Haunting (video game)
| Haunting Starring Polterguy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Producer(s) | Don Traeger |
| Designer(s) |
Dave Ralston John Salwitz |
| Composer(s) |
Tony Berkeley Michael Bartlow Don Veca |
| Platform(s) | Mega Drive/Genesis, PlayStation Portable |
| Release date(s) | 1993, 2006 |
| Genre(s) | Action game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Haunting Starring Polterguy is a 1993 video game released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis by Electronic Arts. It took advantage of Sega's Video Game Ratings Council to include various horror themes, including blood and gore. Haunting also includes comedic elements that take form in silly ways of haunting the family in the game.
In August 2006, GameSpot reported that Electronic Arts would be porting the game to the PlayStation Portable as part of the EA Replay compilation UMD. This compilation was released in the United States on November 7, 2006.
Story
The main protagonist and player character, Polterguy, is a rebellious punk teenager who was killed in an accident involving defective skateboards manufactured by business mogul Vito Sardini and his corporation. Polterguy seeks revenge by haunting Vito's home and tormenting him and his family from beyond the grave by effectively being a Poltergeist.
The narrative culminates with Polterguy haunting the Sardini family out of four different homes, at which point the family chihuahua transforms into a grotesque blob monster Ecto Beast, which Polterguy must confront in battle. After throwing explosives at the creature, it explodes into a gory mess, and Polterguy is confronted with floating brain enemies, which he also must throw explosives at to defeat.
After defeating the brains, the ending of the game displays Polterguy, having taken his revenge on being "dissed" (as the game affectionately calls it through its text cut-scenes) by the Sardinis, returning to his regular human form. Immediately after a short celebratory dance in this human form, unexpectedly, a large anvil made by the Sardini corporation falls on his head, killing him once again and returning him back to his ghostly form, Polterguy.
Gameplay
In the single-player game, the player controls a rebellious dead teenager, Polterguy, in a house occupied by a yuppie Italian family, the Sardinis, through an isometric, 3/4 perspective. The player's task is to scare each family member out of the house by possessing various household objects through the use of colored indicators called "Fright 'ems". These are shiny indicators on objects that allows the player to know what objects in the houses are available to haunt. To activate these, Polterguy must jump into the object that has a Fright 'em glowing on it to "load" the object for a jump scare to one of the family members. There are three different types of Fright 'ems to interact with, though they can be tied to virtually any object in the game you see. The Fright 'ems found in the game are as follows:
- Blue Fright 'ems
These Fright 'ems work automatically, meaning they will activate as soon as a family member gets close enough to one after Polterguy has decided to activate, or "load" it.
- Orange Fright 'ems
These are manual, meaning that you have to press a button to activate the exact moment of haunting the object at the player's own will.
- Green Fright 'ems
These allow the player to take control of certain objects. With the use of green Fright 'ems, the player can use the D-pad to float around ghostly heads, possessed toy airplanes, or severed hands, to name a few. You can move these objects around to frighten the Sardini family, and usually, you can press a button for an added effect, such as flying toy aircraft shooting projectiles for an added fear effect to the family members.
Polterguy uses these Fright 'ems to interact and possess objects in different rooms of the house until every family member's fear level reaches "Very Scared", at which point they'll possibly run out of the house if you're in a room that leads to an exit door. Once every family member runs out of the house, a level is completed.
During gameplay, Polterguy's "ecto" energy bar gradually depletes over time, which can be partially recovered after successfully frightening a family member out of a room, or using certain spells at Polterguy's disposal. When Polterguy's ecto tank is depleted, he is sent to the underworld stages of the game to recover the ecto he lost during the house stages.
Houses
There are four houses which Polterguy must drive the Sardini family from. Over the four houses Polterguy will encounter approximately 400 objects which he can possess and interact with. When Polterguy is in a house his ecto slowly decreases. His ecto "tank", as Polterguy affectionately refers to it as, can be further decreased by the barks of the family's dog, as well as by taking damage from the ecto beasts.
Underworld
The underworld is the only way in the game to receive a game-over sequence, as it is the only place Polterguy may sustain damage. In these stages, Polterguy's health is represented by a character portrait. Each time he sustains damage the portrait will shrink until only the eyes remain, indicating that Polterguy can sustain only one more hit from an enemy.
To complete the stages, all drops of ecto must be collected before the exit is revealed. When a drop of ecto is picked up another will drop from the roof and slowly shrink. There is an on-screen arrow that points to the next ecto drop or the exit, if the ecto or exit is off-screen. Once the exit is found Polterguy is returned to the house at the exact point where he left off. The dungeon is also the place where Polterguy may find special spells; these drop from the roof like ecto but disappear much faster.
There are twelve dungeon paths; once these have all been played they repeat.
2-player mode
In this mode (which is started up by pressing the 2nd player's start button at the title screen), each player takes turns at scaring the family. Player one starts by default and continues until his ecto is depleted, where player two takes over.
When both players' turns are finished they play head-to-head simultaneously in the underworld stage and try to grab as much ecto as they can before the other player. The player that hits the "finish" spot at the end gets first turn back in the house.
If one player dies in the underworld, the other player continues single-player for the entire game.
Hazards
Dungeon Encounters
In the dungeon levels there are several hazards that may reduce the Polterguy's life portrait: these include steam vents, disembodied hands, bats, and bouncing skulls.
Ecto beasts
The Ecto Beasts are attracted to the Ecto that appears after Polterguy chases a family member out of a room. These green, ghostly creatures will pick up the Ecto dropped from the frightened family member, stopping Polterguy from replenishing his own Ecto-Tank, after which they will attack Polterguy and reduce his Ecto meter further. At later levels in the game, these enemies appear more frequently. Polterguy is armed with two different kick attacks to defeat these enemies. One being a fast kick that does little damage, and another being a charge kick that will defeat the Ecto Beasts with one hit.
Family dog
The family dog, a humorously ugly chihuahua whose name is unknown, is the only living creature in the game that can detect Polterguy in the house. When the dog barks at Polterguy, the ecto meter substantially drops, and the fear levels of any family members in the room go down, since the dog is said to "comfort" the Sardinis, effectively calming them down from the fear Polterguy induces.
Once all the members of the family have left the final house, the dog moves to a square vacant room which has no objects that Polterguy may possess. At this point the dog transforms into a giant Ecto Beast, which Polterguy must defeat to complete the game.
Reception
Haunting Starring Polterguy met with positive reception upon release. GamePro stated that it was "One of the most unique vidgames (sic) of the year!", while Game Players stated "This game's so fun, it's scary!", with both quotes being printed as blurbs directly on the North American release's box art.
The game retains a small cult-like status today, being one of the few comedy/horror games from the 16-bit era. It is also highly regarded by fans for its sometimes bizarre and disturbing use of blood and gore.
See also
- Ghost Master, a similar game released in 2003.