“Sponsor A Monster – a Halloween collab coming to get you!”

October (the best month for weather, of course) is upon us in full swing and bearing down at us at its end like a freakish ghost train just begging to be suplexed is Halloween itself. To commemorate, we’re putting together a very special collaboration! Everyone is invited to participate and we are bringing back the Reader’s Choice structure from our TWRM GOTY series! Yes, that means doubly that everyone can participate.

The Sponsor A Monster collab will play out as follows…

Anyone and everyone can nominate a monster from any video game; on Thursday October 24th, polls will open allowing anyone and everyone to vote for any of the nominees; on Thursday October 31st, we will announce the literal king of monsters (or queen of monsters, or thing of monsters), the reader-selected best of the scariest!

But what counts as a “monster”, I hear someone say? What is a monster? The word descends to us from Old French and Latin, where it meant things like malformed, repulsive, an object of dread, an abomination, deformity, and “strange shape”. Eventually, societies attached a moral layer to the word and so cruelty and wickedness became part of the monstrous: morally defective.

In this sense, a lot can qualify as a monster, but just be sure that it’s: a creature of some kind (so not dysentery or a hangnail), bad or evil (accepting point of view), and frightening or scary at least to some degree. Cutesy monsters count but they’ve got to really be monsters! If you’re unsure, make a case as to why your monster should be included.

Here are the official rules

1) To participate in nominating, all you need to do is name a monster from any (specific) game for this collab.

2)You can leave your nomination in a comment below or on social media (just be sure to tag me so I see it). Nominations will remain open until the polls open on Oct 24th, after which no more nominating will be allowed. No other writing will be required on your part.

3) We will publish this event on Oct 31st. Leading up to that time, try to campaign for your monster and get people to show up and vote!

4) Polls will open on the 24th, allowing one week of voting.

5) Monsters can be nominated multiple times but will only appear once on the polls. See this sheet for a list of every monster (so far) to ensure you pick a unique one (click the blue Google Docs icon):

5) The winning monster will be the one that receives the most votes in a week’s time. The sponsor of that monster will win a prize!

The winner will receive a digital copy of Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered for Nintendo Switch!

And that’s it! Let’s rake in the nominations and I’ll see you on the 24th when voting starts.

How will you choose to vote in the Sponsor A Monster collab? For your favorite? For the scariest? For the best creature design? For the most iconic?

May the most perfect organism win.

Red formerly ran The Well-Red Mage and now serves The Pixels as founder, writer, editor, and podcaster. He has undertaken a seemingly endless crusade to talk about the games themselves in the midst of a culture obsessed with the latest controversy, scandal, and news cycle about harassment, toxicity, and negativity. Pick out his feathered cap on Twitter @thewellredmage, Mage Cast, or Story Mode.