Hugo's House of Horrors is the first of three text-controlled adventure game created by Gray Design Associates. The controls are similar to the Sierra titles of the same style. You use arrow keys for character movement and you type in commands to complete tasks. The parser used for input is very limited, but this isn’t a problem since most parsers of the time suffered this same problem.

In this game you play as Hugo who must find his love, Penelope, who hasn’t turned up since she went on a babysitting job to a haunted house. Imagine that. If the haunted house wasn't a big enough clue already then you'll definitely notice something strange is going on when you get there. Mad professors, mummies, bats with a weakness for whistles, barking dogs, monsters and old men with riddles are just a few of the puzzles you'll have to solve before you can find Penelope and save her. But this is nothing a brave adventurer can’t solve with only a few items you can find littered around the very house you’re confined to. If you manage to reach the girl in time to save her from certain doom then you’ll be rewarded with her hand in marriage and ever lasting true love. At least until another mishap falls upon our hero. (WhoDunIt?)

Having played through this game again for the review, it seems a lot shorter than I remember it. Of course, I only went for the ending and not for completion which I’m sure shortened the experience a little. I’ve found it can easily be solved in ten to fifteen minutes if you know what you’re doing. Maybe thirty minutes if it’s your first time. Even for it being such a short game, I still found it very enjoyable to play through.


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