Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion for GBA Review

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            Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion Game Boy Advance Version

Review by Orb

Message in a Haunted Mansion is one of a handful of adventure titles that have either just been released or are about to be released for the GBA. In fact, one of the greatest things about the title is the fact that the increased graphics horsepower in the GBA really enables developers to start taking advantage of the platform as they never have before.

Previously, there were enough Game Boy Color adventure games to count on one hand. With the advent of GBA, there are more adventures than that for the current and the upcoming quarter alone. Quite a difference indeed. As for Nancy Drew, this is obviously one of the bigger titles to be released so far in the genre, and it will be interesting to see how sales go (which I’m sure will determine future development and releases), and this on a platform and to a gaming public not traditionally associated with adventure games. The other handicap, of course, is the fact that the core base of gamers that traditionally purchase games in the Nancy Drew series will have most likely already purchased and played this title on the PC.

So hopefully, we’ll see this put into the hands of the handheld public in some way, thus getting them interested in adventures and giving the genre an increased possibility of life on the platform.  It’s at least a way for the Nancy Drew series developers, Her Interactive, to gain some potential ground in the preteen gamer market that they have lost by not porting their games to Macintosh, the platform traditionally purchased by school systems and parents based on its fundamental ease of use. It’s certainly inexplicable that this market has been snubbed up until now.

The story of Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion is the usual Nancy Drew girl detective fare. And if you played the game on PC, you get to skip this paragraph, as the story is the same. Nancy has gone to visit a friend in San Francisco and assist in fixing up a Victorian mansion. But a series of accidents has delayed the project’s completion. It’s Nancy’s job to find out what or who is behind these accidents. The game is played in the first person, from the viewpoint of Nancy. Our more modern Nancy (she’s at least more modern and high-tech than when I read the series in third grade) has a cell phone, to call her friends for clues, and a PDA that keeps a running record of the clues that have been discovered.

As for the graphics, it is an excellent and smooth transition to the Game Boy Advance. The screens are amazingly defined. The rooms in the mansion have quite a bit to look at in them, and all of it is done in such a way that it stays clear, and easy to see, while still enjoying a high amount of detail.

The biggest drawback in the game, however, lies in the fact that the game takes place in a dark, creepy (as the name implies) mansion.  And, as anyone who has ever played on a Game Boy knows, there is no backlighting. So I rolled into the game, after littering the desk with a wormlight and various other sundry plug-in lights and fixtures, searching for the right lighting combo to get the graphics lightened enough so that the darkness was not a complete distraction. This, of course, is not an unusual situation, as anyone who has used these can attest, but it seemed as though there was no attempt to lighten the coloring of screens at all to take this into account when porting the game. The one other noticeable weakness was that there is quite a bit of reading to do, and this was presented in a very small, hard-to-read font, which took a bit of getting used to.

The lighting notwithstanding, once embroiled in the game, I found it to be an absolute delight. The story is well-written, and the layout of the mansion is very clever and entertaining. There are plenty of rooms to explore and really a very satisfying amount of well-constructed and pure-fun puzzles. I was gratified to find how well the puzzles in the game were assembled, and it has both inventory and straight puzzles, which were a real kick in the pants to get through and certainly worth the money.

The game does trim down some of the plot points and puzzles from the original version, I assume to fit it into the confines of the platform. This did not, however, detract from the gameplay at all. For example, a puzzle to access the contents of a PC is omitted, and the player is just given access once having gotten to the PC. The inventory system is particularly well-organized, and it is very easy to speak to characters and move around the mansion the way the interface is designed. In fact, I found the controls smooth to the point of being addictive.

To anyone who has played Inherent Evil, the save system of Haunted Mansion will be very familiar. It is structured in seven chapters, and specific actions must be completed, including moving the story along to certain points, before a chapter is complete. Once the chapter is complete, a save game is automatically enabled, which is a very smart, very cool thing, so that there is virtually no saving in the game at all, and it runs like a platformer—just pencil in getting to the end of the chapter before you put the sucker down.

There are places in the game where the player can do something boneheaded and get kicked out of the mansion before the story is complete. The game does not save just before this, as in the PC version, but the player can return to the beginning of the last chapter she was on.

The music is a short, repetitive MIDI-style loop, similar to other Game Boy game music. Considering the fact that all this gaming came in a cartridge that is tiny—literally half the size of a GBC cartridge—this is certainly understandable and acceptable.

If you haven’t gotten a GBA, Message in a Haunted Mansion is plenty of reason to splurge on one. This is a title that packs an incredible amount of fun into a tiny package. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Her Interactive Publisher: Dreamcatcher GBA port: Handheld Games Photosensitive Seizure Factor: low

Available for: Game Boy Advance

Four Fat Chicks Links

Walkthrough (PC Version) Player Feedback (Both PC and GBA Versions)

Screenshots

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Where to Find It

Links provided for informational purposes only.  FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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