Pumpkin Ghost

Pumpkin ghost
A pumpkin ghost, from Sonic Heroes.
Appearances
First appearance	Sonic Heroes
Game appearances	Sonic Heroes Sonic Speed Simulator
Real-world designer(s)
Creator(s) (real-world)	Sonic Team
Biographical overview
Species	Ghost
Physical description
Skin	Orange
Eyes	White
Attire	Black cape
Alignment and character traits
Alignment	Evil
Powers and abilities
Skills	Levitation Spirit physiology Invisibility

Jack-o’-lantern-headed spirit that loves to ambush the unsuspecting.

— Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-speed-ia, pg. 137

The Pumpkin Ghost, also formatted pumpkin ghost, is an enemy that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It is a breed of ghosts that reside in Hang Castle and Mystic Mansion. They can randomly appear and vanish at any time and harm their foes. 

Game appearances

Sonic Heroes

Pumpkin Ghosts debuted in Sonic Heroes. While they do not attack the player directly, touching the ghosts will damage the player. Touching or attacking the ghosts though will cause them to disappear.

The Pumpkin Ghosts usually are found in confined spaces, such as behind unlockable doors, near switches, or in corridors. They will either stay still, slowly laughing to themselves, or encircle an area or route already tracked. There are two scales of the Pumpkin Ghost as well: regular and large. In the Super Hard Mode version of Hang Castle, there are also two extra large Pumpkin Ghosts located towards the beginning of the Stage and inside the tower, respectively.

The Pumpkin Ghosts are most dangerous in the so-called "mystery room" at Mystic Mansion where they are crammed together tightly, while the subject team (Team Sonic, Team Dark, or Team Chaotix) has to activate three switches without being interrupted by the pumpkin ghosts. Team Chaotix instead has to extinguish all four torches. Thunder Shoot is recommended here to take out the pumpkin ghosts, however, they reappear a few seconds later so the switches or torches should be activated or extinguished quickly.

To prolong the effects of the disappearing of the Pumpkin Ghosts, Team Dark can use their Team Blast, Chaos Inferno to add an extra 10 seconds of free time to activate the switches, before escaping through a Light Dash ring trail. However, any Pumpkin Ghosts which have not disappeared, even in their stasis-like state, are still dangerous to the touch.

In Team Sonic's and Super Hard Mode's versions of Mystic Mansion, when taking the Speed path of the room with three altars (following the aforementioned "mystery room"), the player must use a series of Homing Attacks on the Pumpkin Ghosts that spawn to traverse back to the main platform.

Sonic Speed Simulator

In Sonic Speed Simulator, pumpkin ghosts appear as enemies during the "Pumpkin Panic Event".

Trivia

Pumpkin ghosts as they appear in Twinkle Park, from Sonic Adventure.

• Props similar to pumpkin ghosts appeared in Sonic Adventure in the Halloween Party DLC. They appear around Twinkle Park. They wear coned hats, orange bows around their capes and carry lanterns, but can only move in small circles. Unlike the actual pumpkin ghosts, these props are harmless, yet solid as Sonic is able to stand on them. They are seen at the start of the stage but are more frequently seen around Pleasure Castle, often rotating near "Trick or Treat" textures, and will often say said message when interacted with.
• In Shadow the Hedgehog, minor obstacles encountered in Cryptic Castle resemble pumpkin ghosts with dark blue capes, that cannot damage the player. Instead, they are found dropping down in certain random spots of the stage, taunting the player with high pitch laughter.

Gallery

Artwork

Halloween 2020. Art by Nathalie Fourdraine.

Halloween 2021. Art by Yui Karasuno.

Textures

Gallery
Head Mant Light

Screenshots

Gallery
The pumpkin ghost appearing The pumpkin ghost vanishing after being attacked or touched.

References

Sonic Heroes

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Main article · Scripts (Team Sonic, Team Dark, Team Rose, Team Chaotix, Last) · Staff · Manuals · Glitches · Beta elements · Gallery · Pre-releases (E3 version, demo)

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Sonic Speed Simulator

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Main article · Events · Update history · Glitches · Gallery

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