Happy Monday, folks, and welcome to the Weekly Video Games Thread!

A few days ago, Nintendo in its infinite wisdom released Luigi’s Mansion for Nintendo Switch Online. This is great, because Luigi’s Mansion is a delight. While it was very controversial in its initial release—turns out a strange, score-chasing five hour spin-off where you don’t play as Mario had limited appeal as a Nintendo launch title—the game’s a standout for why the GameCube ruled. It was weird and cluttered and full of detail. It introduced E. Gadd and King Boo and that “da da da-da da da da-daaaa” theme song. But for me, what might be most interesting is that it, in its own way, is a horror game… albeit a silly one.

Luigi can’t jump in Luigi’s Mansion. His run is slower than his walk in any platformer. It’s hard for him to refill his health, but he can only stun enemies by getting up in their faces with his flashlight off and risk taking an attack. Most obviously, it’s a giant haunted mansion filled with wacky ghosts. Some of the “Portrait Ghost” bosses are pretty gnarly, like a whiny baby that turns its crib into another dimension or a beast made out of ectoplasmic slime. But it’s also mechanically responding to Resident Evil, a lot. The house is a giant maze of locked doors, for instance, and the close-ups of Luigi trying to unlock the door feel right out of something you’d see in the Spencer Mansion. Nintendo would probably never call it a horror game. But it is. And in its weird Nintendo-ness, it provides a fun take on horror games, one whose obsession with high scores gives a real arcade energy to it. There are obviously other horror games with that interest (Resident Evil, for instance, regularly has letter grades and best times), but this one feels very special because it came from a family friendly property.

So, here’s the prompt. Take a big, E-Rated, soft, family friendly franchise, and pitch me a horror game spinoff. I don’t mean some generic edgy “what if this was fucked up” Flash game you also played during a free period in the library, but something that was made for the target audience while still being a horror game in some fashion.

And, as ever, what did you play this weekend? And remember to check out Lily Bones’ latest “Game News Roundup!” I never miss it!