed down this reviewer's progress in the game since more effort was put into unlocking the many wrong endings than there was in actually completing the game the correct way.

Now just like Planet Fitness, this website is a judgement free zone (and burns just as many calories), so instead of focusing on what deliberately leading school children to grisly deaths says about this writer, let's focus on the actual game.  Perhaps I make this connection because the characters are school aged and the graphics look like what was common when this show as on the air, but this game feels like an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark?  Well, an episode of AYAOTD that went horribly wrong and started hanging out with that ne'er do well gang of those Ringu films.  Plus a lot of the children die in ways that Nickelodeon would never allow on their network, not even during the late evening S'Nick broadcasts.

The game begins with a group of kids performing some sort of pagan ritual at school.  I don't recall any extracurricular activities like this when I was in school but on the plus side I am not dead, nor do I live with any demons I ushered in from some other plane of existence.  As one would expect, the ritual did not exactly go as planned and the kids are transported to a version of the school that is unfamiliar to all of them.  This alternate version of the school is in dire need of some basic repairs, and there seems to be a much more macabre motif in the interior design.

Gone are the typical elements of decor one would see in a school that is not on the verge of being condemned.  In their place we have bloody scissors, notes left from those who passed, and many skeletons strewn about the hallways, as if some ungracious freeloader left his dead on the school's doorstep to later be haphazardly placed throughout the school.  There are newspaper articles that mention serial kidnappings that turned into murders, but the more unsettling literature is the final attempts at communication from the victims.

Some of these notes recount the horrors of their final moments, including gruesome acts they may have had to take part in to stave off death, even if only for a short while.  Some notes are less detailed, and they only convey a message of hate or anger.  These happy thoughts include sentiments such as admitting to hate all your friends or a simple declaration of hating one's sister.  In this alternate dimension it is said when you die the physical pain that is felt at the time death will continue to be felt for all eternity.  The thought of that pain combined with the feelings left behind on the final notes convey a sense that death in this world is the true definition of hell.

The 16-bit graphics and overhead perspective make this feel like a SNES adventure, which is not an inaccurate way to describe how it plays.  The character moves throughout the school finding various items and pieces together information about the story.  The goal is to successfully reach the end of each chapter without leading your companions or yourself to an early grave, though intentionally screwing up to see what sort of twisted end awaits is also a fun distraction.  There is a certain amount of backtracking involved and it is not always clear what steps need to be taken.  But through trial and error and exploration figuring out the solution is never impossible.

Where this game truly succeeds in creating a horror atmosphere.  As previously stated the graphics are primitive, and while the design is grim the cartoonish graphics are not enough to create a sense of dread.  This is where  the other elements come into play.  The musical score, which is great on its own merits, sets the tone for this horror survival adventure.  The various notes left by prior victims combined with the knowledge that these tormented souls are lurking about create an unnerving environment.  Whether death comes at the hands of shadow that catches you, or the trapped spirits eat away at your sanity and drive the characters to suicide, dread lurks around every corner.  Excessive gore, high quality CGI, jump scare tactics are not in this game's bag of tricks.  Corpse Party provides psychological horror done about as well as can be done on a video game with these technical limitations.

Closing Comments:

Corpse Party's Steam port holds up especially well for a five year old PSP game/eight year old PC release (both of which are remakes of a twenty year old PC game).  For those who have completed the game before, certain scenes are retooled and some bonus content is included to add some incentive to check out the new version.  This is a title that is especially recommended for horror fans that want a game that uses a more psychological approach to creating tension and dread.  The various wrong endings make failure an interesting option, especially for people with a morbid sense of humor like a certain writer who shall remain nameless.  The theme of a bunch of teenagers roaming a school haunted by tormented souls trying to kill them may limit the mass appeal of this game, but for the niche audience this type of game speaks to, it is very well done.