SNES Horror Game Classic Is Returning With New Release on Halloween

A SNES horror game classic is returning in 2024 and will release on Halloween, a date given to it surely by design. The game in question hails from 1995, a year that treated gamers to the likes of Twisted Metal, Yoshi’s Island, Wipeout, Panzer Dragoon, Donkey Kong Country: Diddy’s Kong Quest, Chrono Trigger, NHL 96, Mortal Kombat 3, Tekken 2, Mega Man 7, Super Mario World 2, Dragon Quest VI, Rayman, Star Wars: Dark Forces, and more. By the standards of the 90s, it was a bit of an underwhelming year. And if you were a horror fan, it was particularly a lean year. What horror fans did get though was Clock Tower. 

The 1995 survival horror point-and-click adventure game — which has never been released outside of Japan — was developed and published by Human Entertainment. The SNES exclusive was received well and sold well, which means it spawned a series that saw three more releases, but that has been dormant since 2002. 

Fast-forward 22 years, and now the horror classic is returning with an enhanced port called Clock Tower Rewind, which will release on October 31 via the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PS5. Right now, there is no word of an Xbox version of the game nor a PC version. Of course, it is not returning via Human Entertainment, which went defunct in 2000. Rather, it is returning via Wayforward. 

“Turn back the clock for one of the pioneers of the survival-horror genre,” reads an official blurb about the new port of the classic game. “Translated and released outside of Japan for the first time, Clock Tower: Rewind is a revival of the terror-inducing 16-bit classic that dares you to explore the haunting confines of the Barrows family manor. As teenage orphan Jennifer, you must search every disturbing corner to find items, reveal secrets, and discover ways to evade Scissorman, a murderous, unstoppable, shears-wielding psychopath.”

The game’s official pitch continues: “Play original mode to experience Clock Tower as it was when initially released in 1995, or play enhanced mode with extra content and improvements. Additional features include a new animated intro, opening and ending vocal theme songs, motion-comic cutscenes, creator interview, art gallery, border artwork, save states, and a music player. The clock is ticking…can you survive?”

What is currently unclear is how much the classic game will cost in the west when it releases. What we do know is it will have a digital release and a physical release, the latter provided via Limited Run Games.