Dead of Night
Here’s a fun anecdote. When I was in second grade, I brought all my Goosebumps books to Show and Tell. That morning, before my parents woke me up, I got up on my own and stuffed like 30 books into my backpack. At Show and Tell, I went up in front of the class, took way too long to set up every single book in numerical order, and proudly displayed my collection. I felt so cool.
When I got home, I told my mom. She was horrified. Apparently, earlier that week, my teacher told my mom and dad at a parent-teacher conference that she was concerned with how much time I spent reading Goosebumps books. Something about how I got too lost in them and she thought they weren’t good for me. Then I inadvertently showed up a couple days later with the biggest fuck-you middle finger you can imagine. This is the happiest confluence of events, and I still giggle about it 20 years later. My mom wasn’t as thrilled.
I have a chance this summer to once again stick it to my second grade teacher (as if becoming a blogger hadn’t already dashed all her hopes for me). There’s a new Goosebumps game coming to PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One. Titled Goosebumps Dead of Night, this is a greatest hits of sorts as Night of the Living Dummy‘s Slappy brings creatures from other books to life.
Anyone who has remained current on Goosebumps video games might recognize Dead of Night‘s foundation. This is a reworking and elaboration-upon the mobile VR game Goosebumps Night of Scares. It features the same kind of first-person stealth/horror-survival gameplay, but with more content and better visuals. There’s no release date yet apart from the window of “summer 2020,” but we’re told it’ll be priced at $40.
Dead of Night is a serviceable enough name, but they really should’ve went with Untitled Goosebumps Game.
