Haunting Starring Polterguy

"A one of a kind gem that you probably never even heard of"

This is a game that is not very well known but it really is something you just have to play. It is kind of like the PC game Ghost Master. Pretty much you play as a ghost and you have to get revenge on the person responsible for your death by haunting their home.

Graphics 7/10 - The game looks pretty good, not really up to the standards of some Genesis games but it works. There are plenty of character animations and the characters do look pretty decent. The homes and dungeon stages look good too.

Sound 6/10 - The music is alright, kind of average. The people scream a lot and that's about it. Nothing really amazing in the sound department.

Controls 8/10 - The movement isn't perfect but it won't be a hassle, it just takes a little getting used to. The dungeon control is a little off but it doesn't take much getting used to and shouldn't kill you. All you need is just the control pad and the A button so it is a very simple game to play.

Story 4/10 - Your guy was a skater who bought a over priced and cheaply made skateboard which cost him his life so now he's going to scare the guy who owns the skateboard company and his family out of their 4 homes. This just isn't the kind of game you play for the story.

Game play 9/10 - Aside from Ghost Master (which I think came out around 2002) there is no other game like this. You play as a ghost and you use your map to find one of the 4 people in the family. When you are in a room with someone you jump into something with a shiny indicator and jump out, the item will shake (or for some objects let you move around) then the person will walk up to it and BAM! They will freak out. For example there is a red carpet that you can haunt so it looks like blood, you can make the grim reaper pop out of a door way, make knives fly across the room, and many more very creative scares. So you scare people from room to room and don't let them relax until they leave the house.

But it isn't that easy, you have an ectoplasm meter and it is always being drained. You can get some ecto by scaring people out of a room (the more scares you get the more ecto) and sometimes there is an evil spirit who tries to steal the ecto that is given to you. When the meter runs out you are sent to the dungeon where you can die. You have to avoid monsters and traps while collecting portions of ecto dropping from the sky but you have to move fast because it will get smaller constantly. Then when you reach the end you go back to the house. Also after each stage you go back to the dungeon. So with each new stage the ecto drains faster, people take more to scare, and the dungeon gets harder. Also after the 4th and final house you have to fight a boss and it really feels weird since there is nothing in the game to prepare you for the boss and when you die you die. So that is really cheap.

Replay value 6/10 - This isn't really something you'll play for hours a day. Maybe 20-40 minutes a time. But you will want to play it over plenty of times but it can get repetitive after a while.

Bottom line: This game is a real blast. There really is nothing like it aside from Ghost Master but this game is a lot easier to play and less complicated. If you want something very different for your Genesis then this is the game to get. You will be laughing out load a lot in this game. Also after all of these years it still holds up very well.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/07