Although the top-down viewpoint might confuse some, Disney's The Haunted Mansion is essentially a rather unusual take on the shooter genre--and not a very good one, at that.
A flashlight is your sidearm in Haunted Mansion. To dispatch ghoulies, you need only point your light in the direction of the baddie. The primary challenge is enduring the game's jerky control. Occasionally, a power-up will fall from some apparition's phantasmal stash. Sometimes it's a battery to recharge your flashlight. Sometimes it's a flashlight attachment that alters the size of your light stream. Very rarely, it's a special power-up that encircles your character in light for a limited time.
The mansion is broken up into wings, each of which contains several rooms. The goal in each room is to put the fear of God into a few specters, then flip on a light switch. Once you "let there be light," you can advance to the next room. As you progress, light switches may be farther from doorways. If you take to long meandering to the egress, you'll have to regress and flip the switch again, because they only stay in the "on" position for a limited time. One going theory is that the ghosts toggle the lights back on. Another theory is that Walt Disney Interactive can't design its way out of a paper bag--or a mansion, for that matter.
All but the most naive gamers will recognize The Haunted Mansion for what it is--a cleverly repackaged shooter. Judged accordingly; Mansion's a mediocre effort at best.
