A Closer Look at Haunted House, Then and Now...

At first I was content to let the above cartoon speak for itself, which I think it does.  But then I realized that it was too easy and that you would probably want to know at least a little bit about how the new Haunted House stacks up against its nigh unto thirty year ancestor.  So, I’ll regale you briefly with tales of yore and then give you my opinion.

Haunted House (1981) was the single spookiest game ever.  Throughout the life of the Atari 2600 and well into the era of Nintendo, no game had the jarring ability to startle the beejezus out of me the way Haunted House did.  I mean, the screen was pitch black, and even when you lit a match you could only see what was close by.  Then, while you are diligently exploring the mansion, CRASH! out of nowhere a bat or spider would suddenly appear with a clap of thunder and flash of lightning.  Furthermore, they were on an unstoppable path toward you with only your destruction in mind.  And god forbid that instead of a spider or bat you got Old Man’s Grave’s horrible spirit.  To make matters worse, the appearance of a foe also meant that your light went out and you were totally isolated.  You damn well better hope you know where you are in the mansion because the last thing you want is to run face first into a locked door.  Tensions were always high when playing Haunted House.

Even though the graphics were blocky and simple, even though the house was only four stories high with a regimented floor plan, even though you could beat it in minutes, Haunted House managed to capture something ethereal that later games would approach, but never quite grasp.  The game has the ability to make you nervous while playing it.  It cultivates a real sense of dread every time you open a door or navigate a staircase.  A baddie could be anywhere and worse yet the Ghost could travel right through locked doors meaning that he could menace you literally any second of the game.  And every time that lightning crashed and the screen flashed, your heart jumped.  Where was the monster that set it off?  Were they close?  Where exactly are you and where is the closest exit?  Are you cornered?  RUN!

Sometimes simple is better.  And with those simple, blocky graphics and minimal sound effects, the people at Atari captured lightning in a bottle.  Later horror/thriller games like Resident Evil would capitalize upon the power of the startle effect, having the undead burst out at you through windows and the like, but for all of their graphic gore and realistic sounds, they still only rate second-best in my book.  Which is why I was very nervous when I read last month that Atari was planning on releasing an updated version of the classic that set the bar so high so long ago.

We’ve been down this road before.  Many classic games from the Atari era have seen modern iterations with very mixed results.  Asteroids, Centipede, Pac-man, Space Invaders, all of the greats have “grown-up” into contemporary versions of their perfect, simple selves.  Some of these updates have been fun, and some disastrous, but all in all they really don’t stand much of a chance against their original counterparts.  So a 2010 Haunted House had me very, very skeptical.  But, initial reviews were good and the screenshots and explanations all pointed to the opportunity for something really fun.  Hell, even the price tag, $19.99 was right.  So I gave it a go.


Much to my delight, the game is actually very good.  The fundamental premise is exactly the same as the original game: you must search the mansion and find the pieces of the urn.  The end result is different, you don’t have to flee the house with the urn, instead you have to defeat a ghoulish foe.  But the spirit, if you will excuse the obvious and painful pun, is still there.  Haunted House (2010) is literally a re-imagining of Haunted House (1981) with modern sensibilities.  The main differences are in the execution of the concept.  First, the game isn’t tough as nails like its ancestor could be.  The main element of difficulty that is missing is the darkness.  HH2010 is dark, but it isn’t pitch-black like HH1981.  You will need light sources to navigate the mansion successfully, but you can still see most everything in the house at all times.  The light sources only really increase your visibility and help you find items, levers and treasures.  True, the mansion gets darker as you progress, but it never goes completely dark like the original.  Also, unlike the original, when you get scared by a monster, your game isn’t over, you just start back at the last fireplace you lit.  This means you’ll never encounter the dreaded GAME OVER and have to embark upon your mission anew, but at the same time where the original was at best 10 minutes of game play in length, HH2010 is more like 3 hours.  I would be pretty pissed if I got 2:15 into the game and had to start over from scratch. (Sidebar: I wonder if that is a good thing or a bad thing…)

The game still features the classic monsters to avoid, plus several new ones like gargoyles.  It also features a variety of light sources for you to employ, some of which actually give you offensive capabilities you will need if you are to survive your stay.  A big difference between the newer version and the original is the addition of boss fights.  The house is divided into four sections and at the culmination of each section you will have to combat a different mega-monster.  These boss fights are perhaps the toughest part of the game as they require you to defeat the mega-monster while avoiding being scared to death.  It is an endurance run for sure.

