Ju-on: The Grudge

Just from looking at the box of Ju-on: The Grudge, you get the sense that playing in the dark is required for a full-on horrifying experience. This offering is based on the Japanese film “Ju-on”, which was later used as a basis for the American film “The Grudge”. If you’ve seen them, then I’m sure you already have a good idea what you’re in for.

The game is categorised as a “haunted house simulation”, which in itself is an interesting concept. Haunted houses conjure up the image of a fairground ride with frightening figures popping out from dark corners, and the odd loud noise seemingly coming from nowhere. So what does a haunted house simulation actually translate to on a television screen?

Well, this is no fairground ride, as the story begins when you take your cute little dog for a walk, and what does the stupid dog do? She runs into a disused factory that looks about as inviting as, well, a haunted house. Your job is to find the Nintendogs look-alike dog, and to explore what it is that caught the attention of the annoyingly inquisitive dog.

I am a complete wimp, so pretty much everything after this opening sequence terrified me. At first I played whilst looking through my fingers, but then I was killed and had to start again, so I decided that the only way to do it was to go for it and make sure the neighbours didn’t think I was being broken into every time I screamed. The game is split into five episodes, all of which present unnerving surroundings, and all you have for comfort is a torch that is hard on batteries.

Your job is to look around every part of the building finding keys and spare torch batteries, which to be honest is about as difficult as it gets. The suspense is definitely evident in each stage of the episodes, because there are various noises and ghost children popping out occasionally, but unfortunately that’s about as much substance as the game has to offer.

The controls are fairly difficult to master and quite unpredictable. You only need the Wii Remote for this game, and the motion sensor does actually come into play, but perhaps there would be more control over your character if the directional pad was used instead. As this is a first person game, the camera is effectively your characters viewpoint, and the Wii remote is used to move your head around to face different directions. There are times when the motions are very quick so your torch will be pointing at the ceiling for a long time, but there are also times where you wish to turn around quickly and you just can’t budge. There needs to be a happy medium in a game such as this, so that you’re not left spinning in circles or stuck on the spot.

There is also great frustration to be found in moving your character, but this is not fault of the controls. The only option for moving forwards is to walk…incredibly slowly. I don’t know about you, but if I was stuck in a dark haunted building, I’d want to run everywhere and find the dog as quickly as possible! But no, all you can do in this game is make loud noises with clunky shoes at snails pace. This lets the pace of the game down further, but then as it is such a short game, maybe the purpose is not to fly through all levels in 45 minutes.

One other element of the game that lets it down is the method of “attacking” strange zombie type things. For example, these creatures most often appear when a door is opened and said thing subsequently grabs your arm. You are then prompted to shake the Wii Remote to fend off this beast. It would be much better if this motion actually killed or damaged the baddies, but instead all this seems to do is make them disappear and returns your character several metres from the scene. This is an odd choice of defeating enemies; it sort of promotes running away and hoping the vanish into thin air, which they do.

The graphics in this game are fairly good for the Wii. The buildings and ghosts are well animated with good lighting effects from the torch. The attention to detail is also commendable with blood splattered artefacts scattered around the venues together with well thought-out floor plans with eerie staircases and cupboards. There is not doubt that this element paired with the background music, that escalates and drops at random moments for suspense, make for a terrifying combination.

The multiplayer option also adds to the fun factor of the game. This mode allows a second player to release a scare tactic on the first at any given time, which sounds like a good laugh (well for the second player anyway!). Without this option I think the game would lack any replay value at all, given its short length and unchallenging gameplay. If you’d played it once, you would have seen the scares before, taking away from most of the point of the game.

To give credit where it’s due, this game does deliver continuous scares and builds up a great sense of anticipation. However, all this game will really do is put you off getting a dog and stop you from walking alone on a dark night. There are plenty of frights but not enough substance to keep you coming back for more. There is little variation in the entire game, which I suppose it quite obvious with only a torch for company. This is one to play once if you like to be frightened for no reason, but not one for a gamer who likes a great challenge and a worthy outcome.

+ Good scare factor with plenty of jumpy moments
+ Not many controls to remember
+ Settings make for creepy atmosphere

- Unpredictable controls
- Very little replay value with repetitive gameplay
- Episodes are short and unchallenging

Score – 6/10