A year ago, my family went on a big trip to Disney World. The first reports of Coronavirus were coming out just as we left, as well as the first US cases. We didn’t think much of it at the time. There had been quite a few virus scares in the past that didn’t amount to much. So we went and had fun. But here we are a year out and while Disney is again open, I wouldn’t want to go right now. My wife got Disney’s Haunted Mansion game for her birthday so now we can have the haunted experience right at home. How does it stack up?
Gameplay- A
For a game like this, my first assumption was that it would be cute but kind of suck. Many games based on some kind of IP easily fall into the trap of trying to look like the IP and forgetting the fun game elements. For a game based on a ride, I thought surely this would be twice as hard to overcome. But like the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, this product based on an amusement park ride just ends up working.
The goal of the game is to collect ghosts and be the player at the end with the most points. On your turn you can take three actions, which includes moving and picking up ghost cards. On the surface, it seems so simple that it sounds like it would be boring. Fortunately, the actual mechanics of ghost points, combined with some other game play elements, push the game past that simple line without crossing the line into needlessly complex.
You play the game over a series of rounds. Each round, each player gets one turn consisting of three actions out of a choice of five actions. Then after each player has gone, the first player marker is passed on, a new event card is drawn, and new ghosts are added to the board. These event cards serve several purposes. They are the game’s timer. One of them triggers the final round. They also move the Hitchhiking Ghost token around the board, which affects where new ghost cards get added, and can mess with player’s strategies. Finally, each card has a different effect, which persists through that round. These effects can dramatically affect a players strategy that round. This helps to keep each round fresh and not feeling stale.
The ghost cards themselves feel a lot like Sushi Go cards. Each type of ghost card fits in a set, each set marked by color and a unique symbol. Each set awards points differently. The red set gives you 3 points for having one card, 0 points for having two and 12 for getting three. Green sets award progressively more points for each card collected. There are some cards that award you points for the number cards of a certain set you have or one point for each different set you have. How much each card is worth will change dramatically as your collection grows.
You move through the game board in one of two ways. You can take a move action and move through the endless hallway one space at a time, or into the seance room in the center. Or you can rotate the whole hallway. No room is more than two moves away from you but with rotating the hallway, you can get to anywhere with just one action. Rotating the hallway can also mess with other players as their figures will be shifted too. And the event each round might alter your plans if they affect how or where you move.
Before we cover the final two types of actions, lets talk about Haunt cards. Haunt cards are awarded to players in a number of ways. If the Hitchhiking Ghosts move past you, they’ll give you one. If they move into your room, they’ll give you two. Note, this is when they move, not when you move by them. You also get one if you collect a ghost from the room the Hitchhiking Ghosts are currently in. There are also some ghosts cards that give you a Haunt card. And most events will have some effect that awards Haunt cards.
Now, I used the word “award” but you don’t actually want Haunt cards. At the end of the game, the person who has the most Haunt points (each card is worth 1-3 points) must get rid of their highest set of ghost cards. So if you have five green cards, worth 25pts, and that’s your highest you must discard that and there go all those points. Managing your Haunt cards becomes a crucial element of the game.
There are a few ways to get rid of your Haunt cards. If you are in the seance room at the board’s center you can avoid getting new ones when the Hitchhiking Ghosts move. You can also, once per turn, take an action in there to get rid of a Haunt card. You get to pick which so you’ll want to ditch those 3pt cards as soon as possible. There are also a few ghost cards that allow you to get rid of a Haunt card when you collect them. Finally, a few events give you an opportunity to get rid of them.
The last action adds a bit of player vs player to the game. You can challenge a player in your space for one of their cards. Each player then selects a value, 0-3, on a dial and reveals it. Whatever number you selected, you draw that number of Haunt cards. Who ever picked the bigger number, gets the disputed card. Ties go to the defender. So a defender can always select three to ensure they keep their card, but they will have to draw three Haunt cards which could prove very problematic.
Production- A
All of the game pieces are solid. Nothing feels flimsy or cheap. The box has storage compartments for all the pieces so everything can be put away in its own space with ease.
Despite the cards being broken up into sets, within most sets, each card comes with an unique ghost image. This helps the game feel broader and like you really are collecting different ghosts with each card you take.
Theme- A
The game is all in going for the Haunted Mansion theme. The plastic hitchhiking ghost piece matches the look of the classic hitchhikers. They take advantage of the ghosts appearance with the colorless type of plastic used, which for other pieces would feel cheap. But they’re ghosts so it works here. The player pieces are all single color but there are six different colors so that avoids feeling cheap too.
The game board captures the general rooms of the haunted mansion, though they don’t actually have any gameplay effect. The endless hallway that your player pieces move through is just a circle but is clever enough. The ghost cards all have images taken from the ride and feel ghosty.
The best theme elements are actually two completely irrelevant bits. The inside top of the box looks like the roof of the stretching room at the beginning of the ride (the one with no doors you can’t escape from). It’s just the inside of the box but its a fun detail. Likewise, the back of the game board, which you’ll never need to see, makes a nice picture of the haunted mansion itself.
Expansions- TBD
None and I wouldn’t ever expect any.
Conclusion- A
If you’re a fan of the Haunted Mansion at all you won’t be disappointed with this game. Because, even if you don’t care a wit for the theme, it’s still a fun game. The mechanics are simple to grasp but still require some thinking to try to achieve a good score. This makes it playable with a family of different skill level gamers.
Wayne Basta
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