Goofy's Fun House may officially herald the return of Disney material to gaming's 'good' list. Not that it will be to everyone's taste, but the title -as its name might suggest- is really a lot of fun. Bright colors and big, juicy character models jump off the screen and if you find things a little too bubbly and bouncy, you're simply way too old. ;) This is a game for kids who like to watch Goofy cartoons over and over again, and either rent, tune-in to or buy every Disney cartoon available for a look at the old dog. I mean, how wild is it that Goofy (undeniably a dog-like creature) has a dog for a pet? Anyway, the only downside to Goofy's Fun House is a conspicuous lack of other Disney characters. Some strange dog that isn't Pluto makes an appearance and plays a part in the game, but I missed all the other characters. Much of the game plays like a traditional adventure title, but several bonuses are full-length Goofy cartoons that you can earn and watch and mini-games that break up the more confined visuals of Goofy's house. Fun as it may be, it's nice to step outside for a while, don't you think?

In many ways, this is similar to the point-and-click gaming style that seems to be making a comeback with games like Monkey Island, Stupid Invaders and countless PC titles. The idea of interacting with only specific objects and using them together to solve puzzles may seem very pass, but even the most modern games owe some allegiance to this style of gameplay. Rather than the snapshot effect you get from a real point-and-click game, Goofy's Fun House feels like a true 3D adventure game.

The story starts with Goofy welcoming you to his cool pad, but before you can sit down and enjoy his big new entertainment center and his private stash of select Goofy movies, he realizes that the movies are incomplete without some nostalgia stashed around the house. Yes, that's pretty strange, but who said Goofy was like a normal neighbor, anyway? So, the game amounts to leading Goofy through the house picking up items that will complete the movie. As if it were going to be easy, though... :) Each movie has a theme, so the items will follow the theme, but not every item is out in the open. Often, hints or puzzles will come up and only by solving them can you get to each and every item. Then, once the puzzle is solved (usually a mini-game comes into play) you can sit down and check out one of Goofy's movies. There are 5 standard and 1 bonus movie, which should keep the younger set (this means you!) busy for some time.

As with some of the more kid-centric games out there, Goofy's Fun House doesn't include a highly developed in-game tutorial, but really spills the beans in the manual. So, treat anything past the first 3-4 pages as a major SPOILER and don't read unless you want the puzzles busted for you. Really, there should have been a page that declared this plainly, unless the idea was that anybody should be able to earn and watch the movies. There isn't a hint section for the sixth movie, so you're on your own there. Really, everything is about exploration, and this could be considered a nice primer for games like Myst that really demand an 'out of the box' thought process to solve puzzles and progress. By choosing a harder difficulty setting, the game requires that you collect more items on the way to achieving objectives, so they just thought of everything, didn't they? Well balanced, if admittedly on the simple side.

Much of earning Goofy's movies is playing Goofy's mini-games, and like most mini-games, you can expect a slightly different button configuration each time. It bugs me that the button layout is mixed in with the solutions to each of the puzzles, since I mostly want to figure out the controls before I give up on the whole game 'cause I know the answer. Okay, I know I'm buggin' about spoilers, but don't kids like to do things on their own without a bunch of help? I know I did... ;) Anyhoo, the controls rarely come down to a few customized button controls, and Goofy moves around nicely with the analog sticks. Generally, when moving around the house, buttons on the controller make Goofy jump, run, check his inventory or use an item. Most of these actions would be used to gather the more obviously placed items, and custom controls go into effect once you start a mini-game. Controls are spongy and not geared to action, but there's very little straight action to be had anyway. Saving progress can be done anywhere but mini-games, or 'sub-games' as the manual puts it.

PS2: Disney games typically don't like smoothing or speeding, and this is no exception. Limited load times don't really create a need for speed, and the graphics aren't improved by much with smoothing.

I do smell what the Goof is cookin', and I like it! Really, although the technical aspects of Goofy's Fun House sometimes come up thin, like frame-rate or typical 3D issues, this isn't a game geared to more discerning, high-end tastes out there that are expecting Square-quality graphics or gameplay. As games for kids go, I'd rather throw this at a little guy or gal than most of the tripe that's shipped in the name of juvenile entertainment for PlayStation. It has that 'wonder' quality that made Wonderland wonderful (that was Alice, I guess, but you get the idea...) and I just hope Disney will manage to keep on the upswing for their next console effort.