Under the Bed is a game about the perils of childhood, and it really is: frank, concrete, not made voyeuristic or coy for our adult titillation. It's concerned with emotional turmoil, and it treats its fantasy as real in those terms. The fantasy never disguises or undercuts the emotional turmoil it represents.

The thing about it is that while you play it as a wicked fun couple-hours' game with your friends, it rewards reflection. It's entertaining and effortless to play, but the more you let it sink in the more unsettling it becomes. It's great horror, great fantasy.

It's a game Bill Watterson could sit down to play with Clive Barker. Let that sink in, you'll see just how cool a thing I mean.

Vincent Baker, author of Dogs in the Vineyard