The Haunted Mansion That Never Reached GBA Shelves
When Disney's ride-inspired The Haunted Mansion hit PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube in the autumn of 2003, a Game Boy Advance version was planned too. It never made it. The handheld game was being made by Pocket Studios for publisher TDK Mediactive, and it was dropped after TDK was acquired by Take-Two Interactive. The unfinished game later leaked online.
At a glance
- Based on: the Disney attraction (not the 2003 film), the same licence as the console game by High Voltage Software
- Developer: Pocket Studios; planned publisher TDK Mediactive
- Status: cancelled in 2003; the game has since leaked
- Genre: Adventure
- What sets it apart: it is a different game from the console versions, with a new heroine
What was planned
- Early previews promised 3D movement, which was unusual on the Game Boy Advance, in a simplified take on the console game.
- Instead of the console hero Zeke, you play Yazz, a young woman searching the mansion for her missing friends Cyrus and Rikki.
- Reports describe a Resident Evil-style camera, keys to collect, enemies to dodge, and mine-cart sequences on rails.
- The console game was released on 16 October 2003 in North America, where it scored in the high 60s and low 70s on Metacritic.
Why it is interesting
A licensed game that was cancelled mid-development and survived only as a prototype is a small piece of GBA history. It shows how far some teams tried to push 3D on hardware built for sprites. One account on Unseen64 quotes a former developer who was critical of the gameplay, so it is best treated as a curiosity rather than a lost classic.