Haunting: Staring Polterguy is one of the unique games that Electronic Arts used to publish back in the 1990s. It was released on the Sega Genesis and isn’t like anything else you would see on the home console. It is a very fun horror game where you play as a ghost.
This is a game I discovered on the internet in the 2010s. I played it a few years ago for my YouTube channel, and I’ve included it on a few lists of Sega Genesis games. It is one of the better games on the system, which is saying a lot since there are quite a few excellent games on the Genesis.
Like many of the other retro horror games from this period, Haunting isn’t particularly scary. What it does do is have the player trying to scare enemies out of a house. It is a nice twist to this idea, because a normal game would have you running from the ghost instead of playing as it.
TLDR: A Unique and Wonderful Horror Game on the Genesis.
Narrative
This game has a fairly dark story. The character you control dies in a skateboarding accident and is getting revenge on the person who owns the company that made the skateboard. It is an easy-to-understand story, which plays like a horror comedy.
Vito Sardini and his family are trying to move into a new house after your character has died. You decide to haunt them and scare them out of the house. The family’s dog will try to stop you, and there is a good reason for this, as it plays into the ending of the game. Each character has a little backstory, which is a nice touch.
There isn’t too much to the story, but it doesn’t need to be anything elaborate. At the time this game was released, most games didn’t have a lot of story to them. This was seen as being “nice to have, but not necessary.”
Gameplay
The gameplay is very fun! It is fairly simple and easy to play. Haunting doesn’t ask you to do too much, and there is some variety to the gameplay as you get further into the game.
The first thing you need to know is that your character needs ectoplasm to do anything in this game. When it runs out, you go to an underworld stage to refill your meter. Ectoplasm is used to activate “scares” and as a life meter.
You’re goal is to scare the Sardini family out of a series of houses. To do this, you need to activate “fright’ems” that are scattered across the houses. There are three types:
- Blue – These work automatically as one of the family members gets too close to them. You’ll need to load it with ectoplasm.
- Orange – Manually triggered scares that the player needs to be inside of to scare one of the family members.
- Green – This is a very cool idea! These fright’ems are interactive and are controlled by the player. You use the D-pad to guide the fright’em around and chase the family members.
There are four houses, which act as the levels for this game. Across these four houses, there are about 400 objects for you to use to scare the family out of. You lose ectoplasm by activating fright’ems and by getting barked at by the family’s dog. In the underworld, you’ll also lose it by getting hit by the “ecto beasts.”
When you run out of ectoplasm in the houses, then you’ll go to the Underworld stages. You navigate through a path and collect ectoplasm that drops to the ground. You can also get ectoplasm from the family members when you scare them. When you run out of ectoplasm in the Underworld, then you’ll die.
Overall, the gameplay is very good! It is a simple but fun game to play through, and you’ll get rewarded with some great-looking scares. Even though you have a simple goal, it doesn’t mean that the game is easy. It is fairly challenging, but also rewarding.
Visuals
Haunting utilizes an isometric angle, featuring cartoonish graphics that are bright and colorful. This is a wonderful looking game, and I love how well-detailed it is. It isn’t all good, as I don’t really like the isometric angle.
In the houses, the isometric angle works well, but when you go to the Underground, it becomes a bit of a problem. My issue was when the game requires the player to jump, and trying to line things up was a bit challenging.
The fright’ems are the real star of the show here, and they look very good! I love how each of them looks. It added a comedic value to the game as you get to see how the furniture and other things in the house are turned into something scary. There are also a few things that are taken from other forms of horror media.
The graphics are wonderful in this game. There isn’t much else I can say about it. Haunting is one of the best looking games on the Genesis, and it is one of the better games that EA published.
Reviews at the Time
Like a lot of the Sega games I’ve looked at, there aren’t too many reviews from the 1990s that were archived online. I looked at MobyGames for this, and it was about what I expected. The reviews for this game haven’t really changed much over the years.
In the 1990s, the game received a range of scores from 6 to 8. These are good to great scores, given how the scoring system worked back then.
In the 2000s, the scores dipped into the 5s. Stuff like this happened with most retro games, as the reviewers in the 2000s really liked to rip older games apart for whatever reason. I don’t normally take these reviews seriously as they tend to lean into being done for comedic purposes.
There wasn’t much else to say about the reviews for this game. There weren’t any ludicrous scores for this game. It follows a predictable trend of people being more critical of games as they get older, and the rise of content creators on the internet.
8/10. This is a great game! I love how your goal is to scare people out of houses, and that there is another plot with the family’s dog. It looks great, the gameplay is very good, and it is a fun horror game.
Pros
- Great Gameplay
- Fun Graphics
- Good Story
Cons
- Can be a little frustrating
- A little difficult at times
Conclusion
This is one of my favorite games on the Sega Genesis. I put it on my list of favorite games for the system, as well as my list of the best horror games on the Genesis. It is one of those games that I didn’t know about in the 1990s, and when I played it in the 2010s, I fell in love with it.
I love the way this game looks, and the gameplay is very good, but it can get a little repetitive. This is one of those games that could use a modern remake to add some more variety to the gameplay. I really love this game; it is one of those games that I really enjoy.
If you liked this post, please check out my other reviews of horror games, such as Resident Evil and Blue Stinger.