Top 10 Ghosts in Video Games

A brief look at the upcoming movies for this year suggests that audiences - and so movie makers - have a thing for ghosts, the occult, and the undead. Movies like A Date with Ghosts, The Woman in Black 2 Angel of Death, and a remake of Poltergeist pretty much illustrate that point.

Ghosts are not unique to film however - in fact ghosts are almost a staple in the world of video games, even in games that are not really about ghosts!

With that in mind, and having made our list of must-see movies for the coming year, we thought we would indulge in our take on the Top 10 Ghosts in Video Games to sort of get our horror - and survival - blood pumping.

To add a twist to this -- and because there is such a wide variety of ghosts and ghost types and games to choose from -- we decided to start with the most harmless and work our way to ever more powerful (and freaky) ghosts until we arrive at the epitome of the video game ghosts - the best of the best in other words.

Enjoy!

10. Pokemon - 35 Ghosts and Counting

The reason that the ghosts in the Pokemon series made our list first has more to do with that fact that, while there ARE a lot of them, they really are far from the spookiest ghosts you will encounter in video games.

In fact, considering that as the player you not only actively seek them all out but make friends with them, well, you get the idea.

That said, would it surprise you to learn that there are 35 of them (not counting variations of form) at last count?

Yeah, there are. So even if you really feel like You Gotta Catch 'Em All is your life motto, that is quite a few ghosts to have bouncing around in your Pokeball bag. We're just saying.

You probably cannot name 'em all, so we decided to share them with you here - you know, just in case you are missing a few? So here are the Pokemon Ghosts - organized by National Dex Number:

(01) #92 Gastly

(02) #93 Haunter

(03) #94 Gengar / Mega Gengar

(04) #200 Misdreavus

(05) #292 Shedinja

(06) #302 Sableye

(07) #353 Shuppet

(08) #354 Banette

(09) #355 Duskull

(10) #356 Dusclops

(11) #425 Drifloon

(12) #426 Drifblim

(13) #429 Mismagius

(14) #442 Spiritomb

(15) #477 Dusknoir

(16) #478 Froslass

(17) #479 Rotom

(18) #487 Giratina

(19) #562 Yamask

(20) #563 Cofagrigus

(21) #592 Frillish

(22) #593 Jellicent

(23) #607 Litwick

(24) #608 Lampent

(25) #609 Chandelure

(26) #622 Golett

(27) #623 Golurk

(28) #679 Honedge

(29) #680 Doublade

(30) #681 Aegislash

(31) #708 Phantump

(32) #709 Trevenant

(33) #710 Pumpkaboo

(34) #711 Gourgeist

(35) #720 Hoopa

While early on Ghost-type Pokemon were of fairly limited strategic value to most trainers, having really only two basic strengths, as the Pokemon series evolved so too did the different types of Pokemon, so that by the time Generation VI arrived, Ghost-types were often cross-linked to other types of Pokemon. And how cool is that?