'MONSTER HOUSE'

'MONSTER HOUSE'
(THQ) for PlayStation 2, GameCube, DS.
Genre: Action; Rating: E
Grade: C
The movie "Monster House" could be described as "The Goonies" for today's generation: a family-oriented flick that at the same time aptly visualizes a young person's fantasy/fear, be it discovering hidden treasure or fending your way through a haunted house.
The game is your standard movie-to-game port, which, as in most cases, means it's not worth your time. Sure, this game is certainly way too short to be worth the money you'd pay to own it. But as a rental, you will find some good moments.
You'll get to play as the three main characters, Jenny, DJ and Chowder, and after being trapped in a haunted house you must guide the trio, armed only with squirt guns, and escape the mansion. Besides blasting away with the squirt gun, you will occasionally find puzzles to solve, though they are few and far between, and almost don't even measure on the difficulty scale.
There is some decent variation in the gameplay among the three characters, even if by and large they act the same (the best is by far using Jenny's slingshot to whip marbles at your foes).
What is really impressive, however, is how well the film's visual style has been carried over to the small screen. All the nuances of the film's atmosphere, from lighting to its haunting score, have been replicated for the game, and that is certainly something you don't always get in porting a movie over.
I'm not sure what the folks at THQ were thinking about, but the game's camera is a major distraction. It has this crazy fish-eye look to it, and thus warps the environment constantly, making navigation hard and the battles with possessed furniture much harder than they should be.
For those really wanting to enjoy this movie's translation into a video game, you should check out the DS version, which is far superior in comparison to the platform versions available.
--Chris Campbell, Scripps Howard
'CHROMEHOUNDS'
(Sega) for Xbox 360
Genre: Shooter; Rating: T
Grade: C
It's been a while since I felt this conflicted about a game. But "Chromehounds" has bested. There's much to like about this game, and yet there are a couple of aspects that make it hard to fully enjoy.
Much of the problem lies in the game's overall design, which is mech battle game focused more on the online gameplay than the single-player mode. This is the inherent problem because, for a game this sound and good, it's unfortunate that to truly appreciate it you must spend a bevy of your time playing it online.
First off, you have to build your mech, and this is an ongoing process throughout your playing time. You'll always be finding/buying new parts that can be added to your mech and this always adds to the value of a game of this sort. Add huge howitzers and mortars to attack from range, or mount 15 cannons together to make armor-piercing shots, whatever you can think of is possible, just as long as you stay under weight and up to spec.
"Chromehounds" is very up front about the single-player campaign being nothing more than an extended training ground to tune you up for online play. The online world is much richer in terms of environments you can play in and the different strategies you can take when joining a six-member team. The battlefields are always alive with shells raining in from all over, either laying waste to surrounding buildings or to your mech itself. And all of this is in seriously gorgeous HD, which for a mech battle game is a great bonus.
It's a tough call here, because you want to enjoy all the immense content. But often that means spending more time online than it's worth. If you want it, you'll love it. If you are not willing to spend the time, you may want to avoid this game.
--Chris Campbell, Scripps Howard