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The Halloween season is the best (and probably only) time to try to convince yourself and your friends to pick up any spooky-looking or strange horror game you come across. I’ve spent the last week catching up on The Outlast Trials and introducing some friends to Phasmophobia, but the scariest game I ended up playing was neither of these horror titans. Instead, it was a game about an evil ice cream truck.
Waffle Cone Willie’s entire premise centers around finding a way to destroy a sentient mutant ice cream truck that is terrorising the poor, unsuspecting town of Sweetwater. There are various clues, keys, and tasks to find and complete around the town, which will inch you closer to getting rid of Waffle Cone Willie for good.
Before we get into the good stuff, I will say that the action in this horror game isn’t really remarkable. I spent most of my time in Sweetwater diving from one house to the next or occasionally hiding behind a medium shrub if I suddenly heard the ice cream truck music get closer. The hints are also pretty straightforward, and it’s not hard to find what you’re looking for because there are not many items lying around that you can interact with other than opening and closing cupboard doors.
I wouldn’t recommend Waffle Cone Willie for its action, but I can say that this horror game manages to create a terrifying atmosphere, given its content. The first time I ran around the dimly lit streets of Sweetwater, I was reminded of exploring the small town in The Blackout Club, another brilliant co-op horror game if you’re interested. So, while it was creepy, it wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen before until I heard the music.
Before you see Willie, you’ll likely hear the unnerving tune of an approaching ice cream truck. It’s just the same generic song you hear with any ice cream truck, but there’s something so off-putting about standing in a dimly lit abandoned street and hearing that cheerful song zone in on your location.
From that point, my outlook on Waffle Cone Willie changed. I wasn’t just playing it to have a bit of a laugh or so I could tell my friends a funny story on Halloween. No, after hearing that music, I decided I wanted to beat the game as fast as possible and hit Alt+F4. I rounded up the parts needed to banish Willie as quickly as I could and only paused the game to catch my breath after almost getting run down by Willie a few times.
At one point, after a particularly close chase sequence, I actually sat back and wondered why Willie and his eerie music was getting to me, and then I remembered the old ice cream truck that used to roam my neighbourhood.
This isn’t a terribly scary story, but as a young kid who probably had access to too many horror games and definitely watched too many horror films, I used to be so scared of this ice cream truck that would sit on the bottom of a nearby street, playing its eerie music, and show no signs of life. I never once saw anyone get an ice cream from that truck, and my friends and I used to make up all sorts of stories about why it was just sitting there. It all ended one day when we were watching the truck from across the street, and the driver got out and started to walk over to us (he was probably just going to ask if we were ok), but I don’t know that for sure because my friends and I bolted so quick that I never heard him ask anything.
Waffle Cone Willie wasn’t just scary because of my complicated history with ice cream trucks (though personal experience definitely enhanced the effect). Its strange and terrifying atmosphere kept me on the edge of my chair throughout the entire game, and shone a spotlight on how inherently creepy the concept of a van that drives around luring children with a siren song of sweets really is. It’s also pretty short, clocking in at just under an hour, so if you’re looking for a fun and slightly traumatising post-Halloween scare for around $15, then I’d recommend giving it a try.
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Kurt Indovina
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