So despite being built of infernal bones and blood and dark awesomeness, Brutal Legend was not quite as well received as expected. I blame the rap music.

Double Fine studios are bouncing back with a Halloween trick or treating game using Japanese RPG gameplay… what? Let me read that back. No that’s really what Costume Quest is all about. But is it any good? Shockingly, yes, it is really good.

After the rubbish Tim Schafer’s studio Double Fine went through with Brutal Legend getting dumped by Activision and then held in production limbo until EA threw them a rubber ring they’ve made some bold decisions. Namely deciding to focus on high quality, low cost downloadable games that will appeal to a broad market rather than expensive full priced mega games. Double Fine are planning to make several games similar in project depth to Costume Quest over the next year. It’s a pretty shrewd move, most developers toil away on small scale downloadable titles in the dreams of breaking into the big leagues with the support of a major publisher. Doublefine are going the other way, which in the current games market could prove to be quite profitable for them.

Okay first we egg your're teachers house, then the sherrif's, then that escaped mental patient who dresses as a clown, and we'll save these rotten eggs for George Lucas's ranch

But anyway, enough boring industry blather. Onto the game! It’s Halloween and twins Reynold and Wren, new kids on the block are gently being pushed out the door by their mother to socialise with the local kids and gather candy. Kind of the halloween thing (and FYI if you're huffing out your nose that halloween is an American holiday and its just so commercial blah blah, guess what? you've just turned into your parents, congratulations, you are now the enemy of fun). After you choose the male or female sibling as your protagonist you venture out into the local streets to gather candy. This is no normal street though, as many houses are being raided by ogre like creatures searching for candy themselves to feed some ancient extra dimensional evil and your sibling, dressed as a giant candy corn, is kidnapped by them. Luckily you can transform into a giant manga like version of what ever your current fancy dress costume is and battle the ogres in turn based Final Fantasy style battles.

So the answer to your next question is no, Costume Quest does not make a lot of sense. Nor should it, kidnapped brother/sister, monsters, transform into what you’re wearing as a costume, that’s all you need to know. After five minutes playing you’ll be unsurprised to learn that the team lead on Costume Quest was a talented lady named Tasha Harris, whose previous employer was Pixar. Costume Quest could easily have been a game adaptation of a Pixar movie and is dripping with the type of charm and humour that makes Pixar films so popular.

The ogre and his wire fu team don't stand a chance against this pair

Although the battle elements are far simpler than most J-RPG’s it’s undoubtedly modelled after Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy. As you dash around the neighbourhood there are areas to explore for candy, which can be used as a currency to upgrade your costumes, and recruit other kids to join your party. As you complete quests for locals you earn clues to your sibling’s whereabouts. Every door has to be knocked on before you can progress to the next neighbourhood and the lights go out on houses you’ve visited to easily see your progress. Battles occur when a house is occupied by an ogre rather than a neighbour or when you run into a monster while wondering round a level. You’ll only use three buttons in battle, one for a standard attack, that can be maxed out with a quick time type button press, one for a charged special move that can be used every three turns and could be a strong attack, a healing move or a defence move, and a third button can be used for an extra move that can be equipped with a purchasable battle stamp. The Battle stamps are the games buffs and can be bought for candy every time you level up. Most of them are passive with abilities such as increased health or poison added to your attack, but a few give you the previously mentioned extra attack to stun enemies.

RPG battling made easy, on screen are all your available button presses

All together you should find around eight costumes in the game. Many are the kind you’d expect at Halloween, robots, knights and vampires, but there are a few weird ones such as the unicorn costume and the French fry costume (I don’t want to spoil it, but your French fry battle mode is something to see). The costumes can be swapped between you and your two party members and several have abilities outside of battles that are needed to get into certain areas of the game world.

Costume quest falls down in a few areas, or at least it might seem too depending on your age. If you’re a 32 year old with a small potbelly (that you’re wife says is sexy and then goes back to reading her magazine while you practise gut sucking in front of the mirror) you’ll find the battles to get repetitive and far too easy as you reach higher levels, the charming spirit of the game will keep you playing to the end, but you’ll definitely feel a bit of a grind. Also with three levels and about four hours gameplay it feels a little short.

The game is full of good advice for potential trick or treaters, namely that trick or treating is freaking dangerous

But if you’re the under 12 target audience the game is perfectly tuned to your experience level. You might occasionally allow dad to help you out with a battle or a puzzle and then pretend to look interested while he spins a tale about defeating Ruby and Green weapon in Final Fantasy 7. But overall this is a kids game and it works well with kids. Costume Quest is a fun little game that perfectly accomplishes its simple goals and will delight parents and kids alike, whether or not they’re old hand gamers or not. It’s biggest problem is that, like the candy of its currency, after polishing it all off you’re still hungry. Hopefully Double Fine will announce their next treat before too long.