Haunting Starring Polterguy is a Sega Genesis game featuring a rad, ex-skateboarding ghost seeking revenge on a corporate cutthroat. While that premise seems grim, it's a peculiar retro gem that laid the groundwork for games like Geist and Mindjack.

Polterguy is out to get revenge on Vito Sardini, the man responsible for the shoddy skateboard that ended his life. He can possess 400 different items in his quest to drive the Sardini family crazy, all of which have unique animations. His retribution involves blood, dismemberment, and making corpses fall out of grandfather clocks.

That isn't an exaggeration. The game features some of the most gruesome animations ever witnessed on a 16-bit console. Because Electronic Arts and Sega had an awkward publishing deal in the early '90s, it wasn't subject to the budding ratings system similarly gory titles went through. While Congress fought over fatalities in Mortal Kombat, Haunting flaunted bouncing, bloody arms and animations sending people feet-first into circular saws.

While these images are tame by modern standards, it's amazing that politicians wasted their time going after Mortal Kombat when Haunting's main purpose is to shock and disgust.

Though Polterguy does engage in numerous disgusting activities, the idea of possessing random objects really stuck with future game developers. More recently, Mindjack and Ghost Trick both incorporated spectral manipulation in order to progress gameplay. Haunting is very simple, as you're only possessing items to scare a vile family out of their home, but the sheer number of items Polterguy can manipulate is staggering for a cartridge game from 1993.

Plus, it's just fun to watch:

If you want to try this for yourself but don't have access to a Sega Genesis, EA released a PSP collection featuring some of their quirkier 16-bit games called EA Replay.