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What are Retro Reviews? This site was created close to the millennium during Summer of 1999. Many games came out before then, which were the games that made this site's web- master a diehard gamer. Month after month, Techtite will review his favorite games of old. Please note that reviews posted here are not placed in a "back issues" archive like other departments, though are placed directly in the review archives. To jump directly to Techtite's Review Archive for classic video games, either click the banner at the top of the page, or just click: here.
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Escape From Monster Manor
(Electronic Arts, For the original 3DO System, 1994)Just in time for Halloween (and perhaps a few weeks later, since I'm updating this page a bit late!), let's talk about what those of us at Techtite.com feel is one of the more under-appreciated "haunted house" games in gaming lore: Escape from Monster Manor, for the 3DO.
So
along comes the holiday season. What game is everyone playing? Doom.
Yeah, Doom...on their computer. The 3DO
system had a lot of hype yet not the foresight
That's just it: this game may have been a mere Wolf-3D clone, with no staircases, no elevators, no "lifts," and most importantly, no sense of "Doom"...so to speak. Yet its audio effects were nothing short of spectacular, and in a day and age when most game systems were with limited sound thanks to game cartridges, this was a fun added perk. Some floors would have the sort of sound effects heard in a good old fashioned "haunted house" exhibit, with screams that would make you turn on the lights for the sound FX alone. Other floors had well chosen music to set the mood. Maps were also well chosen, with every third level looking completely different. For two levels you were in the cobweb-filled attic, only to move to the broken down bedroom levels, the crypt levels, and in time, the outdoors. Many of the maps were actual mazes that had to be fully explored to reach all the needed keys and of course the talisman piece, which led to the end of the level. If this game had one glaring flaw, it was the total lack of any decent two-player action, coupled with the admittedly drab ending. I see no reason not to "spoil" that ending here, since the game is not for sale anymore! So, here goes: the "ghost host" (of sorts) who'd been narrating your progress at the start of the game (and at the end of each mission), tells you: "You found the talisman...but for how long? HA-ha-ha!" The talisman is shown in full, only to fade away. The end. First of all: what a stupid ending! Secondly; no, seriously, oh fanboys of 3DO: Stupidest. 3DO. Game. Ending. Ever! That's a shame because the rest of the game was pretty cool. We'd ask what the ghost host meant by "for how long," since it makes little sense you'd suddenly lose a talisman whose pieces were all the size of a diesel truck (so you could identify them, on a low-res graphic game of this type). Let's ignore him and move on, okay? Call it the fact it was a pretty amusing game, or the fact that for the first half of 1994, it was the only game worth getting; this was the definitive game to buy for the 3DO in the beginning. It would seem to warrant a sequel, which it received...sort of. Noticing the system's need for Doom clones (albeit a little too late!); there was a really neat haunted house game called Killing Time, which was a Doom Clone of sorts, with multiple weapons, multiple enemies and this really cool video-style animation effect whenever a ghost was discovered. It wasn't "Escape from Monster Manor 2," though it's close. If Monster Manor is proof of anything, it's how important sound FX are in games. If not for the creepy sound FX, this game would be used as a coaster alongside so many other 3DO games upon system launch. Ironically; if you were to use this game as a coaster, the resulting scream from anyone who played it might rival the scream heard during level one...and you don't want to hear that...or do you?
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Burnout
Near
Miss
Small
Crater
Large
Crater
Deep
Impact
For
this retro review; we set the clock back to 1993. Lots of hype surrounded a
pricey new "standard" in gaming called the 3DO. The idea was that this
"standard" would become to gaming what VHS was to video. Unfortunately; the
only 3DO compatible system on sale at the time was Panasonic, whose 3DO
system sold for a whopping $700. Imagine a game system in 1993, selling for
more than an XBox 360 today. Fanboy hype promised many great games, leading
many people to buy a 3DO for $700. After all; with a high price comes
quality games, right? Right...?
to consider how dated their
games would look, at the dawn of a new age. The majority of the system's
first games were "mere" Wolf-3D clones, released just a short while after
Doom. Uh-oh! What's even worse: some games weren't even good
Wolf-3D clones, relying either on a popular movie logo to sell the game (Jurassic
Park Interactive), or the simple fact that few games were available for
the system at all. The only way such dated technology in games could
compete, was if the game was cute, inspired, and of course, fun.
Escape from Monster Manor was all of that...and much more.
The
idea was simple: you're in a haunted mansion searching floor by floor for
the pieces of a magic talisman. Your only weapon is this sort of
ghost-buster style gun which was actually pretty cool. Every different
creature you defeated got "zapped" a different way. Grim Reapers would glow
and fall to pieces. Floating zombie heads would wiggle for awhile then
disappear into nothingness. Yet the most enjoyable monster to "zap" would
have to be the ghosts, which disappeared with a laughing shriek and a whirl,
as shown here. It loses a bit of effect without sound, though it was cool
in-game, anyway.