To me, the mechanics are what really make this game. The game plays much like an overhead adventure game. You spend a good amount of time locating items and solving riddles, simple things like placing a plank over a hole that will eventually break so you try to limit the number of people walking across, or simple deduction of clues found on paintings. Included with this is a battle system which is very similar in play style to the other console RPGs popular at the time. You walked around on an overhead map, randomly encountering fights where you had to select actions from a list of options and take turns trading punches. Simple. Now the game throws you a curve ball.

Sweet Home has a certain masochistic element to it. Each character can only hold 4 items. Of those items one is reserved for weapons and another is the character's unmovable special item. Thats right, you only get to hold two support items. The special items consist of a vacuum, key, camera, medical kit and a lighter. Each item has its own distinct function and is required to get past a good number of obstacles. Pile of glass? Use your vacuum. Pesky flammable rope in the way? Torch it. So, why even bother assigning a special item if you have them from the start? Well...

Only to make matters even more challenging is that you must split your party up into two groups. Each group is only allowed to contain a maximum of 3 characters leaving you with the only option of going your separate ways. Players are not completely lost however, as they are allowed to call the other group into battle. Granted a limited amount of time, you must scramble to rush your friends into battle, represented as an ominous shadow on the map. This dynamic makes it slightly challenging to maintain consistent experience between the parties, as well as making it harder to solve puzzles.

Once a player dies, they are gone for good. There are no phoenix downs or clerics to bring them back from the dead. That means not only do you lose valuable manpower for fights, you're also required to find a replacement item for their special skill. Ultimately each lost player reduces your total inventory slots by three, and possibly by a much-prized weapon. Once you've managed to fight your way to the end, you're confronted with a multi-part boss battle that can easily stump players who blindly ignored the written riddles buried deep within the mansion. Once you're finally through the mansion you are given one of five endings, based on how many of your characters survived the trip.

Sweet Home has an interesting origin. No one is entirely sure which came first; the movie or the game. The advertisements were interleaved, featuring clips from both the film as well as the Famicom title. To further the confusion both were released simultaneously. The unanimous opinion is that since the game contains scenes strongly modeled after several of the shots from the film, as well as the character portraits having strong resemblance to the actors that the movie is the source material.

I personally have not seen the film. It is difficult to find, and high quality copies are even more of a rarity. The film was produced and stars Juzo Itami and his wife Nobuko Miyamoto. Juzo Itami is best known for Tampopo, a comical film that can only be described as a ramen western.

So, where is this strong influence I spoke of earlier? When initially asked to make Resident Evil, Shinji Mikami was asked to make a haunted mansion game similar to Sweet Home. The game barrows several elements. The setting is much the same: the characters are trapped in a large mansion filled with horrible creatures. The door opening animations carried over which is usually the first thing anyone who has played the series will notice. Several of the puzzles even bear striking resemblance to the survival horror title.

Through it all the game did more than most will ever know. This often-overlooked title manages to weave a tale of suspense shrouded in mystery with a healthy dose of fear. To this day the game gives me a twinge of stress when I put it in my system. It just goes to show that good games don't die, they just mature.