[Playing…] Beetlejuice Horrific Hijinx from the Neitherworld!

Beetlejuiceis a great movie from 1988 where we were introduced to the ghost Betelgeuse (or Beetlejuice), whose profession is to be an exorcist of the living (come on, if you are a ghost and you are tormented by a human who lives in the same house as you, he will solve your problem). The success of the film led to the creation of a crazy television series starring the same character (in the company of Lydia, played by Winona Rider in the film). Beetlejuice had some video games for different platforms, the first forMS-DOS, the second for NES and the third forgame boy, which is the one I am going to comment on in this article.

The versions forNESandgame boywere carried out by Rare, the company that was already achieving success since the days of Spectrum (when they were called Ultimate Play the Game) asSaber Wulf, but who achieved stardom on Nintendo consoles with games likeBattletoads,Donkey Kong CountryeitherBanjo-Kazooie.

In this game (whose full name isBeetlejuice Horrific Hijinx from the Neitherworld!), Beetlejuice has invited a bunch of ghosts to a crazy party at Lydia's house and then forgets about them, which ends up causing chaos that we will have to solve.

Once we started playing, you can tell from the beginning that they watched the animated series, since the illustrations are almost identical to how the characters looked in it. Once inside the game, we find aBeetlejuice more stubborn, some somewhat bland environments and many simple enemies, which is somewhat disappointing.

However, as we play we realize thatthere are certain interesting additions(like the moment of creating a horrible face to scare a ghost), that the scenarios vary (we start inside the house, but then we will see caves and the cemetery) and that some enemies have very funny designs.

We will not hear the main theme of the movie and television series during the game, something unfortunately common in licensed games of that time. The melodies created for the game are not bad, but unfortunately I don't think they fit its theme or Beetlejuice's personality,They could have been used in any platform game of the time.

Beetlejuice Horrific Hijinx from the Neitherworld!It has very simple controls, since we can only jump and shoot. To enter through a door we will have to press up, as is usual in platform games.

The first levels are confrontations against ghosts that have possessed objects in the house but, as we advance in the game,We will find all kinds of mini-games and challenges, (a game of memorizing cards, one of placing pipes correctly, pushing statues to put them in place, creating a horrible face and then following the commands to scare our rival, the typical game where we have to guess where a fast-moving character has hidden...). There will also be moments in which Beetlejuice will ride on a wagon or on the giant snake that appeared in the movie.

Beetlejuice Horrific Hijinx from the Neitherworld!For Game Boy it is a pretty correct game,It is not outstanding in terms of development(many of its minigames are very simple) nor especially good at representing what was seen in the movie or the animated series, butIt is much more entertaining than it seems at first. If you like the character or games with playable variety, you should try it.