[Halloween] Pumpkins, Witches, and a Night Parade of Yokai: 5 Free Browser Games to Sink Into After Dark

In this merge puzzle, you drop pumpkins and turnips from above and join matching vegetables so they grow bigger. Your goal is to light a Jack-o'-Lantern, the star of Halloween. Drag to aim where you want to drop, then lift your finger to let go.

What makes this game fun is that alongside pumpkins, you also grow rutabagas, a relative of the turnip. Join a turnip and a cabbage and they crossbreed into a rutabaga, which grows big, gets carved, and turns into a lantern. But two turnips or two cabbages refuse to merge, bouncing apart with a "Nope!" Working out combinations that are a little different from the usual merge puzzle is half the fun. Then pass the flame of a Rutabaga Lantern to a fully grown Giant Pumpkin, and your Jack-o'-Lantern is complete. It stays in the field and blows away the small vegetables around it.

Big vegetables don't disappear, so where you place them matters more and more as you go. If vegetables keep spilling over the top line for 2 seconds, it's Harvest Over. When the game ends, a "Did you know?" tip appears, telling you things like how Jack-o'-Lanterns were once carved from turnips and rutabagas, and how the name comes from an old Irish folktale. Picking up a bit of Halloween trivia just by playing is a nice bonus.

The key to enjoying it is to always keep a spot open where you can drop a turnip right next to a cabbage. Once the rutabaga cycle gets rolling, the Jack-o'-Lantern comes well within reach. Recommended for fans of merge puzzles and anyone who wants an easy taste of the Halloween mood.

A vertical-scrolling bullet hell shooter where a witch rides her broom across a cursed night sky. You play with one finger: hold it still to Focus your shots, and keep it moving to Spread them wide. Graze enemy bullets by a hair to build up mana, then unleash Mana Release to turn every bullet on screen into Crystals and rack up your multiplier.

The Halloween spirit really shines in the 21 tomes you choose from on each stage. The Black Cat Tome puts black cats at your sides to fire alongside you, the Owl Tome sends an owl to snipe enemies, the Bat Tome has bats eat up enemy bullets, the Raven Tome has a raven fetch Crystals for you, and the Skeleton Squire Tome sends a skeleton servant charging in. Watching the witch's familiars multiply is a true night procession. Your combination of upgrades changes every run, so you raise a different witch each time.

There are five witches: Rina, Witch of Flame; Nox, Witch of Shadow; Celes, Witch of Stars; Luna, Witch of the Moon; and Vela, Witch of Thunder. Their shooting styles and personalities couldn't be more different, and each witch has her own exchanges with the bosses waiting on the six stages. Fight your way through the Moonlit Ruined Castle, Above the Sea of Clouds, and the Misty Graveyard to the Edge of Night, where the Mother of Night awaits, cradling a black sun. Besides Expedition, which takes you through every stage in one go, there's Stage Challenge, which takes about 2 minutes, and Spell Practice, where you can practice against boss attacks.

The trick is not to be afraid to get close to the bullets. The more you graze, the more mana you build, and Mana Release can turn the tide all at once. A must-play not only for shooter fans but for anyone who loves witches and their familiars.

If you'd like to celebrate Halloween with Japanese yokai (the spirits and monsters of Japanese folklore), this is the one. It's a deckbuilding roguelike where onmyoji assemble spirit talismans and take on the Night Parade. Collect cards as you battle to grow your deck, and aim to make it through all three acts.

What sets this game apart is that you fight alongside companions rather than alone: Haru the Spellbinder, Akane the Demonbane Blade, and Shizuku the Ward Priestess. Your deck mixes in each companion's cards, and you combine cards that attack, defend, and weaken enemies. Tap a companion who's being targeted to raise a Ward on them, and if a companion falls, you can no longer draw their cards. Mechanics like these make deciding whom to protect agonizing in the best way. Each companion has their own Ultimate, and new companions join as the story progresses.

Standing in your way are classic yokai: Will-o'-Wisps, Kappa, Trickster Tanuki, Nekomata, Yuki-onna, Ittan-momen, Rokurokubi, Nue, and Wanyudo. At the end of each act, Shuten-doji, the Nine-Tailed Fox, and Yamata no Orochi lie in wait. Every win unlocks the next Rank, with conditions growing steadily tougher, so there's always another test of skill ahead. Progress saves automatically, so you can take it a little at a time.

The trick is not to get greedy and add too many cards. Keep your three companions' strengths in mind as you shape your deck bit by bit, and a style all your own will start to emerge. Recommended for fans of deckbuilding games and anyone who loves yokai tales.

A turn-based roguelike where you descend into an underground labyrinth with nothing but the glow of a single lantern. Your goal is the 20th basement floor; defeat the Dusk Dragon that dwells at the bottom and the labyrinth is conquered. Move with swipes or the D-pad, and bump into enemies to attack. Note that the in-game text is in Japanese.

The real star of this game is your lantern oil. The lower it runs, the narrower your vision gets, and shadows creep in from the darkness. Lamp-Eaters that devour your oil, ghosts that move through walls, mimics disguised as items on the floor: it's a slightly eerie cast, perfect for Halloween night. Whether you find the silver sword, which deals double damage to shadows and ghosts, can make or break your run.

Potions and scrolls you pick up stay a mystery until you use or identify them. A "red potion" might heal you, or it might poison you. You might even put on cursed gear by accident. With merchants who set up shop in the labyrinth, traps, and monster houses, you never know what each run will bring, and that's the heart of a roguelike. There's also Today's Labyrinth, where you compete with other players on the same layout each day, and autosave lets you pick up where you left off.

The trick is to always keep an eye on how much oil you have left. When you find lamplight potions or oil flasks, save them for the deeper floors. A good fit for roguelike fans and anyone who loves exploring by lighting up the darkness bit by bit.

Last up, instead of a Halloween costume, a game about Japanese masks. It's a memory game (the card-flipping kind, also known as Concentration) set at a mask stall at a Japanese festival: flip the face-down masks on the shelf two at a time and match the pairs. You start with 60 seconds, and every pair you match adds more time.

There are 16 kinds of masks, including the Fox, Hyottoko, Okame, Tengu, Oni, Hannya, Namahage, and Lion Dance. Clear a shelf and you move on to the next, with more cards each time. Further in, look-alike masks in other colors, like the Black Fox and the Blue Oni, start mixing in, and you'll find yourself squinting: same or different? A shelf lined with foxes, tengu, and oni even looks a bit like a little night parade of its own.

Two tricks help you out. Peek turns every mask face-up for 3 seconds, once per shelf. Eureka fills a gauge as you match pairs in a row, and when it's full, it matches one pair for you automatically. Match five pairs in a row and you enter FEVER, where each pair adds even more time. Match a pair on the first try for a bonus, and keep a streak going to raise your multiplier, so the more you remember, the higher your score climbs. When the round ends, you earn a title based on how you did, from Lost Kid all the way up to Mask God.

The trick is to remember where the misses were, too. Forget the partner of a card you've already seen, and the game will call you out for it. Save your Peek for a shelf where the cards have piled up past what you can keep track of. A good fit for anyone who's great at memory games, or who wants to sharpen their skills 60 seconds at a time.