Monster House

"So hard it will have you crying uncle soon after you start to play"

Believe it or not, but this is one of the hardest games ever. For about an hour you will be thinking "Zelda" light, but you soon come to see that Zelda is the light one. Hard enough to start with, some really bad game design decisions make it all the harder. The game is a blend of "Zelda" and "Alundra", with "Castlevania SOTN". Because of the following I will start with something I rarely address in my reviews.

DIFFICULTY: Very Hard The problems here are many. Unlike "Zelda" you rarely get any extra hit points, and your enemies are always stronger than you, that is it takes more to kill them than they to kill you. When your water gun levels up, your main weapon, you may be thinking alright, but don't. When it levels up, the enemies level up even more and come in bigger packs. Another problem is the major lack of save rooms, no more than 2 for floor, so if you ever hope to finish this game you will be back tracking constantly to save what little you have done. Another problem is that you constantly run out of water or other items that would help you out, and you never level up, just your gun. Also, the puzzles can be extremely difficult to figure out, or even just to do something you have figured out. You will constantly, after making it through a particular nasty spot, come to a door you do not have the key for. One more thing that adds to the frustration is the dash button. If you want to use it, it won't work to well, but you will find yourself constantly dashing when you don't want too. For the most part you never need to dash anyway, and this should never have been put into the game.

GRAPHICS: 7/10 While there are better looking GBA games out there, this gets the job done nicely. Bright colors, fluid animations, and the ability to recognize what everything is.

MUSIC/SOUND: 8/10 The music is good but clearly there is not enough variety. The sound effects really work well, but you need a good headphone, or sound system to appreciate them.

CAMERA/CONTROL: 5/10 While there is no camera problems to worry about, and most of the controls are spot on and easy to get into, the dash control totally brings this rating down.

GAME PLAY: 8/10 You have to go through ten huge floors with tons of rooms, solving some very interesting puzzles, and fighting some very difficult enemies. There are block puzzles galore, chests to open, keys to find, items to locate; you get the picture. This game is absolutely nothing like the other "Monster House" games on the other systems. This is the first decent game I have seen that is based on a movie, let alone an animated one. You will be playing as three different characters: D J the star, Jenny, and Chowder, or as I call him, Fat Boy. They each have there own strengths and items, but Chowder's weapon make him pretty useless most of the time.

VALUE: 10/10 If you are easily frustrated, you will probably destroy this game after an hour or two, so this rating is not for you. If you can stick it out to the end it will last you an extremely long time. Don't judge by me, but after 33 hours I am only 37% done. There are those who claim to have finished in 12 hours, but those may be game hours not actual hours. My game hours are about 15, that's because you will die a lot. After you finish the game you get a bonus worth getting, and can replay the game in hard mode, but due to what you can get in the bonus, hard mode could be easier than normal.

FINAL COMMENTS: An absolute buried treasure if you can withstand the punishing difficulty, that you really need to buy. If you always thought "Zelda" was too easy, than you definitely need this game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/19/06