The Haunted Mansion (Video Game)

[2099net]

Has anyone played this?

http://xbox.ign.com/articles/446/446454p1.html

It sounds quite good.

[Jack]

I played a demo of it at Comic-Con International this past summer, and while the game was fun enough, I thought the controls were lousy - either too sensitive or too complicated. Who knows, though, they might have changed it since then.

[2099net]

I know this is well off topic, but has anybody played Grabbed by the Ghoulies game? It's Rareware's first title for the XBOX and has not been too well recieved.

Anyhow, there's a playable demo on the Project Gotham Racing 2 disc (Loomis, if your interested I've just been doing a one-on-one race around Sydney Harbour Bridge at night and it looked fantastic). And Grabbed by the Goulies looks to be fun, fun, fun.

Excellent humour, excellent cartoon style visuals, lots of Rareware in-jokes (including the whole game basically being an updated "Atic Atac") and who can resist fighting 30 ninja imps in 50 seconds with a soda-can launcher in the music room? However, it does look a tad repetitive. You just go in one room, meet the challange and then go onto the next.

Has anyone played the proper game and got any comments?

[Loomis]

Anyhow, there's a playable demo on the Project Gotham Racing 2 disc (Loomis, if your interested I've just been doing a one-on-one race around Sydney Harbour Bridge at night and it looked fantastic). And Grabbed by the Goulies looks to be fun, fun, fun.

Yes, I remember you telling me about it.
When I eventually get my XBOX or whatever, I will definitely have a look at that one. Then again, I could probably catch a bus down the road for the price of a ticket and see the Harbour Bridge myself....in fact, I can see it from the park across the road from my house

Just one question: does "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" have the same double-meaning there that it has here?

[2099net]

Anyhow, there's a playable demo on the Project Gotham Racing 2 disc (Loomis, if your interested I've just been doing a one-on-one race around Sydney Harbour Bridge at night and it looked fantastic). And Grabbed by the Goulies looks to be fun, fun, fun.

Yes, I remember you telling me about it.
When I eventually get my XBOX or whatever, I will definitely have a look at that one. Then again, I could probably catch a bus down the road for the price of a ticket and see the Harbour Bridge myself....in fact, I can see it from the park across the road from my house

Ohh. Yes. But that was during the day. I've just unlocked a nighttime course. At night the sky is dark and the lights are on. It really does look special. Now, if only I could stop the computer controlled car from ramming me everytime I want to stop and admire the scenery.

Just one question: does "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" have the same double-meaning there that it has here?

Of course! The whole game was obviously created just to exploit the lowbrow humour.

[2099net]

I see the Haunted Mansion game had been delayed (again). I think I might just cancel the order and get Grabbed by the Ghoulies tomorrow.

Yes, I did revive this thread just to post that cheap gag.

Is the Haunted Mansion game out in America? Has anyone played it properly? I see nobodies played Grabbed by the Ghoulies - looks like Microsoft invested their $250m + in the purchase of Rare well.

[umbreongirl]

I have heard of this "haunted Mansion" game. It is for the Xbox (i hate xbox) and here are some screenshots I found:




I know they are poor screenshots, but these are the ones I could find. The second one is creepy....Like that game "Silent Hill"....That game creeped me out.

[2099net]

Oh umbreongirl, don't talk to me about Silent Hill. I'm obsessed with it. And if one of the previous three games creeped you out, you don't want to see the upcoming Silent Hill 4! Seriously disturbing.

Anyhow, Haunted Mansion for the XBox arrived this weekend (and it's not just availabile on the XBox, it's also on the PS2 and GameCube). And I have mixed feelings.

The graphics engine is really rather good. Lighting is okay. General design and art are good - but somewhat dark. But it has lots of little touches that really stand out. Moths are attracted to and fly round your lantern. You can look out of the windows and see leaves flying in the storm outside. Do half of the task in the conservatory and you may just see a giant spider climbing up the outside of the mansion (which you fight on the next level). So it's sort of a mixed bag, but on the whole I'd give the graphics 3 out of 5.

Gameplay is not so good. The actual play mechanics are somewhat plain and bland, and control is awkward at times. But some of the levels are incredibly imagnative. Loved the book path in the conservatory and... well, I let the games room task be a surprise. Also getting upstairs in main hallway was fun. It seems odd that such imagination can be shown when the actual gameplay once each task is performed seems so weak and dull.

But the game suffers badly from the 3D Camera. It's not fun to have ghosts or spiders come up behind you and attack without you even seeing them. I'm an old school gamers and sometimes I think 3D sucks. At least on 2D games you could always see what was going on. Yes, some of the graphics here look stunning, but there's not much point having stunning graphics if, when it comes down to it, you can't see what you need to see in order to play the game.

Oh, and view the credits on the options screen for the Grim Grinning Ghosts song!

[2099net]

This thread is for discussing gameplay, presentation, hints, tips and secrets on Haunted Mansion on the GC, PS2 and Xbox platforms.



Buy: GameCube
Buy: PS2
Buy: Xbox



Well, this is going for quite a cheap price now, and it's fantastic. Really, it is. I know it sounds cheap, and I know from the screenshots and reviews you won't be expecting much. But we love this game.

The game gets bonus points right away for not being based on the live-action film, but instead based on the theme park attraction.

The game shows a lot of imagination throughout. The mansion itself is a "hub world", with the various doors leading to separate rooms, or in some cases, other "hubs". Doors can only be opened when a certain number of ghosts have been captured, so although you have the illusion of free-roaming, in effect most of the decisions about which room to explore next are made for you. But this isn't a problem. The presence of locked doors only increases your curiosity and make you more determined to open them!

Each room has its own challenge, to get to a switch to turn the lights on. All involve a combination of skill and puzzle solving, but the emphasis can alter. Our favourite room is the games room! You're in for a surprise when you first see what you have to do in that room to turn the lights on! When the lights are on, the ghosts are revealed, and you need to capture them in your magic lantern.

Graphics are very good, with a lot of fine detail. Just stand in a corridor and watch the leaves blowing by the window outside, or watch the giant spider crawl up the outside of the conservatory in the library. Somehow, you just know you'll be seeing him again! The game can get quite spooky in places, even though it has a cartoony look.

However, I do have a complaint. The 3D viewpoint means that sometimes you can be attacked from behind, without seeing the culprit. It really is most frustrating. This is a problem common to a lot of 3D games and platformers, and I would have thought that by now a solution would have been found and implemented. People complain about CGI taking over movie animation, well, the news is, it's taken over video game animation, and it's not always to the benefit of the game.

It’s a shame, as this marks the game down. But I think for the price, anybody with an interest in the attraction will love exploring Disney's Haunted Mansion on their console.