Scooby-Doo! Haunted House Game
by Pressman Toys
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Toys and Games Reviews of Scooby-Doo! Haunted House Game
Customer Review: Don't bother
Summary: 1 Stars
This game is almost a complete waste of money. My 4 year old son loves Scooby-doo and will move the toys around the game board for a bit, but they are very unstable and repeatedly fall over. It is a bit frustrating and fails to hold his interest for very long because of its poor construction. He normally has a very good, long attention span and can play many other games with no problem (Hungry Hippos, Hi-Ho CherryO, memory, go fish, Candy Land). The Scooby game is good for about ten minutes (I don't last that long), whereas we can play the other games together for an hour or more.
My 7 year-old nephew reacted similarly.
Cons:
1. Very poor directions on assembly; small pictures and not descriptive. They would be better off not including them. It is easier to assemble by looking at the picture on the box.
2. The game directions are pretty poor as well, it doesn't tell you what to do if a character can't move because the cage is down, or if more than one character are the same space, etc.
3. The game board a pieces are very easily knocked over, and you need to be very careful when pushing down the ghost on top to not knock over all of the pieces.
4. The beginning spaces are very hard to get to without knocking into some part of the haunted house and knocking down all of the pieces currently on the board.
5. Can't store the game in the box without taking the board apart.
Pros:
1. Counting (I think you are better off with Hi Ho Cherry-O for that).
2. The traps are kind of neat if you just want to see the characters trapped or knocked off and don't mind the characters all getting knocked over when you push down on the ghost, and it is a Scooby haunted house.
I think they would have been much smarter to just make a haunted house play house with actual figurines and traps and have it cost more.
Customer Review: Unique and fun
Summary: 4 Stars
My daughters, Scooby-Doo fans both (age 6,) wanted this for Christmas. I found it on sale so snapped it up, intrigued by the 3D design. It's very cute. A little tricky to figure out how to assemble at first. The pictures are tiny and the diagram letters don't match up with the piece numbers. But I'm usually good at that kind of thing so I figured it out. But then I couldn't get the cage to stay up, not realizing that it would once I pushed the ghost down to "set" the game. Make sure if you push the ghost down, you hear it click, or the traps won't work. I'd love to know how this thing works on the inside, because several, but not all at the same time, traps spring each time, and the fun is not knowing which pieces will be casualties. The girls thought it was hilarious. We played it over and over. They loved the suspense of who would get attacked by a trap, and they thought it was hilarious that my piece always fell off the stairs, and one of them got flung out the back window/door! That was a surprise.
We had a lot of fun playing it. They even used it to play Scooby-Doo as a playhouse with the pieces (all characters from the show). However, the more characters played, the more of a logjam on the game. Especially when multiple characters had issues with the same trap. Characters can't occupy more than one to a space. This is important for certain traps to work. The round base of the pawns fit exactly on the round circle/spaces to properly position the pieces for the traps.
The game also has to be partially disassembled in order to fit back in the box. This is a little tedious. Hopefully the back cardboard wall pieces hold up from repeated disassembly/reassembly.
Overall, cute concept, fun when it works properly. Make sure the ghost clicks to spring the traps! It's very noisy when the game works. Almost sounds like the grinding roar of some of the creepy characters of the game.
Customer Review: Past problems fixed
Summary: 3 Stars
I read the reviews for this product after I had already purchased it at Target as a Christmas gift (2008) for my daughter and thought, oh man, this game is going to be a frustrating experience.
In fact, I parroted the most similar complaints listed here to my wife just before we were set to open the box and play with our daughter: there are no assembly instructions, no clear starting point to the game, the infamous snake staircase that always detaches, the ghost on top that when depressed creates an earthquake.
I trust that all those reviews were indeed true experiences. However, I'm happy to say that the manufacturer must have been reading because all that has been fixed: nothing falls apart, there are clear directions where to start, what happens when characters double-up, etc. Try to find a new version of the game - manufacturing date?
Now on to the game itself. It's an extremely simplistic linear, move from tile-to-tile-start-to-finish game (Candyland offers more roadblocks). Kids don't need to read but the spinner requires counting. This isn't a strategic, creative, or educational game. Where it excels is in the cool 3-D design. My daughter (3) likes what it looks like and has it assembled on her dresser but rarely wants to play it. It's a fixture that's hard to dust.
My problem with the game, and the reason why it doesn't have much replay value is that the outcome is always the same. Whoever gets to the top unmasks the ghost but it's always the Creeper character. If they made it more Clue-like where the villain was maybe 1 out of 5 villains and whoever got to the top had to guess then, well, perhaps it would be a more interesting experience.
Customer Review: A Skeptic Has Fun
Summary: 4 Stars
"No way!" I said, reading all the reveiws. My kids love Scooby; I grew up watching Scooby faithfully every Saturday when it first came out. The game appears 'like' a fun, haunted house on the picture, but per critics: it's small, poor instructions, hard to assemble, falls apart- pieces fall off, etc. The good reviews must be from Scooby-holics worse than me.
I wasn't going to buy it, waste my money, no way, find something else. So, my wife bought it. Now, we have to put it away because my wife, 2 and 5 year olds, and I are addicted. It's simple: choose your character, spin the dial, get knocked down or caught in the trap and race up the mansion to uncover the ghoul. You must push the ghost down on a spring mechanism that operates the various obstacles. Mindless but fun.
The flaws: the setup instructions were unclear, but it's easy to follow the picture on the box- 5 minutes; there's very little challenge or education to it for young ones except taking your turn and counting, none for adults; our two year old tended to knock the little pieces over- gentle supervision needed; it's compact and the game pieces can fall off if your not watching but it wasn't a big deal for us.
It's a cool, little, 3-D game with lots of silly details, e.g., skeletons, spider webs, lab, cemetary, 'creepy' pictures, etc. We'd turn the lights down, use a flashlight, and do our best "Gang" voices as we play. If you like family inclusive board games and love Scooby, I'd recommend this to you. Need a challenge? Look elsewhere.
Customer Review: Great game for serious boardgame players
Summary: 5 Stars
I just got this for my girls ages 4 and 6. We just got done playing it so I thought I'd write my review. I was skeptical to buy it at first because it got such bad reviews. I am glad I bought it.
Pro's
-It takes no batteries!
-The game played rather quickly compared to other games like candyland, chutes and ladders or sorry. The "board" spaces are rather few.
-The traps worked really well. There are plenty opportunites for everyone to get to press the ghost so that the traps move.
-It's unique- may be a collectors item one day.
-It's easy to comprehend, without memorizing a ton of rules for little ones.
-It's a great family game 5 people can play
Con's
- I say for the serious board game users because it is for children that can sit still, and that have good fine motor coodination. There are small spaces to move your characters into and around. It really is for ages 5 and up. My daughter is 6. I think it should be more suitible for 6 and 7 year olds.
-It is difficult to press the ghost down. I held the house so that my children could push it down without topping everything around.
-The directions are useless to put it together, but if you look at the clear picture on the outside of the box, you can easily see where each peice goes, and it's very easy to figure out.
-The directions say adult assembly and that is true.