The Haunted Mansion Preview

E3 2003 - Hands On (played on the PS2)

The Haunted Mansion ride in Disneyland has been a favorite of many people since it was first built decades ago.  Now, the ride is getting its own movie and video game based on it.  The game, developed by TDK, fuses elements from the ride and from the upcoming movie to create The Haunted Mansion.  The story follows a man in the mansion, who must free all 999 ghosts from the house.  He’ll face huge spiders, evil spirits and other obstacles in his quest.

I played the game for a little bit, and noticed that it felt a lot like Luigi’s Mansion.  Whenever your character gets close to an object that is holding ghosts, the object will shake around and you’ll know the presence of ghosts and can capture them using a lantern.  You’ll also solve a variety of puzzles as you proceed on your quest.  One interesting sequence had the character shrunk down on a pool table dodging a cue ball being knocked around by an evil spirit with a pool cue.  The trick was to get the spirit to knock all balls in to the pockets (saving the eight ball until last), after which point he was restored to his original size.

The Haunted Mansion was an interesting title that should appeal to fans of the ride and the upcoming film, which the game is set to release alongside this fall.