Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion is a "cute horror" that released initially in 2014 as Spooky's House of Jumpscares. In the game, you explore a mansion filled with monsters, traversing through 1000 randomly generated rooms. It utilizes an art style that feels like a chord between the indie golden age of the 2010s, and retro PS1 horror. But we'll get into that in its own section.
Back before the HD Renovation, the game was split into the base game (plus endless mode) and two DLCs, Karamari Hospital and The Dollhouse. HD Renovation combined these into one game, but they are still split into three seperate saves. I will split some sections to talk about differences between these.
GameplaySJSM is a pretty simple game. You walk through randomly ordered rooms and open doors. 1000 of them! Around room 600, you get an axe that you can hit some specimen with. You can interact with some things in the mansion, namely, notes left by previous victims, and rarely, some arcade cabinets. Some specimen (monsters) will offer rooms with puzzles in, that give a break from the usual run to the door gameplay style.
Karamari Hospital and The Dollhouse both break from the traditional gameplay loop by being preset maps with puzzle solving and specimen encounters. Karamari Hospital feels closest to the base game in the sense that there's no extra mechanics to worry about, but Dollhouse varies in giving you a doll to manage. The doll has its own health, can be used for puzzle solving via placing it on specific pedestals, and adds an extra management layer ontop of keeping yourself alive.
A big issue with SJSM and what holds it back is the base game's gameplay loop facing you away from the threats chasing you. There are a couple of specimen you play Weeping Angel with, where you will be facing them during gameplay, but most you simply run away from. This means you don't get much of a look at them. You can go a whole run having only looked directly at a handful of the 13 base specimen.
Each segment of the game introduces new specimen. Five for endless mode, Six for Karamari Hospital, and Five for The Dollhouse. I feel this keeps things fresh, especially in Endless Mode, as most players will dive in expecting the same specimen they've already dealt with.
StorySJSM is pretty lacking in the story department in my opinion, but I don't view it as a downfall to the game. Not every game needs to have a gripping story. That being said, there are crumbs of a story throughout the base game if you choose to look for it. In addition, there are some side stories you can follow through the notes, which vary from sad to lighthearted and provide some nice relief from the monotony of the mansion.
There are two endings, based on how you treat the specimen in the mansion. Good ending if you don't try to murder everyone, and bad ending if you do try to. Neither ending is particularly serious (Serious is not something I would recommend you expect from this game.) but both give some insight into titular Spooky and how the mansion works.
Karamari Hospital tells mostly a standalone story, to the point I forgot about its ties to the mansion, instead invested in the story told through the notes of workers. I feel this is a strength of SJSM, first person notes detailing the horrors unfolding I found very impactful. It does tie up a story started by a secret cabinet in the base game, giving it a conclusion while explaining why Spooky is seemingly trapped in the mansion as a ghost. Like the base game, there are two endings based on how violent you were.
The Dollhouse initially felt incredibly lacking of story. Moreso than the previous two segments, but as it draws toward the end, you are given the final pieces of the story secretly established in the base game. You not only have to go through the machine that binded Spooky to the mansion, but through the nightmarish view of her killer. The game ends with the spirits released, and Spooky able to rest, giving a nice conclusion to a simple story.
Graphics & Sound
SJSM is intentionally limited with its graphics. The game mixes a cute, chibi art style with soft pastels, with PS1 reminiscent dark, grimy and pixelated horror. I feel that the art style for most of the game helps to contrast these horror segments, but it does make the specimen chase past those rooms feel a bit out of place.
Karamari Hospital and The Dollhouse both drop the cutesy art style near entirely; Karamari Hospital goes for retro horror style again while The Dollhouse has a unique Victorian-esque art style. Personally, I feel Karamari Hospital to have the strongest art style.
Something I want to mention is that the original game did not use 3d models, but instead painted sprites and 3D renders. I actually feel that some of the characters are not done justice by their 3D models and look better in the base game. On the Steam release, there was an option to re-enable the old style, but this is lacking from the Xbox release, which is a shame.
Sound-wise, it's about what you'd expect. I really enjoy the game's soundtrack but it can get incredibly repetitive. I feel it would have benefitted from a couple more idle tracks. What's there is great though, some favorites of mine are the echoing chants from Specimen 6's room, and the melancholic piano of Specimen 11's room, that feels very bizarre for a McDonalds from Hell.
Achievements & Value
SJSM is not the easiest complete. At the minimum, you will have to do three runs through the main mansion, 1001 rooms into endless mode, two runs of Karamari Hospital and one run of The Dollhouse with branching paths. This takes a while! I found my runs through the normal mansion, with guides for the puzzles up, took around an hour for 1000 rooms (ingame timer). Karamari took around half an hour each run, and Dollhouse about 3 hours for both runs. Of course, this is assuming you're playing perfectly, which is hard given the nature of some of the achievements.
There is an achievement for playing without saving, which means no dying at all. This also cannot be cheesed by using accessibility to turn the specimen off. This was really, really difficult in my opinion. While the game isn't incredibly difficult, the RNG aspect means you can have some really unfair situations with specimen spawning and room layout.
There is also a RNG aspect in achievements such as Seeing Double, that could have you going through endless mode a dozen times because you've had bad luck.
The game also requires you to die to each of the 13 original specimen, and to encounter every single specimen from each mode. While not incredibly difficult, these are also quite time consuming.
Value-wise, I feel that the game is a perfect price for the content within it. If you disregard achievements, it can be cleared in about 4-5 hours, which seems like a low amount of time for the price, but I believe there is good replay value with the Endless Mode.
Closing Notes
I adore this game, I have for 9 years now. This game feels like a love letter to so many horror icons. If you're in the know with pop culture, you'll find yourself recognizing a lot of things, from Adventure Time, to FNaF, to Silent Hill, Amnesia, Clock Tower.
Ultimately, I find Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion is a bit more than a game. The gameplay loop is simple, what draws me in to play it is the visuals, the unique chunks of the mansion, calling back to different media. I suppose it feels a bit like a museum tour, reminiscing.
If you've played the game and enjoyed it, I really recommend also trying out the original version, to experience the older graphic style. The painted sprites are really pretty.
Thanks for reading my review. If you feel I've missed anything or have any constructive feedback, please let me know. I'm always wanting to improve.
4.0