Stranger Things might be in a post-season slump, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at games. You’ve got your Nancy and Steve popping into Dead By Daylight, and every bookstore and board game shop in town has those themed Dungeons & Dragons (& Demagorgons) starter kits lying about. Today, it’s Rocket League‘s turn to become haunted by the 80s, as Haunted Hallows arrive in car-footy land.
After a false start on Christmas, when advent calendars appearing on supermarket shelves in September, everyone has finally remembered it’s Halloween season first. Rocket League has announced its latest Halloween event, this year crossing over with Stranger Things. Haunted Hallows will bring new cosmetic doodads inspired by the Netflix show’s mock-eighties world, including a pattern inspired by Hooper’s groovy shirt. It’ll also let us play carball in the spookzone of The Topsy-Tursvy (which I’m told is called “The Upside Down” in the original American release?). That will kick off on Monday.
As is now tradition, Rocket League is poised to unleash its annual Haunted Hallows event for this most spooky of seasons. However, the four-wheeled footie game's Halloween celebrations are getting a bit of a shake-up this year, thanks to a special Stranger Things tie-in.
Rocket League's latest Haunted Hallows event kicks off next Monday, 14th October, and will once again see players battling it out on the pitch to earn Candy Corn, which can be used in the seasonal store to unlock autumn-inspired items.
According to developer Psyonix, this year's tie-in with Stranger Things will manifest in an additional range of unlockable items, all inspired by the Netflix show, and a specially spooked-up version of Rocket League's Farmstead arena. This will see the stage receive an Upside Down makeover, including blood red skies and the imposing form of the Mind Flayer - both of which, along with a few of the promised seasonal cosmetics, can be seen in the trailer below.
This year's Haunted Hallows event in Rocket League will feature a bunch of Halloween-themed cosmetics for your battle-cars, adding trails of autumn leaves and spider paintjobs and the like. All of them are earnable with 'Candy Corn' currency, which you get for playing matches during the spookytimes.
But as well as the generic Halloween stuff, this year there's also a Stranger Things tie-in. The Farmstead Arena will become part of the Upside-Down, complete with a red sky and the Mind Flayer looming in the background. Some of the other new cosmetics include a Demogorgon banner and title, Scoops Ahoy avatar border, Hawaiian Hopper decal, Camp Know Where hat, and a rocket boost that's all red swoosh.
A couple of those will only make sense if you've seen the third season of the show, which you should because it's quite good. The Haunted Hallows event will go live on October 14 and continue until November 11.
It’s a lively day in box news. In the one corner, we have Rocket League developers Psyonix laying out their plans to get rid of ’em. Crates will be replaced with “Blueprints” for specific cosmetics, which you can leave laying about your inventory until you forget about them or choose to cough up. In the other corner, we have Valve, changing how CS:GO loot crates work in France to make gambling regulation less likely, while preserving the addictive qualities that get gambling regulators concerned in the first place.
I know who I want to win. Maybe I’ll put money on it.