What the game lacks in difficulty it more than makes up for in atmosphere.  Despite the update, the game maintains the creepy feel of its predecessor and even builds upon it some areas.  The main area of note is the sound.  During your time in the mansion you will be beset with a plethora of moans, wails, thumps, rattlings, baby’s cries, and other very, very creepy sounds.  None of these sounds ever manifest in anything material in the game, which only adds to their effect.  I am not kidding when I tell you that playing this game in the dark, late at night, will make you question any errant sounds that might occur in your own home.  That, my friends, is successful theming!

Another nice addition is the inclusion of treasures and journal entries that you can discover as you explore the mansion.  The journal entries will reveal the dark history of the Graves’ family and their spooky home.  The treasures are snarky references to iconic horror film characters from days gone by.  And after you find a few, and read their descriptions, you’ll be making additional trips into the mansion to find the rest.

The game play remains true, if somewhat evolved.  Like in the original, you’ll have to work your way through the mansion which is a maze of locked doors and stairways.  And like the original, you will find keys that help you gain access to areas previously impassible.  But in the modern interpretation, you’ll also need to seek out levers and various colored lanterns to gain admittance to certain areas of the house.  As stated before, the house is divided into four “floors” each subdivided into four areas and each area is completely self-contained, so you’ll never get stuck because you left a key or lantern behind in another area.  As you progress through the mansion, the areas become larger and more complex and you’ll to do more in order to move on to the next area.  And to make things even more fun, there is a great two-player version where you and a friend can work together to solve the riddle of Graves’ Mansion.  This makes some of the later levels a lot easier without taking away from the overall challenge.

FINAL LOOK

I’m honestly rather shocked and impressed at how well Haunted House (2010) compares to the original Haunted House.  Everything from the original is there in spirit if not in form.  The game does not try to reinvent the wheel, nor does it try to improve upon what already works and works well.  Instead Haunted House (2010) feels like an evolved descendant of Haunted House (1981).  Many elements of the modern game are fun homages to the original game: when your light goes out, all you can see are your eyes!  Nothing will ever capture the magic the way that the original Haunted House did, but this new game certainly knows what made the 1981 game so incredible. You can do a whole hell of a lot worse for $19.99, heck for $49.99, and I think that Haunted House (2010) is perfect for fans of the original as well as those exploring Graves’ Mansion for the very first time.  Accusations that the game is “kiddie” are completely unfounded and smack of basement dwelling rejection of anything that isn’t Grand Theft Auto.  This is a great game for anyone and everyone and comes highly recommended from your ol’ pal Stan.  I anticipate playing Haunted House (2010) many more times in the future, particularly around this time of year!

A Closer Look at Back to the Future

A Closer Look at
Back to the Future (NES)


As long as you forget that this is a game based on a movie, and a very cool movie, Back to the Future for the NES isn’t that bad of a game.

Back to the Future for the NES is a vertical scrolling shooting game with four mini-game “boss” levels. The main part of the game features you as “Marty McFly” trapped in 1955. (I put the name in () because I do not recall Marty wearing a black muscle shirt in the movie, so I am only guessing that you are supposed to be Marty…) Your goal is to reach four distinct points in your parents’ history and make sure that they fall in love and get married, and that you get back to 1985. To reach each of these four clutch points, you’ll have to survive four danger filled city blocks rife with open manholes, “bullies,” and bees. Lots of bees.





Doesn’t sound much like the Hill Valley you remember from the movie? Me either. As a matter of fact, apart from the four mini-game boss levels, there is very little here that would even hint that the game is representative of the movie. I’ll get to the mini-game levels in a minute, but first let’s focus on the main game.

The main game has you navigating the increasingly active streets of Hill Valley where hula hoop girls throw small blue wads of something at you, Guido-esque bullies menace you, and bees are everywhere. I repeat, bees are everywhere. Initially you have to maneuver yourself so that you avoid these dangers. Eventually you will have the opportunity to pick up a bowling ball power-up that allows you to throw infinite bowling balls at your enemies, yes even the bees! If you are successful enough to avoid getting touched by anything on the screen, and I mean anything even a park bench or fence, you will get the opportunity to mount a skateboard and race to the finish of the block, still avoiding bees.





