10 Movie Video Games That Were EPIC Fails
4. Ju-On: The Grudge (2009)
Ju-On: The Grudge was released on the Wii, of all systems. Subtitled 'Haunted House Simulator' it had the kind of scares featured in a British fairground Haunted House from three decades ago.
In other words, sh*t ones.
With no combat system, Ju-On was reliant on slower movement and jump scares. The cursed beings were to be faced close-up then avoided - slowly. It also used the episodic format seen in the 2002 film (seen also in 2008's Siren: Blood Curse). The environments and sound design were effective though the controls were basic at best. Players had to point to a direction and hold the B trigger to step forwards. It was painfully slow, though, and the 'game' was more about exploring rather than playing or surviving.
Most critics slated this because they were expecting more of a survival horror and not just an interactive movie: it had very little pace and didn't do justice to the fear factor of the original movies.
To be fair to developer feelplus, it was always marketed as an experience rather than a survival horror video game. But this was such a wasted opportunity from such a well-known Japanese horror franchise that made it big in the west.