Horror puzzlers are not a common find, but Slayaway Camp Butcher’s Cut is so good we hope there’s more to come.

Slayaway Camp Butchers Cut pays homage to the slasher flicks of old. From Nightmare on Elm Street to Friday the 13th, Halloween, and everything else inbetween.

You play the role of the killer and your objective in each ‘maze’ is to kill your victims and escape through a demonic portal to move onto the next.

That doesn’t sound like a puzzle game

Well, no, but you can only move one square at a time ala Lara Croft, Hitman and Deus Ex GO. There are also obstacles in your way, like bookcases and fridges which you’ll need to shove and sometimes even use to commit your sordid deeds.

Some mazes will also include police officers looking to protect those in trouble and if you run right into him or her, they’ll shoot you on sight.

You can also use the environment to kill your culprits, like throwing them into a bonfire or drowning them in a lake. It’s some pretty intense stuff and surprisingly very, very gory.

There are a number of executions and fatalities which your killer can use, such as plunging an arrow right into an eye or cleaving a skull in half with an axe. You can also smash them to bits with a baseball bat, watch them fall to their death in a deep hole and much more. There’s some genuine creativity in the kills which not only makes the action stay pretty fresh through the game, but actually fills you with satisfaction as you’re performing them.

For consoles, Slayaway Camp has had a massive upgrade. Last I played this on mobile, it was devoid of the grandiose execution scenes and the shiny graphics, the bloodcurdling sound effects and polished music. It worked great, but this is so much better. Compared to other platforms as well, Slayaway Camp on Switch makes for the definitive edition thanks to the seamless touch control. This game definitely feels more comfortable and at home with swipes and taps.

And it’s absolutely chock-full of content, not just the amount of puzzles and ‘movies’ to plough through, but the costumes you can change into to turn yourself into various different killers and the varied gorepacks that offer up new fatalities. You can spend in-game currency on to unlock all new things, each with a brand of tongue in cheek humour which works wonderfully.

The movies do play out in a fairly similar way, though and can lead to repetition. This does hold the game back a little bit sometimes, particularly when some scenes play out almost identically between ‘movies’.

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Conclusion

Slayaway Camp is a solid, fun, and gory little puzzler. It has a great sense of humour, excellent aesthetic, and a ton of content to get through. That said, it can feel a bit repetitive at times and certain films and sequences are a bit of a slog to get through.

Still, the Switch version of the Butcher’s Cut is far and away the definitive edition of the game, adding the touchscreen capabilities from mobile with the improved budget of a full console release. Horror fans are going to love this!