NES RATING #17 - Fun House

....Fun House...

Developed by:  Realtime Assoc. / Ironwind Software
Distributed by: JHi Tech Expressions
Released: January 1991

Fun House is a seemingly G-rated game named for the game show of the same name which ran from 1988-91.  You play as a rollerblading child who must skate around and throws red balls at a number of targets, hitting them all before time expires.  Along the way, there will be several obstacles to slow you down.  Things get increasingly difficult as you progress throughout the game.

There are 72 total levels, with the earlier levels (Floor 1 & 2) playing extremely easy.  The biggest raise for concern is controlling the player, done by holding the B button to move (weird) and changing your direction with the D-Pad.  It takes a few levels to really get used to and making yourself go in a perfectly straight line can be a real chored.  You'll likely just bounce all over the place, shooting targets and advancing level-by-level.  It gets pretty old REALLY quickly but then around Floor 3 or so, the challenge ups itself.
 

The graphics for this game and are fairly basic, even below average.  Really, though, this is an action puzzle game, so besides your own character, you won't notice the graphics all that much.  Your character never "dies" but will lose a chance if time expires.  Collecting 25 coins can restore an extra chance.  The music is extremely weak, as wel

Again, the play control takes some getting used to, so use the ultra-easy opening levels to get accustomed to skating around.  Later on, the globs of slime and conveyor belts will make it much harder to hit every target.

In all, Fun House is a fairly average puzzle game with plenty of levels, but suffers from below-average performance in every area except the challenge and fun factor.  But that's what matters most, right?  Give it a try, but be willing to invest 20-25 minutes to get into some of the harder levels before giving up on it.

Rating:  D+
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