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Children’s games abound on the Nintendo GameCube. It seems as if the system was designed specifically for children’s games and a few very successful adult franchises. The problem Nintendo has been having is finding a game fit for children that would challenge adults. Spirits and Spells does solve this problem, but creates others in its place.

Released in late September of last year, Spirits & Spells appealed to the Halloween frenzy going on with children during October. In Spirits & Spells, a group of children hear about a mysterious house which is reported to give huge bags full of candy to any child who knocks this Halloween. Alicia and Greg fall behind the group a bit and arrive just in time to witness the Boogeyman who lives in the house turn their friends into stone and steals their souls. This part isn’t exactly fit for all ages and sensitivities, but I overlooked that since it was all inferred by picture. Alicia and Greg run away from the Boogeyman and his horde of monsters and attempt to enter the “World of the Dead” in order to rescue their friends. There, a guardian agrees to assist them in finding a way to save their friends. He says he will lead them to Jack O’Lantern. Unfortunately only one may enter the World of the Dead at a time so with the help of a few magic crystals, Alicia can call Greg to pop into the world in her stead and vice versa.

Spirits & Spells does appear at first glance to be a 3D game, but once the player is able to move around a little, it is noticed that continuance along the path set before you is paramount. Very little movement side to side is allowed and only where it is needed to continue along the path are the characters able to jump to other height platforms. Side scrolling without immediately looking like side-scrolling seems like a horrible trick to play on both children and adults who purchase this game. With no control over the camera angle, there are many instances where objects will block the player’s view of the character on the screen. Liberally dispersed mindless enemies and instant death traps make the loss of character viewing the cause of many frustrating deaths. Many harmless looking objects including some branches in the first level turn out to be “Harmless Looking Objects ‘O Death”. I played for about two hours the first time I put the game in the system during which I attained over a dozen instant deaths. I know from experience that children don’t like that sort of thing unless they could have seen it coming. I think it’s something about the “it’s not fair” complex that children have and some adults still have during their last moments.

As stated before, the player may control either Alicia or Greg during the trek through the World of the Dead. Alicia since she is wearing an ice witch costume is immune to ice and can perform various feats of ice magic by touching pumpkins with blue markings on them. Greg on the other hand came out trick-or-treating in a red devil costume which has magically granted him immunity from fire and the ability to perform fire magic with red marked pumpkins. During the game there will be instances where it’ll be necessary to switch to one of the characters or the other to accomplish some task. This does take crystals so there may be times when you are so low on crystals that you cannot pass an area without actually killing yourself to go back to the beginning of the level and collect the crystals all over again. This isn’t exactly a great thing for children to be learning. “Sometimes there’s just no way to get further in life without dying.”

The graphics involved in Spirits & Spells were wonderfully thought out even if the gameplay was not. The cartoonish feel blunts out the spooky and creepy aspects without making them just funny or stupid. Environmental and character details were cute and appropriate including Alicia holding her hat on her head to keep it from falling off when she’s running and Greg’s tail lashing about. The skeletons seem grumpy and slow and were given the cartoonish delayed falling apart that’s so common on TV. Unfortunately despite all the cute and appropriate touches added to the game, it doesn’t quite made adequate use of the capabilities of the GameCube yet still suffers from framerate loss.

The musical score blends well with the theme and even lends a slight sense of urgency to the situations. The sound effects are good with many sounds mimicking those you‘d hear in a Halloween themed cartoon. Dialogue falls short of being impressive, but I would give a decent score for the effort obviously put in.

Overall Spirits & Spells could have been a contender in the appropriate and fun for all ages category, but innate gameplay issues force me to add a “Too difficult and frustrating for children” tag to Spirits and Spells. Appropriate graphics and decent sound unfortunately do not make up for the horrible camera angles, seemingly random deaths, and all-too-linear gameplay found in Spirits and Spells. Therefore I cannot with a clear conscience recommend this game to anyone besides extreme fans of arcade style linear games like Super Mario Brothers who would like to play the game while children watch.