Monster House (Nintendo DS) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

As we mentioned some time ago, this is the year of the CGI movie and August brings us not one but two such outings: this and The Ant Bully both of which bring handheld offerings. Monster House is based on that old urban myth that the rather run-down house in the neighborhood is in fact haunted and children of all ages take great delight in daring their friends to go and knock on the door. Anyone who actually managed this, of course, was either crowned the coolest kid on the block or a complete weirdo. It seems like seems like a tall order to capture all this and successfully transfer it into a game but THQ have seen fit to release both a GBA and DS version of the game. Dare to read the review then?

Gameplay

House allows you to select one of three characters: DJ, Jenny or Chowder and while all three have different attributes they all essentially just fire water guns so there's no real advantage to choosing one over the other. The weapons themselves are upgradeable; thanks to the number of bonus items lying around the rooms, but these only last a matter of seconds. Once you've chosen whom you wish to play it's into the first room to battle with some household objects. These come from a variety of directions and, as you'd expect, become more resilient and faster as the game progresses. Fortunately you are given hints about just how to deal with them and while things like fridges are invincible, some bookcases will continue spurting out books until destroyed. Other hazards include pipes which blast hot steam and unstable floors that collapse after only a few steps. There's also the question of toys, which appear in some rooms, and while these may seem useless they do allow you into otherwise inaccessible areas of the game. Once you've completed a room it's on to another and while there's an element of freedom here, from the overhead map, you will end up visiting every room before battling it out with the house. Outside of the static rooms there are also some scrolling corridors, which present much more of a challenge. The real highlight here though is the end of level bosses and arcade fanatics will delight in the combination of finding weak spots whilst also fending off other smaller enemies.

Controls

The traditional control system is used but only to move your chosen character around which seems to work pretty well on the whole.

Graphics

Visually the developers have managed to pull off a stunning 3D engine which is as detailed as it is atmospheric. It does have its problems though especially when a little too much is on screen and the screen falls below its impressive 30 frames per second. Less impressive are the cut scenes and while they too are in 3D they are not nearly as detailed, with the three main characters doing little more than standing around as pages of text fill out the plot.

Sound

While Shin'en have again been called upon to provide their audio expertise there only appears to be a single track playing repeatedly throughout the game. As for sound effects they are average at best and there's absolutely no sign of voice samples lifted from the movie so don't expect any.

Dual screen

Clearly one thing the DS has done is given developers a little more freedom when it comes to producing games based on movies and while we still mainly get variations on a platform theme Monster House shows just what can be done. Taking the arcade classics Robotron/Smash TV as its template the stylus is your weapon here and depending on where you place it on the screen (in relation to your character) you will fire in that direction. It's also used to 'pump-up' your weapon's pressure via the gauge, on the right of the screen, which is more of a gimmick than anything else. Sadly lacking are mini games though, which is something we've come to expect from DS movie tie-ins.

Final comments

If Monster House proves one thing it's just how satisfying shooting down wave after wave of household objects can be. What it also does though is show how things have moved on and while you were probably satisfied some two decades ago pumping coins into a Robotron arcade machine just to beat the high score, gamers now demand a little more variety and it's here where this latest movie tie-in is sadly lacking. There's also little point in revisiting any of the rooms, due to the lack of high score facility, and this coupled with the absence of any mini-games means that one go through is all it takes. That's not to say it isn't fun or challenging it's just that you are unlikely to put it back in your DS once completed.

Pro: Nice Visuals and Frantic Gameplay.
Con: Lack of Variety in the Sound and Gameplay Departments.
Final score: 5.9

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