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Phantom Mansion Chapter 1, The Red Chamber Review for iPhone and iPod Touch

Posted by Marne Cales on Jan 24, 2010 at 10:28 pm | View Comments • Digg story
Filed Under: Games • Reviews • iPhone

With a hero named Hector the Specter Detector, Phantom Mansion is a puzzle game that will test your skills of logic. Adapted by Gimme Five Games from the popular web game series, chapter one, The Red Chamber, promises to be the beginning of a multitude of color-based titles we may see in the future.

Review

A logic puzzle game, along the lines of Boxed In, Phantom Mansion has a spooky back story. A mansion has been infested with the Red Death, turning its inhabitants into zombies and skeletons. It’s up to you to release as many tormented souls as possible by collecting their skulls.

The levels start out easy enough, you enter a room, find keys to unlock doors, and grab all the skulls. New objects, enemies and obstacles are introduced as you advance. The rooms also become progressively bigger, so that you don’t see everything at once. This adds to the challange, and higher levels will take a few tries to plan your moves.

Graphically, the game is pretty simple with its pixelated style. The sound is equally amateurish, with Vincent Price-style creepy laughs, mysterious footsteps and cheesy organ music. Somehow, it works any way.
My only real complaint is the controls. With a four-direction virtual joystick, you have to maneuver into just the right position to push boxes and pick up items. Movement isn’t always smooth and at times I found myself inching forward, only to overshoot the needed location.

Despite the control problem, the game is addicting. I kept finding myself doing “just one more level,” for an hour. With 22 levels in chapter one, and chapter two just released, there is plenty to keep me entertained for quite a while.

Recommendation

If you like puzzle or logic games, Phantom Mansion is a fun one, and worth getting. It’s just $1.99 and there’s a lite version available for free so you can try out a few levels before you buy it.

Gameplay Video