by Burbie52, HSM team writer

Halloween is big business both in the real world and in the world of Home. You only need to ride down our city streets and look at the decorations people put up each year, some of which are very elaborate and very imaginative, to see that people just love this time of year. Halloween costume stores pop up all over the place like daisies after a rainstorm, as do haunted houses and corn mazes for people to run through. Here in the midwest we have Cedar Point, a large amusement park on Lake Erie that has Halloween weekends for the entire month of October. Yes, it is big business — because Halloween is the one day of the year that people can dress any way they like and let their imaginations run wild.

Here in Home it is much the same: people have parties and invite their friends, clubs do as well, and many even throw public Halloween events. Sony has always stepped up each year to give us something special for this time, though we have yet to see if they do so this year as well. With the release of Juggernaut’s Serenity Plaza this past year, they have taken up the gauntlet and created a wonderful rendition of the space in an appropriately Halloween style, calling it “Halloween Spooktacular”.

As I arrived there, I was amazed to see how much they went into details for this spooky event. They have walled off the Minibot game for the time being, probably because of the memory needed to play the new game in town: Vampires vs. Werewolves. The idea for this game is for people to team up as one monster or the other and attack the NPC avatars running all over the plaza. You work alone in the game and at the end your point tally is added to the community whole. The first goal is 250,000 points; then the points go from 500,000 to 750,000, to a final goal of a million points. I am sure each of these goals will garner a reward.

You can enhance your experience by purchasing a werewolf or vampire icon in the store for $1.99. This gives you extra attack power-ups which allow you to score higher. There is a scoreboard for leaders in the plaza of course to spur participants on to victory and a purchase or two.

The rest of the plaza has been transformed into a night space filled with ghosts, old castles and the addition of some of the new Juggernaut Halloween active items. These items are of the quality we have come to expect from Juggernaut since they launched into Home with their Cutteridge Estate a couple of years ago. I think that Halloween has a special place in the hearts of this particular developer as they seem to really enjoy the holiday. It shows in all of the new spooky things they have added in the past two years, starting with the Cutteridge, which has a smaller version represented in the Spooktacular where the windmill was.

The new items are a wonderful addition to their repertoire. There are two coffin beds that have lids that open and you can lay in them in three positions, including one with your arms crossed across your chest, vampire style. One is a single-person, the other a double, and the lid can close again on the single one once you lay down in it, a cool little extra. There are also two actives that put out a lot of items for only seven slots: the Sinister Sideboard places up to thirty-five food items and the Creepy Coffer puts out the same amount in scary ornaments. I love these types of furniture slot saving items and buy them up as fast as they can produce them.

There is another merry-go-round they have redone, with flaming horses and a witches’ cauldron that bubbles and makes noise, a belfry with bats and sounds and a crypt, a gravestone and gargoyle ornaments.  There is a Haunted Organ that plays five spooky songs and two LMOs that give you vampire and werewolf moves. You can buy all of this separately or as a bundle for only $9.99. The bundle is a huge bargain as always; if bought individually the pieces add up to $21.50.

So get your best costume combo on and go to Serenity Plaza for this Halloween’s Spooktacular, and bring your friends to play with the vampires and werewolves.

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