Monster House

- Reviewed on GameCube -

Monster House released on July 18th, 2006. 

This 2006 game, based on the movie of the same name, takes you on a journey through a "seemingly" haunted house... or more appropriate, Monster House. 

The game itself doesn't live up to the movies charm (in my opinion), and it really does vary on who should play this game, and who can afford to just miss out on this (average) 5-hour story. 

This review WILL have Major Spoilers so keep that in mind before continuing...

Monster House puts you in control of three main protagonists. These protagonists are also the main characters in the respective movie. 

They consist of DJ, Chowder, and Jenny. 

Anyone can understand the plot of the game (even if you don't know the movie) by simply listening to DJ's intro scene of the game. 

The main game is (SPOILER) about the three kids who seek out to figure out the mystery behind Nebbercracker's home. 

After getting swallowed by the Monster House, whilst inside a police car, your "haunting" adventure begins.

The horror in this title can be frightening if you're not into scary games or the genre in general. 

However, most people will not have trouble being too scared to finish this game (in my opinion, as of writing this blog post).

The dated graphics definitely have impacted the horror atmosphere, Monster House tried to suggest. 

Combat and slight puzzle solving are the key features / tools in Monster House. All three kids are equipped with water guns to fight off furniture-based enemies. 

When I played Monster House, there was a lot of button mashing and to be frank, if you want to survive these waves of enemies (that you must kill all to progress), you actually have to button mash. 

You can dodge enemies with key buttons, but the lag of the inputs makes the process much harder than it should've been. 

Upgrades for your water guns vary depending on the character you are currently controlling. There are lock boxes scattered throughout the house where you can collect such upgrades, along with ammo, health, and special weapon ammo. 

Special weapons (just like upgrades) vary per character and are placed at specific locations to help the player defeat the hordes of monsters (or boss battles). 

I definitely recommend the special weapons in the game, as the difficulty in Monster House (no matter your chosen difficulty in the beginning) suddenly jumps higher than expected. 

I never like games (as of writing this blog post) that do unnecessary difficulty jumps; however, Monster House definitely was in need of a massive change in terms of gameplay. 

Although this game is repetitive beyond believe, the difficulty jump made me focus more on the dodging and ammo, as the beginning of the game is way too easy for players to ignore such features / concepts. 

Red, outlined enemies make for tougher challenges where you have to either do a puzzle first or destroy a certain enemy beforehand. 

Voice Acting is the same as the movie (in terms of voice actors), but the game definitely needed more improvement on the annoying one liners that consisted throughout all nine chapters. 

Collectibles (unlockables) is the sole reason I explored the Monster House, as these collectibles were fairly easy, yet annoying to collect. 

The collectibles are either Arcade Tokens or Monkeys. For the Monkeys you must stand still near them to unlock Gallery Art and the Tokens are for the main menu extra, called Thou Art Dead. 

Finally, saving your progress in Monster House occurs when you enter a bathroom. 

These bathrooms are safe spaces and (just like all other doors) are visible by the light shining from the bottom of the doorway. 

If you don't find / enter a bathroom and fail, you have to start the chapter from the beginning, which was very annoying after the difficulty jump mentioned earlier. 

Pros: 

    - Similar Story to Movie
    - Same Voice Actors
    - Decent Story Length
    - Various Enemy Designs
    - Unlockables

Cons:

    - Not Scary to Average Player
    - Dated Graphics
    - Difficulty Jump Despite Initial, Chosen Setting
    - Very Annoying Save System

My Rating for Monster House (on GameCube):

3 / 5


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All Reviews, Ratings, Pros, Cons, and Opinions Shared on this Blog (Press A Reviews) are my (Connor Butler) own Thoughts and Feelings.



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