GENRE
	Adventure
	DEVELOPER
	Feel Plus
	PUBLISHER
	Xseed Games
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-2
	WI-FI ENHANCED
	No
	DS COMPATIBLE
	No
	BUY NOW AT

In honor of the Ju-on series' tenth anniversary, Ju-on: The Grudge has been released for Wii. For those not in the know, Ju-on roughly translates to "The Curse" or "The Grudge" and was the title of two straight-to-video television movies in Japan. Later, due to the success of the original Ju-on movies, the director released theatrical versions which are also available in the U.S. named Ju-on: The Grudge 1 and 2. Finally, American versions were made in both The Grudge and The Grudge 2.

The video game released for Wii follows the same basic curse setup of all the movies. Basically, the curse starts with someone that was murdered or died with a grudge. Then, someone comes into contact with the cursed ghost and dies. This curse then spreads amongst people by coming into contact with it. This is what allows the curse to spread and usually all family members and close friends are quickly done off in a supernatural fashion.

Moving into the actual "story" (if there is any) of the game almost forces the player to have an imagination with what is going on. The only real story is given at the beginning of the game (which is actually told better in the three sentences within the manual) and only shows a dog running into an abandoned factory. Apparently, the main character's dog Ivy ran away into the factory, and now the unnamed main character must find her pet with only a flashlight in hand. This female protagonist is part of a Japanese family, and her siblings and parents are focuses of latter levels as said family members become cursed.

So, no main character name: check. The dog has a name: check. This is basically the game's story, unless you consider the few sentences that wrap up each level, written in ghostly riddles. All in all, the story is nonexistent.

Okay, so the plot is a no-show, but everyone knows that story isn't everything. Maybe the gameplay can make up for that deficiency by fulfilling the "Haunted House Simulator" tidbit touted on the game's box cover. Unfortunately, this is a hollow aspect as well. There are some amazing ideas that just don't work out the way that they were obviously meant to, and then there are some really stupid ideas that just shouldn't have been done at all. The gameplay wraps itself around the player and their flashlight. Imagine Alone in the Dark for Wii, but in a first-person view and with very little environment interaction. Basically, the game is trying to scare the player into submission. At first, it may work on some and maybe even more than the movies, but after the first or second scare, it gets old-- very old.

Speaking of the word "very", another place that word could be applied is with "slow". The main character's movement is just that: very slow. There's no running, or even acceleration to a brisk walk, which is where the game truly loses its charm and becomes annoying. Once the first scare or two has warmed up the player, the slow factor really sets in because now it's no longer time to worry about being scared, it's time to just focus on getting through the level. Then, "Let's get through this level" turns into, "Wow, is this game really worth playing anymore?"

The point of Ju-on is to scare you. That idea is known. Besides that, the player needs to get to the end of each level without being cursed and dying. There's no fighting back or life bar. Instead, batteries need to be found in order keep the character's flashlight on. Once the flashlight turns off, the curse will find and consume the character. The player will, from time to time, get attacked by the cursed ghosts (basically by jumping out and grabbing the player) and this only requires controller shaking and other silly mechanics.

In addition to gathering batteries, keys and other items must be found in order to open doors or turn on power. Sometimes, backtracking is required to open certain doors just to open other certain doors. This becomes entirely tedious and boring. Remember the slowness of character movement? Yes! This hindrance becomes even more prevalent when backtracking for doors and items.

At the end of each level, the gamer can see his Fear Level, which is one of the game's good ideas. Depending on how the player controlled the character, the game will be able to tell how scared and afraid the gamer was. If a lot of jerking was going on, or if little noises had the player jumping, the Wii Remote will pick that up and the Fear Level will display that. However, with the jerky controls and possible non-game related movements, this Fear Level isn't quite logical. Perhaps this is an example of a good use for the future Wii Vitality Sensor.

Aside from the single player storyline, Ju-on's other single player mode is the Courage Test, which isn't a separate mode, per se, but a shallow measurement of how much a player can be scared. The gamer just walks through an environment without having to worry about picking up items or saving the game-- instead, things pop up to scare the gamer as a trial run for the main storyline mode.

Ju-on's multiplayer works but is the other good idea gone wrong. A second player can join in at any time with another Wii Remote. This player's job is to try and add to the experience of scares going on in the game. Whenever the second player wants, she can press a button on their remote and a random scare will occur, either a sound or cursed ghost. This ability, however, is limited to once every fifteen seconds. Certainly spamming scare moments would ultimately be climactic, but we'd prefer the gamer be allowed to decide how spooky or annoying she'd like to be.

The game's single player controls are simple: only the Wii Remote is used. The B button walks forward (basically a crawl) and down on the control pad walks (even slower) backward. Remember, there is no running. The A button picks up batteries or other items laying around the environments and + pauses. The only other controls deal with turning and getting away from cursed ghosts. Turning relies on the player to point the Wii Remote's IR sensor in that direction. This may be even more annoying than the slow walking and is ultimately what figures into the Fear Level, but shouldn't. The game is jerky when a character turns, and if the IR sensor is pointed off screen for even a fraction of a second, be prepared to start waving the Wii Remote to jerk it back on-screen until Grudge 4 releases. At least this random flailing is good practice for dealing with cursed ghosts who grab the player, since that's all that's needed to dismiss them.

Aside from a few occasional times where the IR sensor needs to be pointed in circles while moving onscreen, players need only to shake the Wii Remote when a direction is shown onscreen. This is only hard at first when no explanation is given for what the arrows mean, but after that, there's just no challenge. There is supposedly only so much time allowed for the player to shake the direction shown, but it seems like a very big gap of time between arrows.

As for the game's presentation, it's hard not to give a little credit for the audio. The old scare tactic of sharp sounds is used, and this same tactic that doesn't really work well in movies anymore seems to work fine in video games. Maybe it's the fact that the player is a little more involved and surrounded in the game, but whatever it is, it will wear off after the first level. It gets very easy to know when and where sounds and ghosts will occur. As for the cursed ghosts and other graphics: they are just okay. The environments seem decent enough, but it's so hard to tell because of how dark the game is. This has to be the darkest game ever made. The flashlight barely works. One suggestion: turn up the brightness, either in-game or on the television set, which helps slightly. Yes, the point is to be scared, but to move this slowly, in this dark of game with a flashlight that has to be pointed at the ground to offer any help is just asking too much. Lastly, the only characters seen in the game (besides the dog) are cursed ghosts. As previously noted, they aren't anything special. They do their jobs and they definitely pay homage to the movies.

Overall, the developer should have thought of this: when at a haunted house, scared and fun go together. This game is touted as a "Haunted House Simulator". Where's the fun? The controls are easy to use, but very clunky and slow. The graphics get a passing grade except for the darkness, which is yet another aspect of haunted houses. Haunted houses allow the person attending to see things. This game relies too heavily on the old way of scaring people with sharp noises and quick bursts of imagery. That may work from time-to-time in a video game and may even seem scarier than the movies, but the effect lasts only so long and is used over and over in every level. Also, more thought needed to go into the game's two good ideas: two player mode and the Fear Level. These are definitely good ideas and the only things worth checking out; however, this isn't a recommended purchase. If you want a good scare and the experience sounds interesting, rent the game for the first level only. After that ten minutes, take it back for a refund.

3.8/10