As another Spooptober nears its end, we close things out with five games that will drive you mad, MAD... like, as a gameplay mechanic, with sanity meters and in-game hallucinations. Then we'll dig into the past week's bumper crop of new releases, including Mario Wonder, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and Slay the Princess; look at the reveals from Xbox's Partner Preview, and the otherwise benign games that scared you as a kid.

Question of the Week: Do you have a go-to game or series you like to play during spooky season?

Break song is Frontier Psychiatrist by The Avalanches.

We're still in the middle of spooky season, but with Mario Wonder and Sonic Superstars filling this week with color and cheer, we combined cute with creepy and got a top 5 about some of the biggest scares that Mario ever dragged us through. Then we'll get into Wizard With A Gun, Hellboy Web of Wyrd, Skull Island: The Rise of Kong, Best Buy phasing out physical media, and the real-world places you love to see in games.

QOTW: What seemingly benign videogame used to scare you as a kid?

We enter our second week of Spooptober™ with a look at how the happy haunts of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion have been portrayed in five different games — one of which turns 20 in a few days. Then we'll marvel at Forza Motorsport and the Robocop: Rogue City demo, scratch our heads at the PS5's strange new modular makeover. and hear about the abandoned game servers you've haunted in the past.

QOTW: Obviously, Matt and Chris geek out about Disney park appearances in games. What real-world location do you geek out about when it appears in a game?

Another spooky season is upon us, and this one arrives alongside a new Castlevania series! To mark the occasion, we've invited Mike Williams back on to revisit five of the worst-reviewed Castlevania games to see whether they really deserve their bad reputations. Then we'll get into Assassin's Creed Mirage, The Lamplighters League, the "official" pronunciation of Cait Sith, and the times you switched console allegiances.

QOTW: Have you ever “haunted” an old game server well past its prime? Tell us why and what it was like!