Common Sense Media Review
By Christopher Healy
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Spooky but not too scary mystery is set in the dark.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
Haunted House
What's It About?
The plot to HAUNTED HOUSE follows a brother and sister who go looking for their grandfather after he mysteriously disappears. A letter leads them to a spooky old house, but as soon as the duo enters, they find themselves locked inside. Ghosts and monsters appear everywhere from the darkness, and the heroes must constantly find and use temporary light sources (matches, candles, cell phones, torches, etc.) to both find their way and to zap the ghouls. All the while, they need to search every shelf and drawer they can find in order to locate keys that will let them progress further into the mansion, and hopefully to an exit.
Is It Any Good?
This Haunted House is an update of a way-old Atari 2600 cartridge game from the '80s. The graphics are improved a thousand-fold, but the central gameplay concept is basically the same: You run through dark rooms, avoiding ghosts and looking for light sources. This is definitely a fun game, but it does lack a bit in the variety department. Thankfully, there are some very neat boss battles that come along to break up the monotony. There's a genuine storyline here, too, which you can slowly reveal as you find and read diary pages hidden throughout the house. It's a spooky tale, but like the rest of the game, not too terrifying. In a market flooded with ultra-gory M-rated horror games, it's very nice to have one that younger players can turn to for a fun scare.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the difference between entertainment that is spooky fun and that which is truly frightening. It can be fun to be scared, but when does a game cross the line from fun into disturbing?
Co-op play in this game takes a lot of teamwork. How do you handle it when your partner is better or worse than you at the game? What lessons can you learn from this?
Game Details
- Platforms : Nintendo Wii , Windows , Xbox 360
- Pricing structure :
- Available online? : Not available online
- Publisher : Atari
- Release date : September 28, 2010
- Genre : Adventure
- ESRB rating :
- Last updated : August 30, 2016
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