After receiving a letter with a strange request from his missing uncle, Mortimer Beckett journeys to the haunted Beckett family mansion. His uncle asks him to search for pieces of a Ghost Machine hidden in the mansion. Now Mortimer is on a spooky scavenger hunt to find this mysterious machine, rid the mansion of ghosts, and rescue his uncle.

Mortimer Beckett and the Secrets of Spooky Manor is a search and find scavenger hunt game for the Nintendo Wii. Each stage is a still picture of a scene in the spooky house, and you must use the Wii remote to point at the screen and click to find hidden objects. Many of the required objects to find are in pieces, and you must find each segment hidden in the room. After you find and assemble a complete item, you must place it back in the picture where it belongs. Some of the objects you find can help you solve puzzles to reveal more of the picture. For instance, find pieces of a key and then you can open a chest in the picture.

Don’t just click around the screen haphazardly, though. If you do, ghosts will appear and block the pictures, making it harder for you to see. Some ghosts will even attach to your Wii remote cursor, and you must wiggle the remote to shake them off.

The graphics are pretty awful. Normally, bad visuals don’t bother me in a game, but the grainy graphics make it difficult to spot some of the hidden items. And the still comic book scenes that tell the story feel uninspired. Mortimer Beckett can be played with up to four players, each one pointing a remote at the screen to find items. So if you have a group of kids who like I Spy books or the Hidden Pictures in Highlights Magazine, they may enjoy this game. But that’s about it.

Kid Factor:
Mortimer Beckett and the Secrets of Spooky Manor is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Alcohol Reference. Right in the very first level, one of the first items you must find is a wine bottle, and to get out of the room, you must give it to a picture of a ‘tipsy ghost.’ Some very young kids may be a little frightened by the spooky scenes and ghosts, but most kids who are used to Scooby Doo will be OK. Reading skill is helpful for the story sections and instructions, but since the game is all about finding hidden pictures, nearly anyone can play.

Tags: Game Reviews