What do you think the most popular Disney IP based on a theme park ride is? Okay, it’s Pirates Of the Caribbean. But what about after that? With three films to its name (not to mention seasonal reskins and two international spin-off rides), it has to be the Haunted Mansion. In the mid two thousand-teens the stories of the Mansion Ghosts appeared in multiple comics and books, and in 2020 Funko Games released The Haunted Mansion: Call off the Spirits game.
Haunted Mansion is a set collection game that can be played by younger players and adults alike. Players move between seven outer rooms, through the Endless Hallway, and Madame Leota’s inner Séance Room. As they go they collect ghosts, each with its own icon and scoring requirements. Dancing Ghosts have a chandelier icon. Groom Ghosts have a top hat icon. Some ghost, like The Bride, don’t have an icon and score according to a unique condition. For example, the Groom Ghosts are simply worth 1 point each, however The Bride scores 2 points plus another 2 points for every Groom. Four unique Stretching Portraits score 18 points per set. You get the idea.
There are three more famous ghosts in Haunted Mansion lore, the Hitchhiking Ghosts. These three spooks collectively move around the board causing difficulties for players who end up encountering them by forcing them to draw Haunt Cards. At the end of the game, the player with the highest Haunt value has to discard the largest set of Ghost cards they collected during the game. So, sufficed to say, players should probably avoid them when they can. Or perhaps not, since new ghost cards are added starting with two cards in the Hitchhiker’s room, so maybe it’s worth the cost. Haunt cards are almost as inevitable, after all.
Besides collecting Ghost Cards from the rooms, player can Duel with each other in order to steal a card. To do so, both players bid the amount of Haunt cards they are willing to draw for the chosen card. The highest bidder gets the card, then both players draw the number of haunt cards they each bid. Win or lose. But fear not my intrepid reader, if a player is in the Séance room they can use one of their actions to discard a Haunt card. Madame Leota doesn’t like haunt cards, in fact her Ghost card scores 13 points if that player has the lowest Haunt value.
Be it the movies, the ride (which I honestly barely remember it’s been so long), or this game, The Haunted Mansion is exactly the sort of spoopy Halloween shenanigans I enjoy. It has all the scary tropes that you might find in movies like 13 Ghosts. Yet it remains light hearted and family friendly. The game, specifically, rides that fine line that so many games miss. It really is a family game that is playable and enjoyable for young and old. Just based on the theme, I was surprised to see the game rated for ages 8 and up. Then I was worried about the gameplay, given that age bracket. But I was pleasantly surprised at how well it played, no matter the age.
