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The re-engineering of popular movie franchises into mass-marketed videogames is not a new thing. It also, more often than not, results in immediate bargain bin material, and not the good kind. Enter Monster House, the game.
Water guns in tow, pre-teen heroes DJ, Chowder, and Jenny set off to take on the evil neighborhood house that has engulfed quite a few friends and neighbors. In the Nintendo DS incarnation, you are immediately thrown into the adventure, forced to combat…wait for it…books, clocks, and other entirely unscary enemies with a clunky, though unique, dual-screen approach. I almost feel bad for all those collectables doused in water. Librarians and antique collectors please turn your heads, this gets pretty ugly. And the damage to the rugs, don’t get me started!
Monster House DS takes a cool approach to utilizing both screens, taking the overheard run ‘n gun genre—defined by such titles as Loaded, and Smash TV—to a whole new level of interaction. The execution, however, doesn’t quite work. Using either the D-pad or face buttons, you can control one of the 3 kids, who each have unique effects to their water guns; for example, Jenny wields dual guns and Chowder (or as I like to refer to him, Chowda!!!) has increased range to supplement his slow firing rate. However, shooting is the real problem.
Utilizing a pressure gauge on the right, you’ll want to constantly use the stylus to keep the gauge at max, by in effect stroking it to increase pressure (hey, no snickering please!). To shoot, you use the stylus and the touch screen. This is great because it covers the whole “run one way, shoot another” aspect.
But it’s also cumbersome and forces you to keep tabs on the action in the top screen, while maintaining pressure and directional shooting with the bottom. Holding the stylus on the screen produces an insane turbo speed, so spastic strafing works really well, though you use up pressure really quickly.
Action moves from room to room and never gets terribly exciting. There are powerups, and being able to control 3 different characters with different firing types, adds to the playability. Really though, this is a run ‘n gun without the addictive factor. Additionally, because the water pressure constantly decreases, it takes away from the simplicity and freedom of high-speed annihilation, which is a shame because in presentation, the game offers great visuals, from the shadows in the house to the finer details in characters and objects.
Monster House DS gets points for trying to innovate. Had the developers also offered a non-stylus option, beefed up the gameplay a bit, and given the enemies a less generic feel, well, this review would be a lot different. The game aspires but fails to inspire. If you’re desperate for an overhead shooter, this may—very temporarily—appease, but your better off going back to the classics to get your fill.
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