Great atmosphere, but a lot of lost potential in almost every other aspect.
What's good:
Atmosphere. The house gives off an Evil-Dead-for-kids kind of feeling. The textures were gritty and well done, and the sounds were very fitting.
Voice acting. Done by the same young actors that voiced the movie, and they did a good job. It felt like they put the same effort into the game as they did into the film.
Premise. This game got a lot of flack from reviewers, and it does have it's flaws. However, it does as good a job as I've seen to bring a 3rd person shooter to a younger audience (let's say 6 - 12). They use water-guns. They don't shoot people. It's a spooky atmosphere (but not crazy scary). It will also pose a fair challenge for a younger group, especially if they're not hardcore game players (which hopefully they're not at a young age).
The last level. It's not a great level per say, but it's a much needed change in pace and game-play that helps the game end on a positive note.
Bonus Arcade Game! As you play the main game you collect "Arcade Tokens" which you can then use like real arcade tokens to play the old-school arcade game that is played in the movie. It's an "okay" game that plays like a cross between a Golden Axe game and a Castlevania game. Not as fun as either, but still a nice bonus.
What Could Have been better:
Repetitive: There's very little to differentiate the first 7 levels from one another, except for the character you're playing as.
Controls & Camera. Both the controls and the camera are clumsy and hard to manage. It's not the worst I've ever played, but it does make for some frustrating moments. The characters aren't very nimble, which makes it hard to get lined up for some shots properly. The characters also have trouble going from one move to another, so you leave yourself open to injury in between actions.
Tutorials. They give you a run-through of a few basic controls, but leave out that you can do things like dodge, duck, and do quick 180s. You also don't know that there will be scenes where you have to press button combinations to avoid danger in a limited time, until the first time takes you by surprise. Of course, you could probably read the manual to figure this stuff out, so it's not a major drawback.
Length. This game is short. You could blow through the entire main story in just a few hours, I'm sure.
Cut-aways. There's lots of mini cut scenes. Showing pans of the room when you enter, showing characters walking down a hall, things like that. They only take a few seconds, but the volume of them interrupts the flow of the game.
Save points. Sometimes the save points are FAR apart. I played one level as Chowder for about 15 mins, finished the equivalent of a boss battle, kept going in the same level, miss-pressed a button in one of the surprise context-sensitive scenes, and now I have to start from the beginning. Not after the boss fight, from the beginning. I mean, come on. This could easily frustrate the younger audience it seems geared to.
As mentioned, the cut scenes in the game are short, so they don't spend a lot of time on them. This is good, as in my experience kids typically want to just get into the game. At the same time, you have to have seen the movie to know what's going on. I don't think anyone would pick the game up if they hadn't seen the movie, but still a point worth mentioning.
The last level in the house will prove quite challenging and potentially frustrating for younger players, which does not seem in sync with the rest of the game.
Final Word:
There are better games out there for a young audience, however I don't know of one that has this style of game-play, and atmosphere. It's kind of a "It's what we got" situation.
If you know a young-fan of the movie, they don't mind a challenge, and can control their temper, you can pick this one up; I'd suggest looking for it used, or in a bargain bin. They also won't spend all their free time on the game, as it will be over relatively fast.