Monster House Review (DS)

Monster House, of course, is based on the movie that just got recently released. I must say that I'm quite surprised that the game isn't bad, for a movie tie-in game. The game is in the same style as Smash TV or Total Carnage, with great run and gun action, and a bird's eye view.

I have not yet gotten a chance to see the movie yet, so I'm not that familiar with the storyline. I think I have gotten an idea though; Monster House is about a living haunted house that eats random things that pass by. Inside of the house are a ton of obstacles and dangers to avoid.

Monster House starts off inside the house, giving you no background at all on any of the characters or what is happening. The game gives you text dialogue, which I assume has been pulled from the movie. I did find some of the dialogue to be very humorous.

The object of the game is to make it to the last room in the house and defeat the source of what makes the Monster House a monster. Using the touch screen, you can shoot your gun in any direction, while you use your D-Pad or, the main face buttons, to move. Since you can use either the D-Pad or face buttons, you don't have to worry about being uncomfortable if you're left handed or right handed.

Since you're shooting water guns, you occasionally have to pump it up on the right side of the touch screen, which increases the range of the gun. I found this to be a pretty cool idea.

The game plays just as Smash TV does. Wave after giant wave of enemies will flock toward you, while you must shoot them all down. That's really all there is to it. Along the way, you'll get some cool upgrades to make your weapon more powerful.

There are three characters to choose from. Each of the kids you can play as has different strengths and weapon abilities. If you die using one character in a room, you have the option of going back into the same room with a different character, though if you lose with that character, you'll only have one more character left to play as. Once all of the characters are lost, you get a game over screen. Luckily, the game saves in between every room you enter, so you can pick up where you left off.

The game can get repetitive after a while, though for some, playing Smash TV on your DS would be heaven. Wave after waves of enemies tend to become a bit annoying. Of course, there is the occasional boss level, but besides that all you're doing is shooting flying dishes, attacking chairs, flying books, and avoiding floorboards that can grab you and hold you down.

The graphics and audio are below average. That's really the only trouble with the game. Graphics are too smoothed and hardly detailed, while the audio is just too flat. Aside from these two aspects, this game is pretty well done.