The House of the Dead: Remake was a fun rail shooter, but nobody would accuse it of being colorful. If you want a spooky rail shooter that actually has some colors on the screen, Aksys Games has you covered. Spooky Spirit Shooting Gallery is a Switch-exclusive port of an arcade game in which players blast away at yokai (Japanese spirits and monsters), alone or with up to 3 local players.
Spooky Spirit Shooting Gallery is played with Joy-Cons when in TV mode; Pro Controllers and wired controllers are not supported. To aim, players simply point the Joy-Con at the screen, moving the cursor. The top shoulder buttons and right-most face button fire the in-game gun.
Two modes are unlocked at the start: Carnival Mode and Party Mode. A third game mode, Spirit Stairway Challenge, will unlock after all minigames have been unlocked in the shop.
Carnival Mode (pictured above) recreates the arcade experience, with 1-3 local players progressing through cooperative shooting gallery stages, trying to earn as many medals as possible while also hunting for spirits. When enough spirits have been defeated to fill the Spirit Gauge in the top corner of the screen, the game will progress to the haunted house. There, a challenging final boss awaits.
Party Mode (pictured below) supports 3-player local multiplayer and offers a wide selection of minigames divides into VS and Co-op categories. Both VS and Co-op modes support up to 3 players. There are 17 cooperative minigames to unlock in total.
Although I've only played Spooky Spirit Shooting Gallery for a little while, I love the spooky yet cheerful carnival atmosphere and the variety of activities on offer. The main Carnival mode is a little overwhelming to start with - it's easy to spend more tokens to play than you earn. Thankfully, players can check in every 15 minutes to get free tokens, and completing in-game missions will award token bonuses as well. The minigames also seem really creative and fun, especially with three players.
Spooky Spirit Shooting Gallery sells for $39.99 on Switch. We'll have a full co-op review soon!