October Magazine

Haunting Starring Polterguy
(Sega Genesis/Mega Drive) (1993)
Electronic Arts’ Haunting Starring
Polterguy was a radical departure
from their usual games. In it, players
assumed the role of Polterguy, a
ghost who was exacting his revenge
on the Sardini family. When he was
alive, Polterguy was a skateboarding
punk. Unfortunately, a defective
skateboard from Vito Sardini’s
company resulted in a fatal accident
for Polterguy, who now follows the
Sardini family from house to house,
scaring the pants off them as often
as he can.
Gameplay was presented from a
third-person isometric perspective,
with the player able to access a
map to help him stalk the four members
of the Sardini family. Polterguy
can’t directly interact with the Sardinis
(he’s invisible and also passes
straight through them), so he has to
use his smarts and possess various
household items in the Sardini’s
homes. He can turn a lounge into
a giant mouth, a door frame into
a menacing gargoyle, and other,
more horrific illusions.
The game had some very well executed
animations, especially from
the Sardini family when they were
getting spooked. Everything was
presented with a cheeky sense of
humour, and you’d have to be made
of stone to not chuckle at a grown
man peeing himself from a UFO
that flies out of a refrigerator!
Haunting Starring Polterguy is a
very unique game, there was nothing
quite like it at the time and there
has only been one other well-known
game like it since (which was a tribute
of sorts). It offered hauntings
and humour, gore and guts, and
spooky strategy. While the controls
and gameplay aren’t the greatest,
you’d be hard pressed to find a
game quite like Haunting Starring
Polterguy.