The first Monster High video game could've used a little...well, a lot more effort put into it.
User Rating: 4 | Monster High: Ghoul Spirit WII
I'm really steppingout of my comfort zone here, why, you may ask? This game is selling like hotcakes, the DS version in particular, seemingly sold better than many new high-profile releases, and that version was sold out for a period at all major internet retailers. The game is based on the doll franchise, one of the most popular right now, if not THE most popular one, one new highly anticipated doll, Toralei is selling like crazy. I wanted to check out what all the fuzz is about, I've seen the webisodes and the TV specials, and it's harmless and charming and sometimes even quite clever and funny. The game has very little of what makes the webisodes so fun and addictive. You create and customize your own monster at the beginning of the game through a limited number of options, and then you try to become friends to all of the characters on the show, how do you become their friend? Basically by being their slave and doing every single thing for them, which makes sense in Cleo's case, but the other commanding and bossing you around isn't much fun, you run around picking up stuff and delivering them to the characters, sometimes doing minigames that last a few seconds. They're all really easy, though the minigame where youhave to give Clawdeen a haircut had me losing the first section a few times until I got it right, the motion controls aren't always perfect.
The game is well under 3 hours long if you only want to get to dawn of the dance and the credits, completing it 100% will take a lot longer. I accidentally made Cleo the scream queen, which I didn't really want to, I would much rather see Lagoona...or Ghoulia...or Clawdeen...or anyone other than Cleo become the scream queen. I was disapointed that Abbey and Spectra are in the game without the pssibility to interact with them, they're conveniently standing behind stuff so you cannot get to them. Toralei is in it, however, she's super nice most of the time, with one really mean prank I think you have no choice but to partake in, eventhough you know what's going to happen, so that was weird, I know she was a villain in the series, but then why is she so nice here one minute and mean and "catty" the next? The game looks pretty bad, though the characters look fine, maybe with the exception of Frankie who looks slightly "off". But hey, I think the target audience will find some amusement here, and the ghouls all have different, cool outfits through the game. The price for the game is fair in the UK and way too high some places in the US, so if you're really into Monster High, I mean REALLY into, then get it when it drops significantly in price.
