Puppet Combo, previously known as Pig Farmer Games, is a one-man videogame development studio operated by Benedetto "Ben" Cocuzza. The studio specializes in horror games, which are inspired by 1980s horror movies, as well PlayStation 1 titles. A better description of the studio would be the one from their website, where it says that Puppet Combo "is home to sleaze, gore, madmen, slashers, and maniacs," while further adding that Puppet Combo "killers will turn your dreams into nightmares long after the VHS tape finishes playing."
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The one-man studio is a very active developer and from its beginning in 2012 has developed and published more than twenty games, and below are the best of the bunch. Horror fans are encouraged to try them all, assuming they can still sleep at night!
7 Power Drill Massacre
Power Drill Massacre is a remake of a survival horror game, Minotaur, that was published just three years earlier. Developed on Unity engine, the game is set in 1987 when Megan and Jeff, her boyfriend, get in a devastating crash. Jeff is unable to move and Megan decides to seek help and stumbles on an abandoned factory, which turns out not to be so abandoned since the crazed killer wielding a power drill is also there.
The game has a simple premise that works really well, and also an old factory is a good setting for a horror game - it's grim, claustrophobic, empty, and cold. It's a frighteningly tense experience that players won't soon forget.
6 Christmas Massacre
Christmas Massacre is a slasher horror game, and the most recent title developed by Puppet Combo, being published last year. As you might guess from the title the game is set around Christmas but during different years.
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The game starts in 1959 on Christmas in a Catholic School, where the nun forbids Larry to attend a Christmas party. Despite her wishes, he comes to the party, picks a knife, and starts to slaughter everyone. The game then goes twenty years in the future with him in the Santa Claus costume and a Christmas tree that is telling him to kill everyone. If anyone wants to experience this holiday zaniness, the game is available on Steam for download.
5 The Glass Staircase
The game is a homage to Italian zombie horror movies. In The Glass Staircase, the player controls servant girls, Helen, Betty, Dorothy, and Margaret as they do complete chores within a mansion in a desperate attempt to gain their freedom. As time passes they are picked off by a monster. If the player finishes the game Margaret will be the only survivor.
Dr. Edward Sullivan serves as the main antagonist, who is a World War I veteran and the owner of the estate. In the game, he surgically resurrects the dead, for his own purposes, and the underground of the mansion is filled with them.
4 Nun Massacre
Originally developed as a Power Drill Massacre sequel, but later inspired by the 2018 horror movie The Nun, Nun Massacre takes place in a boarding school at the top of a hill during a rainstorm. The player needs to avoid the murderous Nun by hiding under beds and sneaking.
The game is also known as the Night of the Nun, just in case the YouTube algorithm decides to demonize let's play videos for containing the word "massacre". It received a novelization in 2021 and is the first Puppet Combo game that is available for Android and iOS.
3 The Night Ripper
Heavily influenced by Lucio Fulci's The New York Ripper, the game follows Rachel and her late-night walk home from dinner, where she becomes stalked by a Jack the Ripper-inspired serial killer. Unlike other Puppet Combo games, The Night Ripper one isn't set in a closed space such as a house, mansion, or factory, but features more open areas of a city.
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The game lacks a meaningful story, something that other Puppet Combo games, more or less do have, but the game's gameplay and distinctive character make up for that. The game has a rating of 8.0 on IMDb, so it's worth playing if you don't mind archaic graphics.
2 Babysitter Bloodbath
The game was originally an adaptation of the 1978 John Carpenter horror film Halloween, but because of legal reasons, several names and models were changed, thus resulting in Babysitter Bloodbath.
The player controls Sarah, a teenage girl babysitting Billy. Unluckily for them, a psychotic mental asylum patient named Neokalus Burr decides to come uninvited after escaping from the hospital. The game ends like a movie - seemingly killed with the villain disappearing. Trapped in a house she must use her survivalist skills to kill him and escape. The game also received a novelization in 2020.
1 Murder House
Murder House is a horror game with survival and slasher elements. The game starts on Easter of 1985 where the player controls a boy named Justin, who is locked inside a shopping mall together with the notorious killer called the "Easter Ripper".
The game then goes three years in the future with the player controlling a woman named Emma, who was sent by her boss Gary to a remote house where the Easter Ripper also resides. The game is played from a third-person perspective using tank controls, and the player progress by solving puzzles, collecting items, and exploring areas.
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