Monster House for Nintendo DS is a twin-stick-like shooter for Nintendo DS, where instead of sticks you have D-pad for movement and a touch screen for shooting. I have already played through a game with similar gameplay on the same console, Iron Man, and I said that I would've perferred actual sticks. My issue is that sometimes my shots don't align where I want them to, and I can't stare at the touch screen for too long. Yes, this game does actually show enemies on the touch screen, but it doesn't show stage hazards and objects that can block you, so you still want to focus on the top screen. Honestly, if this game wasn't on DS, it probably would've been a solid 4 star game.

With that said however, I still think it's a decent game in its own right. The game is still decently enjoyable, and the game keeps introducing new enemies, hazards and bonuses up until the very end, keeping the adventure fresh, which I appreciate. The level design is generally solid, and unlike Iron Man's big and boring landscapes, the levels take place in individual rooms. There isn't really enemy spam, yes, there are swarms of enemies, but it's more manageable especially with plentiful power-ups and it doesn't feel like you can't avoid taking damage, well most times, there are a few instances of tight spaces where you fight enemies, but for the most part the arenas are spacious. The game isn't very difficult on normal difficulty because when you take damage, your invulnerability period kills most enemies on contact, which can be used as a legit strategy. Take damage, run into enemies and take a healing item. It's the same on Hard, but I haven't really played on hard difficulty so I don't know what about the game gets harder. Even when you die, you can just reload your save file and try again, you lose in-level progress regardless and the game auto-saves after each level. You can play between three kids, where only Chowder stands out to me becaues his attack is a spray, like charged shot in GBA game but actually more useful, DJ and Jenny felt the same to me. They all have their individual health bars, and they regenerate after you choose other kid and beat a level as them, so you should switch between as you play. There are a few levels where you have to play as specific kid, and dying as them results in game over, can't replace them with another kid.

I have to compliment the game's dialogue, as some of the lines can be pretty funny. Chowder doesn't come as a huge coward like in GBA game and the team is more cooperative between one another. There are some other differences in story between DS and GBA games, such as Nebbercracker being completely absent, and you get to fight the entire house at the end... literally, it just gets up to get you and you just spray that sucker with your water gun to defeat it. Dynamite plan from GBA game makes much more sense.

The graphics are kinda decent, though while the main character models look fine, other characters are a bit more mixed. Like this guy, Lister, with his paper-thin neck and long brown sticks for arms, his model just looks bad, as if the devs didn't finish his model. There are also a few ceiling obstructions, and since the game is a top-down perspective, they can sometimes obscure view. The music is pretty decent, a few of the tracks are from GBA game (enhanced of course), but most of the tracks are original, so I don't mind occasional reuse as much. The only one technical issue I noticed is that one time the sound effects stopped playing in one level, but aside from that the game is bug-free.

If the game wasn't on DS and I was able to play it as a normal twin-stck shooter, I imagine I would've enjoyed it much more. For what it is however, it's not a bad game. There's decent variety, and the mechanics are still solid. I think I do prefer GBA game for being a cool Zelda-like with secrets and more overall content, even if that game isn't as polished, but ultimately I give DS version the same rating as GBA game: 3.5 stars. A licensed game that's decent and doesn't suck. Not bad, Monster House.

Monster House for the Game Boy Advance is a surprisingly good licensed game. It's a Zelda-like, with top-down view where you fire a water gun at enemies to defeat them. The progression is fairly linear, but it does offer some secrets that you can discover when you get certain items later in the game.

You control 3 kids, Jenny, DJ and Chowder, that you can switch between at any moment unless separated during certain sections. Each has a unique ability, their water gun and their own health bar. Jenny has less health but moves faster and her burst attack is a spurt of water, and she can crawl in ssome spaces which separates the team, DJ is has average health and speed, his burst attack is a constant water stream, the attack is similar to Jenny's, and Chowder has the most health, but he's also slow, his specialty is strength, as he can push some heavy objects and just push things faster. His burst attack is a little spray of angled water drops, and to be honest I found this hardly useful in combat, unless the enemy is big. You'd guess his normal attack where you shoot a single drop of water would be stronger but I didn't find any difference, not to mention that he's slow at normal shots as well. If you don't want to use too much health or water for DJ and Jenny, you can use Chowder. Water is limited for burst attacks and if any of the kids' health reaches 0, you'll be back to the previous save so you'll also need to manage your resources carefully by utilizing all three kids at appropriate times. For the controls, you can lock your direction allowing for strafing, shoot a water gun or use an item, switch between kids and dash by double-tapping the direction. From my experience, the dashing just doesn't feel that great, I would sometimes dash when I didn't mean to, usually into a damage source, it's simply not as good as using a dedicated button for that, but it wouldn't be possible with the control scheme that the game presents.

Throughout the game you'll find various items that help with progression and with combat, such as Chowder's water baloons that act as a ranged area of effect attack that can also put out fireplaces, which is required for progression, but the game also has optional stuff off the beaten path like water gun upgrades or health upgrades, so seeking these out can be beneficial. There are also toys that are simply for 100% completion, and maybe better ending, I'm not really sure.

The monsters you fight are appropriately monster furniture, like chairs or bookshelves that come alive and have cool designs, though there's not much variety, which can be said for the bosses as well. You have a mannequin, monster carpet, then you fight mannequin two more times, then the final boss, the furnace. The game really could've used better boss variety, as the mannequin is basically the same, except with more candles you have to put out before you can damage the boss, not to mention that the fight itself isn't very fun, though maybe I just didn't find a good strategy for it.

The presentation is pretty good. The soundtrack is overall good, with appropriately creepy themes, and the envoirements are as good as ever, and the characters look and animate decently well. I don't really have any complaints for the music and graphics.

Of course, Monster House isn't perfect, being constrained by the license, budget and team size. The fact that the game lists just one tester from the developer's team and just a handful from the publisher should raise some alarms. At times the game can be unpolished. There are some bugs, though thankfully most of them are visual, like occasionally the game didn't render some tiles correctly, creating a void, confusing me once. Once I got cornered by the monsters with the pit behind me, which quickly drained HP, resulting in game over. There are a few instances where the enemies are placed close to the entrance, resulting in unavoidable damage. Sections where you have floating platforms over pits (or floating in water) mostly suck because sometimes you have to wait a bit before platforms sync and you can move from one to another, and if you fall into a pit, you'll be back on solid ground. Don't accidently dash on these ones. The game can be occasionally stingy on save locations, most notable example is the sewers (Basement 3), where the save point is quite a ways into it, and the game can be pretty punishing when you game over, having you re-do big portions, and sometimes lengthy backtracking. I admit I used save states because I didn't want to subject myself to repeating certain sections. Lastly, I wish the blueprints (in-game maps for each floor) were a little more detailed, they show where save points are, but it would've been nice to also know where the elevator or ladders are located.

With that said however I still think the game is above average. While Monster House wouldn't be as highly regarded as something like Sponge Bob Squarepants Battle For Bikini Bottom, I still think it's a solid licensed game. It's faithful, offers good, though flawed challenging gameplay, with nice presentation and even extras, like hard mode and "Thou Art Dead" bonus game after you beat it once. I'd recommend you check out this game, you may get pleasantly surprised with this little hidden gem.