Since the success of Evil Dead Rise, there’s been no better time to pick up your joypad and take on some Deadites. We’re not just talking about the more recent Evil Dead: The Game, either. You could step into Ash Williams’ shoes as far as back as 1984. So, if this new movie’s high-rise horror has left you craving some chainsaw action, here are all Evil Dead video games ranked.
All the Official Evil Dead Video Games, Ranked Best to Worst
1. Evil Dead: The Game (Saber Interactive, 2022)
Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S, PC, (later) Nintendo Switch
The movies’ humans-versus-Deadites dynamic makes it an obvious candidate for an asymmetric multiplayer game, and Evil Dead: The Game delivers. It may seem a little weird that Ash isn’t automatically the final survivor, but get playing with a good team and you’ll have a real blast.
But things get even more entertaining when you’re playing as the demon. It’s immensely satisfying to, via possession, wrest control of a character from their player. Even if you only manage to hold on for a few seconds, watching the human team flip out never gets old.
2. Evil Dead: Regeneration (Cranky Pants Games, 2005)
Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC
Giving Ash a sidekick might not seem like a smart move, but for the most part, pint-sized half-Deadite Sam is fun to have around. And as a strange little bonus for series fans, he’s voiced by Sam Raimi’s brother, Ted.
This entry is the best out of all the single-player Evil Dead games. There’s plenty of hack-and-slash action and some suitably daft finishing moves. Unfortunately, like most of the other games from this point onwards, it’s been retired from digital storefronts. So if you want to tackle it, you’ll have to track down a physical copy.
3. Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick (VIS Entertainment, 2003)
Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox
What kind of idiot plays a demon incantation on live TV? The answer, surprisingly, isn’t Ash Williams. But when his local TV station does just that, he’s forced to hit the streets and kicks Deadite bottom.
There are some cool moves in this slash ‘em up, including one where Ash blasts foes without looking at them, Army of Darkness-style. But it’s held back by its own Necromomicon-worthy curse — the camera controls are inverted and there’s no way to switch them back.
4. Evil Dead: Hail to the King (Heavy Iron Studios, 2000)
Platforms: PC, Dreamcast, PlayStation 1
Speaking of controls, Evil Dead: Hail to the King suffers from some serious joypad wonkiness. This may, in part, be due to the limitations of the non-DualShock PlayStation controller, which the game had to be compatible with.
But it turns what could be a middling Resident Evil-a-like into something that’s only really notable for being the first Evil Dead game in 16 years.
5. The Evil Dead (Palace Virgin Gold, 1984)
Platforms: Commodore 64, BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum
This 8-bit game takes some liberties with the movie’s story, having the possessed characters turn into green mutants. Those mutants, in turn, split into body parts and attack you. That might sound like an Evil Dead II reference, but it came out three years before that movie.
It’s very, very dated by today’s standards, and even if you overlook that, it’s not that much fun to play. But there are two other notable things about it. First, while the C64 and BBC Micro versions had a full release, the Spectrum was a freebie, given away on the B side of the game Cauldron.
Secondly, it’s a little baffling that, given the movie was classed as a “video nasty” in the UK, a British developer and publisher went ahead and turned it into a game.
Were There Any Other Evil Dead Games?
There have been various other Evil Dead games, all of them retired. Evil Dead: Endless Nightmare was a mobile endless runner based on the 2013 movie and eventually made the leap to the Oculus Go. It was re-released on Android as Evil Dead: Extended Nightmare, but it since appears to have vanished from the store.
There’s also an unofficial Evil Dead game or two, including a couple of Visual Pinball tables. A little disappointingly there’s never been a proper, physical Evil Dead pinball machine. But, again, Evil Dead wasn’t the kind of thing you’d necessarily want pinball-happy teenagers playing.
The quality of the Evil Dead games may vary, but the one thing that stands out is Bruce Campbell’s performance. As Ash, he absolutely knocks it out of the park — it never feels like he’s phoning it in.
And those are all Evil Dead games ranked. We have our fingers crossed that there’s more single-player Deadite chainsawing action in the franchise’s future.
