We all grew up wondering what was inside the house of the neighborhood’s resident creepy old codger. My neighborhood had rumors of snake-filled cages (true), the world’s largest collection of lost baseballs and footballs, or grisly trophies brought back from foreign wars. None of these can compare though to what the three main characters in Monster House find when they are trapped inside their neighbor’s house. Old Man Nebbercracker’s house isn’t just full of odd collections and trinkets, it’s alive. Not in that Trading Spaces “Wow, a fresh coat of paint and this room will come alive!” way, more like the “That chair has teeth and it’s coming straight at me!” way.

Monster House for the PS2 throws you right into the action. The main character, DJ, begins with a brief monologue that introduces you to his friends Jenny and Chowder and outlines his suspicions that something strange is going on at the house across the street. The game then jumps to a cutscene that shows the three scrappy explorers in the back seat of a police car that is immediately eaten by the Monster House. I was a bit bewildered so I checked the manual which had a brief narrative detailing what had happened in the movie up to that point. Since the target audience for this title has probably seen the movie umpteen times already it shouldn’t make a difference, but a bit more in-game explanation would have been nice.

Now that they’ve been thrown into this awful predicament the House then grabs Jenny and Chowder and whisks them away leaving DJ on his own. Luckily DJ and crew were prepared and have their trusty water guns on hand. With the scene set, the game switches to third-person shooter mode, except you don’t manually aim. Each one of the kids has a flashlight taped to their gun, see I told you they were prepared, that will auto lock on to the nearest enemy when you point toward it. Three hand-drawn arrows encircle the enemy to indicate a lock and the character now auto strafes around the locked-on enemy, always keeping it in sight. The lock-on can be broken by hitting circle and manual locks can also be done the same way.

The majority of the game is spent wandering through the creepy house blasting the animated furniture and radiators. While the puzzles rely on the old “push a crate around so you can climb up to the next area” formula aren’t the greatest, the other aspects of the game are nicely done. First off, the house is down-right creepy. Even though the game’s palette is brighter than your typical M-rated survival horror title the visual ambience keeps you on the edge of your seat. Building on that, each character has their own special weapons and upgrades. DJ’s water gun is a fairly basic rifle but gets upgraded to a mean stream of water that resembles a flamethrower ... a flamethrower shot water, that is. Jenny’s pistol fires a quick burst of shots with each press of the button and Chowder has every kid’s dream weapon, a water-firing shotgun. Each of their upgrades merely increases the effectiveness of their weapon without adding an alternate fire like DJ’s. You’ll also have access to secondary weapons such as DJ’s instant camera that stuns groups of enemies, Chowder’s water-balloon grenades, and Jenny’s marble-firing slingshot.

Play alternates between the three characters at regular intervals with the kids meeting up and then getting separated again on a regular basis. While they are searching for each other they tend to backtrack a good bit and when the game switches you to another character you may end up trekking through the same area you were just in. One area in particular was visited by all the characters at least once in less than a few hours. Enemies are ever present throughout your quest, but with only a handful of different things to destroy it can get a little tedious. Even with all the backtracking and ceaseless monsters, it doesn’t take long to burn through the game because of its linear nature. The last level or two went in a distinctly different directions than the first 90 percent of the game and seemed like tacked-on mini games. While I’m sure it fit the movie it saps all the fun out of the game right at the end.

Speaking of mini games though, Monster House features a side-scrolling brawler entitled “Thou Art Dead” as a bonus. The catch is that to play the game you first have to collect arcade tokens in the standard game. It’s a neat gimmick and not a half-bad mini game.

Gameplay: 6.6

Turning Monster House into a third-person shooter was an excellent idea. It comes so close to pulling off so great stuff, but falls a bit short. Levels are incredibly repetitive, as are the monsters. Occasionally players will have to input button commands to avoid things or perform combos in battle. It’s a rip off of Resident Evil 4, but the approach is not consistent and becomes aggravating at times. The game also seems a touch unbalanced. I could breeze through levels that featured DJ and Jenny, but Chowder’s levels were slam packed with bad guys. Maybe they figured that because Chowder had the shotgun I could just waste everything that moved, but I usually ended up “dead” a few times before I was able to figure out the level. The save system also could use some work. Having to replay large sections because the checkpoints are few and far between is irritating to say the least.

Graphics: 7.3

Monster House’s visuals fit the look and feel of the movie to a tee. The character models and animations look like they were pulled right off the silver screen. The house is the main attraction though and it’s suitably creepy. Even though it’s painted in a brighter palette than most survival horror games it still keeps the spook factor intact.

Sound: 6.4

The musical score for Monster House is quite creepy and helps keep the tension high. The voice actors from the movie reprise their roles for the game. Acting in cutscenes is good, but during game play the characters inanely repeat the same lines over and over. After six hours of playing I don’t need to hear “Oh no! The chair… it’s ALIVE!” anymore. I know the chair’s alive. So were the other thousand I’ve already destroyed. Who needs that many chairs anyway?

Difficulty: Easy

Besides two or three frustrating moments in which I was flooded with enemies with no room for retreat, the game was fairly easy. The next door you need to go through is always marked by light shining through underneath it, so it’s almost impossible to get lost. The primary weapons never run out of ammo, though you do have to reload, which can cause some tense moments. Overall, it seems fairly balanced for the intended audience, but it would have been nice to see some sort of difficulty setting.

Concept: 7.0

If you combined Resident Evil with some crayons and finger paint you’d get Monster House. A living house “eats” a trio of kids who then roam around it’s innards trying to find each other and a way out. It’s a semi-scary romp that might keep the little one’s awake at night.

Overall: 6.7

I was quite surprised by Monster House. Movie license games, especially one’s based on kid’s movies, are usually not so great. Monster House draws inspiration from the myriad array of Mature rated survival horror games all while keeping it rated E10+. It’s a fun, scary romp that’s perfect for fans of the movie and tykes that like goosebumps.