Monster House review

The game's controls make fine use of the DS' touch screen. You move the character with the d-pad and fire by tapping the touch screen. You can shoot in any direction, regardless of which way you're running. The touch screen is also used to pump the watergun for refills and increased range. Lefties will have a tougher time with this game than the other 73 percent of the world, since moving diagonally with the face buttons is trickier than with the d-pad. At the very least, it would have been nice if the developers allowed lefties to move the water gauge to the left-hand side so southpaws don't have to obscure their view of the screen when they pump their water gun.

Keeping with the Smash TV theme, there are lots of powerups to aid you as you inflict mindless violence on evil household items. Some items change your weapon's abilities, others give your character a boost, and others inflict damage to your enemies. The powerups combined with three well differentiated characters add to the game's surprisingly good arcade gameplay.

Although Monster House is great for some quick carnage, the gameplay gets repetitive. The level design isn't varied enough to keep things interesting for the long haul. Later levels can be annoyingly frustrating with various obstacles that lead to cheap deaths. The biggest crime is that there's no multiplayer option. Having cooperative and competitive modes would have been perfect for this game.