Halloween Story Match is a casual card matching game with a few fun twists thrown in. The most important of these are health, stories, and achievements.
Health comes in the form of little wisps at the top of the screen. Every miss-match causes one of them to disappear. Losing all of them means you lose the round. But, there is hope. There are three types of candy cards, and matching a pair of them returns one wisp.
The best part of the game is the stories. If you match all the cards, you’ll be presented with a spooky story with sound effects for you to read. This story is actually generated by the matching game. There are five types of picture cards. The first match of these will start you out on one of five main story trunks. The next matches branch the story in a different direction. In total there are one hundred and twenty possible outcomes. Some are scary. Some are funny. All of them are short and sweet.
In addition to the main game and the stories is a treasure trove full of oddities which you can collect through in-game achievements. With the exception of a dowsing rod, these are all extremely rare and often unique items. Each comes with a short description to explain itself and why some might find it valuable, or if you don’t have something yet you can find out how to get it.
This game is free and there are no ads or restrictions, but there is one solitary and permanent in game purchase. The book icon in the menu leads to story mode where you can read the stories as you wish without going through the card matching first. It is my strategy that you will either find the branching stories so compelling that you must read them all or enjoy the game so much that you wish to thank me for entertaining you. But, there is nothing available in story mode that you can’t get freely through the game.