Haunted ROM: The Lost Cartridge
Crit42 Studio · 2025 · RPG, Casual, Horror, Retro, Strategy
PC
Positive86% · 14 📉 Recent reviews down 69%
Compare prices in Official Stores
Screenshots
About Haunted ROM: The Lost Cartridge
Haunted ROM: The Lost Cartridge is a cursed collection of 10 single and multiplayer games inspired by classic horror and retro aesthetics from the ‘80s and ‘90s. From frantic shootouts to tactical turn-based battles, each game offers a modern approach to classic experiences, all of them linked by a hidden narrative that slowly reveals itself through glitches, visual errors, and unexplainable events.
Explore a haunted library of games long lost to time, where nostalgia meets digital horror.
10 GAMES, 10 RETRO HORROR VISIONS - Each title in the collection is an experience that aims to combine the nostalgia of retro horror games with modern gameplay. Some are fast-paced arcade-style adventures, others are deeper stories with exploration, strategy, or branching narratives. Get ready to face everything from first-person shootouts to chaotic arenas.
A LOST AND CORRUPTED ROM - The games were found inside a mysterious cartridge, a ROM that contains more than just code. Small details link each title, hinting at a bigger mystery that goes beyond the screen. Distorted visuals, corrupted sounds, and “intentional” bugs serve as clues to something trying to speak... or break free.INSTANT ACCESS - All 10 games are available from the start. Play them in any order, just like an old-school multi-game cartridge, bringing back that strange and thrilling feeling of renting something unknown from a forgotten video store.
CLASSIC STYLE, DARK EXECUTION - Each game was built with love for retro visuals: 8-bit and 16-bit palettes, low poly, crunchy sound effects, pixelated interfaces. But under the nostalgic surface lies a layer of psychological and meta-horror that breaks the fourth wall and messes with your mind. A dark tribute to classics with a haunted soul.PLAY TOGETHER (IF YOU DARE) - Some games in the collection include local multiplayer modes, whether you're teaming up to fight twisted creatures or battling it out in bloody arenas. Perfect for laughing, screaming, and wondering if your controller is possessed, all with friends.A Few Games You’ll Find in the Collection
Cult of Ascension - A roguelite arena tactics RPG where you control a randomly generated cultist and climb the ranks of a secret order by surviving brutal battles. Customize your powers, recruit followers, and live long enough to perform the Rite of Ascension.NULLand - Locked in a small room, you awake to the speech of something in the TV. In this First Person Escape Room experience, you have seven days to please your captor and discover how to get out.Shadow Peddler - A dark narrative game of choices and exploration, where every decision comes at a cost. Travel through cursed lands, survive hunger, madness, and ruin. Collect enough Penitence Tokens to buy your salvation… if you’re still alive by then.Spider Arena - A local competitive game for up to 4 players where spiders armed with cannons battle in vertical arenas. Crawl across walls, cling to the ceiling, aim and fire!
Explore a haunted library of games long lost to time, where nostalgia meets digital horror.
10 GAMES, 10 RETRO HORROR VISIONS - Each title in the collection is an experience that aims to combine the nostalgia of retro horror games with modern gameplay. Some are fast-paced arcade-style adventures, others are deeper stories with exploration, strategy, or branching narratives. Get ready to face everything from first-person shootouts to chaotic arenas.
A LOST AND CORRUPTED ROM - The games were found inside a mysterious cartridge, a ROM that contains more than just code. Small details link each title, hinting at a bigger mystery that goes beyond the screen. Distorted visuals, corrupted sounds, and “intentional” bugs serve as clues to something trying to speak... or break free.INSTANT ACCESS - All 10 games are available from the start. Play them in any order, just like an old-school multi-game cartridge, bringing back that strange and thrilling feeling of renting something unknown from a forgotten video store.
CLASSIC STYLE, DARK EXECUTION - Each game was built with love for retro visuals: 8-bit and 16-bit palettes, low poly, crunchy sound effects, pixelated interfaces. But under the nostalgic surface lies a layer of psychological and meta-horror that breaks the fourth wall and messes with your mind. A dark tribute to classics with a haunted soul.PLAY TOGETHER (IF YOU DARE) - Some games in the collection include local multiplayer modes, whether you're teaming up to fight twisted creatures or battling it out in bloody arenas. Perfect for laughing, screaming, and wondering if your controller is possessed, all with friends.A Few Games You’ll Find in the Collection
Cult of Ascension - A roguelite arena tactics RPG where you control a randomly generated cultist and climb the ranks of a secret order by surviving brutal battles. Customize your powers, recruit followers, and live long enough to perform the Rite of Ascension.NULLand - Locked in a small room, you awake to the speech of something in the TV. In this First Person Escape Room experience, you have seven days to please your captor and discover how to get out.Shadow Peddler - A dark narrative game of choices and exploration, where every decision comes at a cost. Travel through cursed lands, survive hunger, madness, and ruin. Collect enough Penitence Tokens to buy your salvation… if you’re still alive by then.Spider Arena - A local competitive game for up to 4 players where spiders armed with cannons battle in vertical arenas. Crawl across walls, cling to the ceiling, aim and fire!
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
normally horror anthologies are a mixed bag, some games will be good, some will be bad, most will be ok. somehow, whole thing was completely unfun. rare miss from steam horror anthologies. big bummer1 found this helpful
I tried 4 games and didn't like any of them at all so I stopped. I feel like an as*hole not pushing more and at the very least try the entire collection but at that point I felt like I very probably wouldn't like most of them anyway. Normally in most horror collections on Steam, the ratio of games I like is pretty high but not here.
I wanted to like this, but its really unenjoyable. At best you get a moderately competent game with no real gameplay and at worst you get broken unplayable messes. Blind Faith works... but you walk to 4 points and hold right click and that's the game. Chalk Skulk is an interesting concept, but the controls just don't work randomly (not the demon knocking your character unconscious, this is before it even spawns) Cult of Ascension is an RNG mess with abilities that just flat out don't work. Hallway Paradox was a neat idea, could probably be a full game but it'd need a lot of reworking from the scares, writing, sound design, etc. NULLand was unplayable with how the sensitivity randomly changed and the slider for it did nothing. Rewind is where I gave up, I interacted with everything in both the normal room and the tape room and couldn't find a way to move forward in the game. It could be cool, or it could suck, but I don't think I'll ever know.
Bruh this game is wild lol, Haunted ROM got me hooked. The vibes are creepy af but also super fun, like playin some cursed retro cart u found in ur tio’s attic 😂. Deffo worth it, cheap thrill and 100% recomend
What a brilliant idea!!! It's great that this game serves as a hub for other indie games, especially with this horror theme! I really liked all the games. Especially the aesthetics of the first one, the guy with the cross! The atmosphere of this minigame is fantastic! I highly recommend it!
I haven't played all of the minigames yet, but I got a few goosebumps already. Expect the unexpected!
Community reviews
—
0 reviews
Sign in to write a review.
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this game.
