Mystery Mansion

Board games sort of suffered the same fate of movies in the sense that after years of being readily available and considered classics, they underwent a "remake" that was often nowhere near as cool. In board games sense, these often meant updating them for the modern era and making them electronic. Once electronic toys hit the market, board games had to do something to compete, so why not drag out old IP - one which perhaps the kids parents remember fondly so they'll be more inclined to buy it for their children - and redo it with electronics so it appeals to the newer generation? Easy money, baby.

So, here we are, back again the seemingly unending well of "creepy building" board games. Between Ghost Castle, Haunted House and Haunted Mansion, I swear, as big a plethora of these exist as crappy B horror movies exist. It's ridiculous. In fact, I could probably just cover nothing but creepy building board games for the rest of this blogs lifespan and still never run out of content. It's just the gift that keeps on giving, man. And boy am I glad it does, because it gives me plenty of content to work with. Fodder, perhaps, but entertaining fodder nonetheless.

This time around we're focusing our sights on Mystery Mansion, originally released by the Milton Bradley Company in 1984, the exact same year that Hasbro took over the company, oddly enough.

The original is unique in the sense that it's a somewhat modular board wherein the players build the mansion by adding new rooms drawn at random. A fairly cool idea, honestly. It's almost like a Choose Your Own Adventure board game, and I can dig such a novel concept. There are waaay too many rules and details as to how it's played, and that isn't really what this blog is about, so I'll just link you directly to that section of the Wikipedia page and you can read it yourself if you're oh so curious.

The thing that I find truly fascinating about this is there isn't a board, necessarily. It's like someone made the Winchester Mystery House into a game. You have to build the apparatus on which you'll be playing on, and that's such a neat idea. That being said, it also makes it sort of hard to talk about, because there's no board to discuss the art direction of. So instead let's discuss the box art I guess. The box art is, honestly, pretty amazing. Beautifully rendered and wonderfully colored, with a fantastic font that really fits the tone, this is a box art worth being proud of. But what's strange is, for all that I said at the start about remakes being worse, about the electronic versions of board games being weaker than their predecessors, I actually think this is one example of where the new version - aside from the box art - is actually better. Sure it takes more cues from Ghost Castle in that you have an actual set now, but that just kind of makes it all the more immersive. Cool as I think the original modular version is, I have to admit it's a tad obtuse and complex. Electronic Mystery Mansion, on the other hand, makes things a lot more understandable and comprehensive.

Can't go wrong with a board game wherein you're welcomed by a man who clearly got the gig by winning a Jonathan Frakes lookalike contest. So, sure, it's dumbed down. So, sure, it's a lot more generic in a way. But honestly, that makes it much more marketable to a mass audience who don't want to take the time to learn something like the original. This really is just a board game, akin to Clue. I have to admit though - and this isn't board related this is about the electronic aspect - one of the really cool things about this version is that the electronic guide that comes with it has the ability to save an in progress game, restore an existing game or restart altogether. That's something I have never heard of being done in a board game before or since, frankly.

But, more modern and generic as it may be, this at least gives me something to talk about. There's a real set here, with real pieces of art to look at. It's cool that it goes above and beyond the usual painted board approach and actually gives you little pieces of furniture and everything. There's even a billiards table in there, and some arcade machines. They really went all out on this thing, and it shows. Also, this is a lot more well made than other games like it, in terms of board design. The outer edge that's meant to be the exterior garden area really does look differentiated from the rest of the board, and they didn't wall off the entire thing, which is nice. They only included one set of walls and windows. The floor has tiling, a carpet and even what looks like it's supposed to be linoleum. Sure the player characters are as bland as anything else, but hell, when you have a board this well produced, you can't really blame them for skimping on an aspect here or there.

Mystery Mansion is certainly a unique game in the sense that it's shifted playstyles entirely between the two releases, but also, as far as the whole "creepy building" genre of board games goes, it's easily one of if not the most well designed in its second incarnation. All the others kind of pale in comparison. Sure the others have their own great designs that work for them, and obviously The Haunted Mansion game is on a whole other level artistry wise since it hails from Disney, but as far as mass marketed mass produced board games go? This is a pretty solid looking one. I like the physical aspect of Haunted House, but there's just something inherently classy and spooky about this that makes me wanna kiss Elvira.

But let it be known, that if Jonathan Frakes ever invites me to a creepy mansion with the intent of getting me to play a game wherein I might win a million dollars like some twisted claustrophobic Rat Race, I WILL say yes.

What can I say, I'm an easy lady to please.