Monster House

Monster House is a short but fun action game for the kids that adults will not enjoy playing..

Monster House for the GameCube and PlayStation 2 throws gamers into the animated film from Sony Pictures about a house that is alive and endangering an otherwise quiet neighborhood (check out the film's official site for a more in-depth synopsis). Taking on the roles of protagonists DJ, Chowder and Jenny, players begin their adventure inside this nightmare house fighting the good fight in a bid to destroy it or make it out alive - which ever comes first.

The terror begins when DJ, his wacky overweight pal Chowder and the new kid (a girl that even DJ admits is smarter than most boys he knows including himself) named Jenny discover that the house across the street is alive. This evil house eats anything that goes on its property. After trying to convince everyone that the house is alive, the kids investigate further - and end up being swallowed by the house!

Armed with super soakers, each character explores sections of the house, revealing its secrets and taking on a myriad of monsters that furnish the house like possessed chairs, books TV's etc. Each character has a super soaker with slightly different power they can use to blast this evil furniture as well as a melee attack and a secondary attack like a camera, a slingshot and water balloons . The game combines the action with light puzzle solving that mostly involves finding keys to unlock doors.

Combat is pretty straightforward: simply look towards the enemy and a target cursor will appear - fire your squirt gun to do damage and when the enemy in question gets too close, simply use your melee attack. DJ's gun fires at a pretty average rate, while Chowder's fires much like a shotgun would, and Jenny's offer rapid fire but isn't quite as powerful. For extras DJ can pick up a camera that stuns enemies, while Jenny gets a slingshot and Chowder gets water balloons that explode and cover a wide area like a grenade. Some of these secondary attacks are used in some minor puzzles throughout the game, and can come in handy in some of the game's more frantic spots. The combat in the game using these attacks is pretty straightforward, though it is sometimes hard to lock on enemies if you aren't turned "just the right way."

That's probably one of the biggest problems with Monster House. The camera is lock so that you really can't look around without physically facing your character in that direction. When exploring this is only a minor problem, but when it involves combat it makes the situation slightly irritating. Still, the difficulty level on this game isn't really a problem for adults or youngsters that are adept at any kind of action game.

It's important to note that the presentation in this game really captures the atmosphere from the film. From the voice work of the actors (the main characters were voiced by their counterparts in the film), eerie soundtrack, and small subtle sound effects that make the house come alive, to the way the house comes alive, shakes violently and grabs you when you least expect it. Some of the more interesting moments in the game come when you step into the light or make a lot of noise by breaking things. Sometimes you'll simply see furniture come to life, but in some spots the house will come alive and attempt to throw you out a window or do something equally violent to expel you from its interior.

Monster House is a simple game that does a nice job of capturing the thrill ride of the film, though the action found within doesn't take all that long to complete. A seasoned youngster can probably blow through this game in 3 - 4 hours without braking a sweat, though casual gamers will certainly have more of a challenge. Admittedly, Monster House is geared towards youngsters roughly ages 8 - 12 years old, and as such isn't something adults will find appealing or interesting aside from the presentation which is pretty slick and it's tie in with the film's storyline.

Monster House just isn't all that challenging for hardcore gamers, but you can understand why simply because THQ and the game's developers were shooting for a specific demographic. One of the good things about the game is that it targets both boys and girls with its characters from the film -- and let's face it - you don't see too many fat kids getting leading roles in films animated or otherwise..

In the end we can't really recommend this game to adults, but if you have kids that enjoyed the film this game is -- at the very least -- worth a rental. A purchase may be in order for those kids who want to extend the experience of the film from the comfort of their living room TV.

Review by James 'Prophet' Fudge - courtesy of Gameshark.com