The game features a variety of puzzles that fit quite nicely with the game’s spooky theme. For example, one particularly interesting puzzle places you on a giant billiards table and challenges you to sink all of the balls by using yourself as a decoy for the ghostly and deadly cue ball. While the puzzles are clever, they are not particularly difficult to solve as the game provides you with plenty of help. Objects that activate the puzzles pulsate slightly so you can find key pieces of the puzzles just by looking around carefully. If that is not enough help for you, you can use the directional pad to summon a spiritual medium who will provide you with a hint on how to proceed or on how to solve the puzzle. The biggest challenge from the puzzles comes from the fact that the malevolent spirits dwell in the darkness and so you will be constantly harassed as you try to find and solve each puzzle that will allow you to finally turn the lights on.

Not all skeletons live in closets, some come from under the rugs.

Once you’ve flipped the switch, the second phase of the level begins. You need to locate the trapped spirits, release them, and then capture them with your lantern. Finding the trapped spirits is a methodical exercise of looking for the pulsating objects in which they’re trapped, activating the object, and then capturing the released spirits. This is the most tedious part of the game as there’s no real challenge to finding and capturing the spirits. The routine quickly begins to feel repetitive and you’ll soon wish that you can just move on to the next room without having to go through this process over and over again. If the puzzles weren’t so interesting and the game focused entirely on collecting ghosts in your lantern, it would hardly be recommendable as more than a short afternoon’s rental.

The game’s graphics and levels fit well with the ride’s theme and, ahem, spirit. The mansion is spooky in a fun sort of way and all of the resident ghosts of a cartoon-like look about them. While it may be a touch too scary for the youngest of gamers, gamers of all other ages will find the game’s atmosphere delightfully spooky.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 72%.  I can’t recommend the game for everybody – it can be too repetitive at times and too easy for gamers looking for challenge. However, the spooky theme and familiar Disney settings will make Haunted Mansion an enjoyable diversion for many.

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