A surprise Thursday edition of the Week in Arcade, as two titles oddly appeared this morning, $15 for both. Yes, that means an actual $5 Live Arcade game. Who knew?
A remake of the Atari 2600 favorite, this one actually stays quite true to the formula. You control one of two kids trapped inside (duh?) a haunted house, searching for items to escape while dodging various ghouls and insects. It’s fairly mundane, sort of a top-down Doom minus the shotguns. You look for keys, find the keys, and move on. Fans of mazes and the like will find themselves intrigued, but the premise and cute visuals are enough to save this from redundancy.
It’s unique, we’ll give it that, and it’s only $5. This is a kinda/sorta FPS, where the player takes on the role of a movie set where the actors kill each other in goofy ways to maximize profits. Weapons include the mundane like flare guns, to the overreaching shotgun that deals out the damage with heft. Guards patrol the set, why is anyone’s guess, interrupting the fun. You can set traps, adding another bit of dimensionality to the gameplay, but it’s slow, sluggish, and not much fun despite the premise. For $5 though, it’s worth giving it an extended go just in case it connects with you.
