Customer Reviews

Scooby-Doo! Haunted House Game

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I bought this for my 4-year old son, a die-hard Scooby fan. We had a great time playing the game and is one of his favorites.

The CONS
- assembly instructions may as well be left out of the directions as here's a toy with a lot of pieces with instructions in one tiny tiny pictures. In any case, not too difficult to figure out using the pictures on the box
- While the mansion itself is fairly sturdy, the pieces not so much. When the ghost on the top is pushed (to release the traps), need to be careful to push slowly or you'll knock all the pieces off the board.
- Have to dissassemmble the gamne to get it back into the box. This is true of most games but assembly of this one takes a bit longer.

The PROS
- Very cute 3-D game. Traps work well
- Game is fairly straight forward and quick. Nothing worse than getting into a game with a little one that takes too long :)
- Good for little ones learning counting. They can spin the spinner and count the steps.
- Each push of the ghost releases different traps so the kids never know exactly what will happen next

Although the Scooby-Doo board game was fun initially, it quickly lost its appeal when we soon realized that the pieces don't hold together that well at all. The back walls come loose and fall down constantly as do the snake stairs. It's nearly impossible to get past the snake stairs because almost every time you get on them, you have to press the ghost down and then you fall off them. The snake stairs also come apart from the frame of the game and you have to try to assemble them again. We decided to keep it together all the time instead of disassembling it and putting it back in the box every time we were done with it, but that didn't prevent us from having to assemble it each time we wanted to play with it and having to assemble it several times during the game as well.

All in all, very poor quality and craftsmanship and just an annoyance to play. The bother far outweighs the educational and entertainment benefits.

"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.

My son saw this toy in the back of the book so I did some research. All the feedback was negative but I got the toy anyway and it was WORTH IT. Everyone out there stop putting down Scooby Doo and the Haunted House game, it is durable, fun to play and I see no problem with it. The only thing that sticks is the ghost coming back up out of the house when you push it down. I found that just adds to the anticipation of what will happen. I am VERY pleased with the game, it just goes to show you, don't listen to every review and don't always believe what you read.

This game was only fun for my family insofar as we laughed and laughed every time another piece fell off. Every time someone had to push the ghost down, one of us would yell, "call the repairman!" Traps almost spring, hinges jam, and players fall off the board (creating amusing family controversy over which player used to be on which space). One of the most fun and entertaining challenges of this game was trying to figure out where the players start, which is not indicated on the board or in the instructions. The game is especially fun for four players, as the instructions state that players may not occupy the same space, and must therefore stack up behind one another in a delightful log-jam configuration. After a rollicking ten minutes of sheer side-splitting frustration, we declared our six-year-old the winner and then selected another game that might tempt us to play it more than once.

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.

My son is a huge Scooby fan so he would love it no matter what. My only complaint is that the differences in the clues are kinda of subtle and easily confused. Still we have had a lot of fun with this game.

My 8 year old Scooby Fan loves this game but it annoys me and would annoy any other adult that trys to play but the flimsy way its put together makes it impossible to play normally. Each time you push the ghost down to set off the traps, the stairs fall down amongst other parts that do not stay in their designated spots. You constantly have to re-assemble the parts.

This game is a blast if it doesn't break. I played it with my 5 year old for about 30 minutes before it broke. We sent it back and Amazon got us another one very fast. Second toy hasn't broken yet. Basically you move your scooby character through the game and if the spinner lands on a "ghost", you press a spring loaded ghost on top of the game. The ghost turns some gears inside the game and randomly activates "traps" which can do various things to your character--very fun. The ghost on top is what broke so that it popped back up violently and would send your scooby flying across the room....still funny but not the way it's supposed to work. Furthermore, it broke with an adult operating the game. I can't imagine this will hold up with unsupervised kids playing it. Bottom line, it's super cheap chinese made garbage, but it's also really fun...worth the risk for $15-20.

Yes, this game can be a pain to put/keep together and store but I have to say my 6 year old son has loved playing this game for 2 years-it is absolutely one of his favorites. He loves Scooby but also loves spooky stuff, so the haunted house idea really appeals to him. It is fun to try to get through the house hoping you are not trapped in a cage, knocked over by a moose head, pushed off the house by a mummy, etc. If you have a bit of patience, enjoy playing games with your kids and they dig Scooby, then it's a winner!