Tables spontaneously shook, footprints appeared in the dust out of nowhere, and partially-visible specters took flight away from the heroine as I looked on, already glancing around the room myself for the nearest available exit. The heroine continued her exploration, cautiously, and encountered a demon-possessed child hiding behind a nearby door -- who then disappeared.

This game is &^%$'d up, no doubt about it. And it gets even worse, apparently, when a second player joins the fun -- JU-ON isn't cooperative, but a second human with a Wii Remote can trigger spectral events for Player 1, to try to freak them out even more. Sounds like a sick joke waiting to happen -- sneak into the room when your buddy thinks he's playing alone, slickly grab the second Wiimote, skulk away into the shadows and use it to summon all kinds of horrors to assault his poor character. That's twisted.

JU-ON's definitely a different kind of game, as it's not survival horror, and it's not action-oriented -- there's no combat, no running from hordes of zombies or anything like that. It really is, though, a haunted house simulator -- an interactive, slow-paced exploration of a psychologically straining set of environments that will, guaranteed, cause you to have nightmares for weeks. If that's your deal, keep an eye out for this one when it launches in time for Halloween, this October. But, as for me, I'll be out at Walmart buying myself a new Sesame Street nightlight.