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PS2 The Haunted Mansion Developer: High Voltage Software | Publisher: TDK Mediactive
teddmanRating: Rating Pending
Type: Puzzle/Action MSRP: N/A
Players: 1 Available: Nov. 2003

I've always been a fan of Disney's Haunted Mansion attraction at Disney World and Disneyland... Well, not quite always. I have to admit that my first few rides were mostly spent looking down at my shoes, screaming in terror, or covering my eyes and occasionally peering from between my fingers. Since those long-ago days, I've become much braver--I only cover my eyes like one or two times now. But I bet it would have helped my ease my fears back then if I'd had my own fireball-shooting magic lantern, a traction beam that was capable of sucking up tormented spirits by the dozen, and a couple bottles of "bravery tonic" on hand just in case I got spooked. Why couldn't Disneyland have handed nervous kids a few of those ghostbusting devices at the turnstiles? Fortunately TDK Mediactive and High Voltage Software have included all of these welcome features in their upcoming game based on the popular ride.

The hero of The Haunted Mansion game is a mild-mannered gent who bears a striking resemblance to Ichabod Crane of Sleepy Hollow, in both looks and timid disposition. It seems he's been tricked into visiting the old mansion by a deceptive ad in the newspaper... Little does he know that he's being used as a pawn by a group of benevolent (but desperate) ghosts trapped inside. They need someone from the living world to free their souls from the house while fighting off the other evil spirits that roam its halls.

Your guide through the mansion is the disembodied head floating in a crystal ball from the ride--fortuneteller Madame Leota. Her voice lends gameplay tips from beyond the grave as you encounter new situations or find yourself at what seems to be a "dead end." It's a clever way to orientate the gamer and incorporate one of the more memorable characters from the attraction.

The Haunted Mansion plays much like Nintendo's GameCube launch title Luigi's Mansion, but its controls are more user-friendly and it sports a more flexible 3D camera system. Your main weapon against the ghosts is your trusty Magic Lantern, capable of both sucking in tormented souls like a vacuum or shooting out fireballs to blast away the evil spirits. With a wiggle of the analog stick, you can target multiple souls at the same time to rack up a combo, then continue to swirl the stick in a circular pattern to speed up the vacuum's power as you hold down the suction button. Targeting evil spirits and shooting fireballs uses a similarly intuitive approach, making the game easy to pick up and play for gamers of all ages.

The lost souls within the mansion function both as a hidden targets for you to seek out (souls are discovered by manipulating different objects in each room to trigger their release) as well as barriers to measure your progress through the house. Certain doors lock away later portions of the mansion until you have collected enough souls to open them. Meanwhile, you'll encounter friendly ghosts who offer helpful powerups once liberated, and evil spirits that have to be fireballed into submission.

Developer High Voltage Software has given the game lots of charming touches that carry on the playful "spirit" of the Disney ride. Instead of health points, you have a "courage bar." Each time you are scared (i.e. hurt) by a ghost, you lose a little chunk of courage, until eventually you faint away from fright or flee the house in terror... In which case it's time to restart from the last save point. As you progress, you'll come across upgrades to lenghten the courage bar in the form of Gramp's "Bravery Tonic." (Hmm, I suppose a little dose of Granddad's moonshine might make those ghosts more tolerable)

Courage can also be temporarily raised by flipping on a room's light switch, the first goal upon entering any new area in the house. At least the ghosts remembered to pay the electric bill! Other powerups in the game include playing cards (finding ten cards = an extra life) and fireball upgrades for the magic lantern bestowed upon you by the benevolent ghosts.

A brief hands-on with the game gave us a good idea of what the core gameplay is like. At the outset, you are given an introduction from Madame Leota before finding yourself all alone in a eerie old parlor room... The first order of business is sucking up some dispossesed souls that suddenly come screaming out of the darkness, and then seeking out the room's light switch (Madame Leota will be sure to remind you if you hesitate for too long). Once the switch is tripped, your attention is drawn to an odd-looking statue in the corner... Move it and a secret door inside the fireplace is revealed! Venturing into the door and down a dark staircase will provoke a battle with an evil ghost. Time to blast away with those fireballs! Your victory results in the freeing of a friendly trapped spirit who is eternally grateful. After picking up a playing card and sucking up enough scattered souls to unlock the door at the opposite end of the room, you're ready to enter into the mansion proper!

There's a high level of invention and variety to the challenges throughout the game, which keeps the experience fresh and compelling as you venture deeper into the heart of the mansion... Notice a crooked painting on the wall? Straighten it and get teleported inside, only to emerge from another painting in a previously-inaccessible area upstairs. Later levels include getting warped into imaginative places such as a huge billiards table (watch out for those phantom cue balls) and the gearshift workings of a grandfather clock... As well as fighting forboding bosses such as humongous spiders and the Grim Reaper himself!

The production values of the game are high, with simple but eye-pleasing graphics that are appropriately exaggerated in the cartoonish Disney style. The sound is also well done, with many atmospheric noises you'd expect from a haunted house such as creaky doors and crashes of thunder. High Voltage used as many character actor voices from the actual park ride as possible--including the original Barbershop Quartet that sings the memorable theme song "Grim Grinning Ghosts." In all there are over thirty-five unique character ghosts in the game, each with their own separate voice tracks.

Wondering which console version of this multi-platform game is the front-runner? According to a TDK spooksperson: "The Xbox version of the game controls the best, but all of them look good."

The Haunted Mansion comes out this November for Xbox, Playstation 2 and GameCube. In the meantime, check out some of our "screamshots" below:

· · · Teddman

  
  © 2003 The Next Level