It really shouldn't be that hard to scare up a few new video games for Halloween. Most titles on store shelves already seem to involve some level of gory first-person bloodletting anyway.

But violence and gore alone do not always haunt the senses. Here are some new titles out and how well they approach the fright game:

"Monster House," rated E; $19.99-$29.99, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance

"Monster House," a game from THQ, Inc. and a movie from Sony Pictures, is loads of fun, with three children looking to solve the mystery of the Nebbercracker house, an old man's creaky digs where things go in but don't come back.

Armed with oversized squirt guns, pals DJ, Chowder and Jenny take turns beating back a number of household items mysteriously brought to life, such as flying books, walking clocks and chairs that put all four legs to use in chasing them down. Solve the mystery and save the neighborhood — it's that simple.

The game is rated "E" for everyone, and while it is fairly low on the fright-o-meter, the music is spooky, and the way the furniture tries to track you down is plenty suspenseful.

"Nancy Drew: The Creature of Kapu Cave," rated E; $19.99, PC, from Her Interactive Inc.

I know what you're thinking. Unless some level 9 beastie with eight eyes and huge talons from "Doom 3" creeps up behind Nancy, how scary is this going to get?

Scary enough for the young female crime-solver set, no doubt, and that's the target audience.

Nancy is in Hawai'i, where something is wreaking havoc on some local crops and foliage. It's probably a creature, and Nancy intends to get to the bottom of it.

Unfortunately, unlike more technically advanced games where you guide the character's every step and crouch, this game merely gives you a lot of arrows and still screens that take you from place to place without much animation. Anyone older than 9 may find it slow.

"Scooby Doo! Who's Watching Who?," rated E; $19.99, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS

There are also a few Halloween-timed duds out there.

"Scooby Doo! Who's Watching Who?" from THQ puts Scooby, Velma and the rest of the Mystery Inc. crew in a reality TV show about ghost hunting. With a decade of 1970s crime-solving reruns on their resume, you'd think the gang would have this down pat, but there's a rival group of ghost hunters out to best them.

The corny plot would work if the movements of Shaggy and Scooby in some of the early levels weren't so haphazard and jerky.

The goals of the levels were unclear during play, and everything seemed rather endless and pointless.

"Dead Rising," rated M; $59.99, Xbox 360

Capcom's "Dead Rising" was also disappointing. This is the perfect plot for a video game — staying alive at a mall full of zombies — and they botched it.

There are too many cut-scenes that last way, way too long. And there are too many of them.

Also, the little informative bars that tell you to grab, read or release items are too small, especially when zombies were heading for my neck.

"Mystery At Mansfield Manor," about $7 for four days of play; rating under review, PC

This game was really different, and quite compelling.

"Mystery At Mansfield Manor" from SR Entertainment, Inc. is an online interactive movie/game where you pay a modest fee to create an account and solve a murder mystery.

Once you pony up the cash, you have 96 hours to play the entire game.

There are real video scenes with real actors, and they're quite good.

The main character, Detective Frank Mitchell, grills lithesome Rachel Mansfield about the events that led up to the murder.

You take notes on the on-screen note pad as the game unfolds, and your actions dictate what scene you'll see next.

I was fearing some online lag since there was going to be detailed movie footage mixed with interactive on-screen components, but the clarity of the scenes was impeccable and the game play never stuttered once on my broadband connection.