Sunshine Manor Review

Sunshine Manor is the prequel to the game Camp Sunshine that was released in 2016. The story begins by showing us the story of Mr Aitken, who is a performer on a local kids television show. Ratings are poor, so with the threat of his show being cancelled, Mr Aitken does what anyone in that situation would do, and goes to see the town's fortune-teller Madame Chu’mana. He is shocked that she knows his name (even though he’s on TV); she is clearly psychic! So when she tells him that she sees lights, fame, and fortune in his future he knows that she is right. Letting the good news go straight to his head, he agrees to her dire warning: “You must give all and take all too!”

We see Mr Aitken performing in front of a huge crowd of cheering children. The studio bosses are elated that he managed to make the show a big success. With no chance of cancellation, Mr Aitken is happier than ever - though this happiness doesn’t last forever. Three years later, he realises that he can’t keep doing this. A creepy ghost appears behind him informing him that he has received everything so now payment is due. 

Sunshine Manor skips forward again to 1980. Here we see our main character, Ada, dressed up in costumes with her two friends. They haven’t had any luck trick-or-treating so they decide to go to the creepy Aitken house where multiple homicides have occurred. The kids dare Ada to knock on the door. So she reluctantly does and is shocked when the door opens. The three of them go inside to see what it looks like. As soon as they walk in, a mysterious figure, which looks like Dracula, grabs Ada’s friends. When he tries to take Ada away she seems to be protected by a mysterious symbol that hurts the figure, making him disappear. 

Sunshine Manor is an 8-bit adventure horror game. I personally didn’t feel scared at all, but I definitely felt my anxiety rising at certain points in the game. Nothing like getting chased by a demon to get the heart pumping! Ada meets a poor ghost who was one of the victims of Mr Aitken’s murderous rampage. He teaches Ada how to use her power and how to jump between the human and demon worlds. To help the ghosts in the mansion, Ada has to solve puzzles in the demon world to release them from their traps. Some of the ghosts are in chains, another in a cage, and the poor chef is dangling upside down over a vat of hot liquid. There are six trapped ghosts for you to save. The puzzle elements aren’t incredibly hard to solve, but usually involve exploration to find all the required items you need to set the ghosts free. At times Sunshine Manor switches it up to include platforming elements. The scenario where you have to jump between platforms for the third story was incredibly frustrating. Especially since I seem to have found a weird bug that freezes up the game when I would fall off the platform and be out of health. Every time I had to restart the game and go through the full cutscene before I could get to where I had left off.

Sunshine Manor does allow you to save your progress when you come across a mirror in the mansion. So make sure you use these often so you don’t lose any items if you happen to die. If you are playing in the human world you will be hunted by the demon who is trying to abduct you. If your character says they feel a rush of cold air, you know that the monster is going to be in the room, so make sure you have your protective spell ready to go.

The visuals in Sunshine Manor feel like you mixed Earthbound with Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti on the Famicom. It all feels very innocent until you see tons of 8-bit blood and skulls scattered around all the rooms. It must have been quite the murderous rampage Mr Aitken went on, looking at all the skulls around the house! No creepy horror game is complete without a soundtrack that highlights the tense and suspenseful moments, and the music creates a creepy atmosphere for you to explore. The chiptune music feels like it belongs on a classic NES game, so it compliments the visuals quite well.

Sunshine Manor is a lot of fun, and the perfect game to play if you want something kind of creepy but not terrifying to play. This won’t give you nightmares, but being chased by a monster is definitely creepy. Completing the game won’t take a very long time, but if you like this title you can check out the next title in the series called Camp Sunshine.