Nostalgia’s a cruel drug, especially with films and games where it strips out the boring bits while also blurring the pixels and flaws. That said, few genres have benefited more from nostalgia than point-and-click, and Ghost Haunting is an absolutely perfect example of exactly why, with its humour, excellent writing and memorable characters.
Ghost Haunting‘s developer, Three Headed Monkey Studios, set out with a very simple sounding goal: Pick up where the LucasArts Point-and-Click adventures peaked, rather than left off. We’re talking Day of the Tentacle and, of course (if you couldn’t tell from the studio name) Monkey Island — and from what I’ve played, it totally nails that.
Gigi, Ghost Haunting‘s main character, is an independent, curious and direct eight-year old who isn’t afraid to make a mess to entertain herself. In fact, in the demo that I played while at AdventureX she single-handedly demolishes her way through several basement rooms in order to recover a lost bouncy ball.
It’s through this explosive introduction to the character that we learn about the cornerstones of the story: Gigi’s adoring grandmother has died, however her widowed grandfather happens to be a renowned spirit hunter who travels the world capturing spirits that have escaped from the realm of the dead. Off the back of this revelation Gigi decides that if things can pass through from living to dead and dead to living then she can travel to the realm of the dead and recover her grandmother.
All of this is revealed in the classic, floating words on screen style, with an incredibly familiar inventory and interaction point system… It worked then, so why challenge things that worked?
As a fan of point-and-click games I was overjoyed to find how easily everything came together. It’s a little bit more wacky — Day of the Tentacle and Discworld-style — versus the item hording of more recent attempts (such as Crown and Pawns), but this is incredibly welcome and fits with the bright colours and spiritual-themes. I’m intrigued by the story, and will definitely be keeping my eye out the launch.
Ghost Haunting is coming to PC and Mac in the future.