Now I don’t know about you, but my favorite part of Back to the Future , the movie, is the part where Marty rides a skateboard four city blocks chucking bowling balls at Italian ruffians and endless hordes of bees. I realize that the makers of the game were trying to take a science fiction comedy and turn it into a video game, but some of the liberties taken here are just absurd. The only part of the main game that even suggests that this is a Back to the Future tie-in is the “health meter/timer.” At the bottom of the screen is a very loose interpretation of the photo Marty has in his wallet of his brother and sister (pretty mediocre photographic fakery—ELB). As you work your way through the level, the picture fades out (as if it has been erased from existence…). Run into enough delays and the picture fades, and so do you. To help stave off the impending erasure, you can pick up hundreds of clocks that litter the Hill Valley streets. Each clock restores a bit of the picture. However, there is also an additional timer for each block that cannot be slowed. Run out of time on that counter and you’ll fade out no matter what.





If the people at LJN wanted to make a great Back to the Future game, they really should have spent more time developing the mini-game levels or, you know, watching the film. The mini-games are where the game really shines. Each level is reached once four city blocks have been completed. Shockingly, the levels are actually based on scenes in the movie. The first scene takes place in Lou’s Coffee Shop. Marty must fend off Biff’s cronies by throwing milkshakes at them. In the second game, Marty must fend off his mother Lorraine’s amorous advances at Hill Valley High. Third, you must make sure your parents kiss at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance. You’ll have to catch all the notes you can on your guitar before the picture fades away to set the mood for this fateful smooch. Finally, you’ll have to drive the Delorean down the street and across the wire at the exact moment the lightning bolt strikes the clock tower or you’ll be stuck in 1955 forever. These levels are the real meat and potatoes of the game and you really only tolerate the monotonous street levels so that you can have a crack at these babies.





As a whole, this game isn’t terribly put together or executed. The street levels increase in difficulty between mini-game levels at a reasonable rate and evaluated simply as a vertical shooter, the game succeeds in presenting a reasonable challenge. The mini-games are equally challenging and take some practice to master, but are not impossible to beat. The punishment for failing the mini-game levels however, is another round of street levels, so I recommend you get competent quickly. Graphically, the game is sound if not impressive. Again, the mini-game levels look heads above the average graphics of the street levels. The soundtrack is probably the biggest letdown in the game. The music is casio-keyboard simple and extremely repetitive. I suggest you listen to the music for one street level and then put in a Huey Lewis CD (tape if you’ve got it). Thus far I have been able to clear the Dance stage and have made it halfway to the Clock Tower, but the later street levels are so hard they demand an almost perfect run. With so many swarming bees that isn’t likely. That said I do feel that with a few more games under my belt I can make it to the Clock Tower and eventually back to 1985. The game doesn’t feel unbeatable.

In the final estimation, Back to the Future for the NES is closer to classic than crap. I realize that statement is a bit scandalous, but the only real failure of BttF is in its attempt to be a movie adaptation. If you called this game “Skateboardin’ Adventures” the disappointment level would drop ten points. Ultimately what we have here is an average scrolling shooter with some better than average mini-games. The game is playable and the controls are simple enough that you’ll be at Lou’s in no time. Just don’t come here looking for classic Back to the Future action and you’ll be fine.

TIPS AND TRICKS

If you are really determined to see this thing to its natural conclusion here are some tips that might help you along:

On the street levels: The bowling ball and the skateboard are essential to success here, especially in the levels between the Dance and the Clock Tower. Practice hitting the bees early on, because in later levels they will swarm en masse and your skills will need to be sharp if you are to survive. The skateboard can be dangerous if you do not master jumping with it, but once you do it makes the whole experience much more tolerable. Not only will you zoom through levels (again a must in later levels) but you’ll pick up clocks faster and keep your picture intact longer. Do not pass these two items up. Note: The skateboard only appears if you already have the bowling ball.

Lou’s Café: Do not forget about the super shake that clears all on-screen bullies at once. Use it in a pinch or if you mis-throw a regular shake. You don’t often get a second chance to correct an ill aimed toss. After about 25 bullies, the waitress will bring you another super shake, so use it with confidence.

School: This level is pretty easy. Marty’s book is pretty wide and can usually block hearts on two levels at once giving you a little flexibility on your positioning. I find that more often than not the hearts sneak by underneath my position rather than behind. Just sail along, Kaboom! style and things should be fine.

The Dance: This is the easiest mini-game I encountered once you learn the secret pattern of the notes. Sharps are always high, flats are always low, and the other notes are always in the middle. As long as you remember that, you should clear this level perfect every time.
88 miles per hour: Once I get to this level, I will update this section and tell you how I managed to get back to 1985.

Your Friend in Time
Stan

My next Closer Look will be at the two Beauty and the Beast games for the SEGA Genesis.