1. Into the Jaws of Doom
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Craig White (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: February, 1998
ISBN: 0-590-39777-X
Length: 238 sections (plus 10 pages of introductory material and rules)
Number of Endings: 39
Plot Summary: You lag behind the rest of your class during a field
trip to the museum and end up getting trapped by an insane Super Computer
that wants you dead!
My Thoughts: When I first opened this book, I nearly let out an
audible gasp. It has several sections per page, it requires the reader to
keep track of inventory, and it even uses dice! The only thing that keeps it
from being a "real" gamebook is its lack of character statistics
like strength or hit points. This is remarkable, especially for a
mass-market book published in 1998! Alas, the book isn't all it could be --
the design is rather spoiled by the die rolling. All of the die rolls in the
text are pure tests of luck, and since many of them are completely
unavoidable, it becomes increasingly likely that you'll lose due to bad luck
the farther into the story you get. For what it's worth, things seem to get
easier as you go, but the die-rolling still makes replaying without cheating
very tedious and is simply a bad design practice. It's unfortunate that a
point-based character creation system wasn't added to the rules -- this could
have offered a way for players to strategically avoid death by poor die rolls,
assuming that different rolls were adjusted by different abilities. Oh well;
I guess you can't have everything. Despite its flaws, it's a nice change of
pace from the more traditional Give Yourself
Goosebumps series, and its style of gameplay certainly suggests that R.
L. Stine hasn't forgotten about his classic Hark
series.
2. Return to Terror Tower
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrators: Craig White (cover), internal illustrator uncredited
First Published: May, 1998
ISBN: 0-590-39999-3
Length: 136 pages
Number of Endings: 26
Plot Summary: Eddie and Sue, the main characters of the 27th
non-interactive Goosebumps book, escort you back 800 years in time to
save England from a tyrannical threat.
My Thoughts: This is considerably more simplistic than the previous
book. We're back to the usual numbered pages rather than numbered sections,
and there's no use of dice; the only game mechanic retained is the inventory
management, and it isn't exactly ground-breaking. The game design doesn't
seem bad at first, allowing you to explore a number of medieval locations in
a non-linear fashion, but its flaws show through rather quickly. The worst
is a nasty continuity problem -- if you go to the forest, you have an
important encounter. If you then go to the village, it's entirely possible
that you'll end up having that very same encounter again due to the way the
paths converge. Very sloppy! Other problems include the fact that there's
little strategy involved in play (death often comes seemingly at random) and
the incredible stupidity of the player character -- when you come across a
bunch of signs which match the illustrations on your map, you're still
supposedly puzzled about what they could mean... And when you follow the
path leading to one tower, you believe for some reason that it leads to the
other one! Perhaps the author intended for the book's drawings to be less
obvious than what the illustrator ultimately created, but as it stands, it's
kind of annoying. This book should have been much better, and it's a shame
that the series lost its complexity after only one relatively interesting
book was published.
3. Trapped in the Circus of Fear
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Cover artist uncredited, no internal illustrations
First Published: August, 1998
ISBN: 0-590-41920-X
Length: 131 pages
Number of Endings: 26
Plot Summary: You and your friend Richie have won the opportunity to
participate in a real circus as a result of your excellent performance at
circus camp. Of course, this being a horror story, it's not a very pleasant
place to be....
My Thoughts: The series keeps getting more simplistic -- the last
volume featured inventory management, but this one just asks you to pick
three items from a list of options before starting play, much like the
gimmick in some of the Time Machine books. Once
your initial items are chosen, they never change, and you can't pick up any
others. There are also enough hints in the text about item selection which
make the whole book remarkably easy to complete successfully (though lots of
deaths are nonetheless inevitable). There are only two other things that are
special about this Special Edition other than the item selection. First of
all, there's an interesting word search where you have to count the number of
times you find a word, multiply this by another number and then turn to that
page; this is slightly reminiscent of (admittedly more complicated) math
puzzles found in some of the better British gamebooks. The other unusual
thing is the fact that the entire book is devoted to one storyline rather
than being broken up into two or more unrelated adventures like most of the
regular Give Yourself Goosebumps books are.
Despite this, though, the adventure seems kind of short. Regardless of its
disappointing elements, though, the book isn't awful. Somehow, it wasn't as
cringe-inducing as I've come to expect from this series, and I actually
almost (though not quite) chuckled at its humor here and there. This isn't
as good as the first Special Edition, but it definitely beats the second one.
4. One Night in Payne House
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrators: Craig White (cover), internal illustrator uncredited
First Published: October, 1998
ISBN: 0-590-43378-4
Length: 135 pages
Number of Endings: 23
Plot Summary: You and your friend Trevor have dared each other to
spend a night in Payne House, the setting of a horror movie you've seen many
times. Predictably enough, the movie is all too real....
My Thoughts: This book uses the same item-picking game system as the
last book, though it adds the ability to pick up additional items; there are
a couple things in the house that you can grab for later use. The adventure
is also considerably more challenging than the last -- there are quite a few
red herrings, and only after you've died many times, receiving hints and
knowledge of the house in the process, do you have much hope of winning.
There challenge is further enhanced by a "figure out a number and then
turn to that page" puzzle along with a clever method of ensuring that
the reader has visited a particular location and grabbed a necessary
inventory item. All in all, the book has a fairly decent design, since it
allows the reader to experience most of the story before winning, though it
ultimately feels kind of hollow -- there's really no skill involved in
winning; it's just process of elimination combined with luck. It also seems
unfair that a reader who weighs under sixty pounds is completely doomed and
can't win without cheating. Of course, what more should I expect from a
Goosebumps book? Taken in the context of the series, this is pretty good.
Taken out of that context, it's mediocre, though not entirely without
redeeming features.
Errata: The second choice on page 71 should probably read "If
you didn't bring the bat, or if you don't wish to use it, turn to PAGE
113." Otherwise, it would be impossible for the reader to ever make use
of the bat later on in the story, since as things stand, the story only
advances if you don't have the bat.
5. The Curse of the Cave Creatures
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrators: Craig White (cover), internal illustrator uncredited
First Published: January, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-18734-1
Length: 136 pages
Number of Endings: 28
Plot Summary: While hiking through the desert, you find a cave. All
too quickly, you manage to break an ancient skull and release a dangerous
spirit, and it's now your job to undo the damage you have done!
My Thoughts: It seems that R. L. Stine (or whatever author was
borrowing his name for the purposes of writing this book) was feeling a bit
nostalgic for Wizards, Warriors & You when the concept for this
adventure was devised. The first choice you are faced with is whether to be
a hunter or a spellcaster, and depending on your decision, you must then
pick out a selection of weapons or spells to bring along on your mission.
This, combined with the fairly promising-sounding plot, raised my hopes that
this would be an entertaining adventure. Unfortunately, it fell far short of
its potential. The weapon and spell choosing is rather pointless since in
each case you get to pick three items from a list of only four, and there's
not much strategy to actually using the things you choose, especially if you
become a hunter. Similarly pointless are the pair of puzzles found in the
book -- although the word transformation puzzle is used in what could almost
(but not quite) be called a clever manner, I really can't comprehend the
point of the color-in-the-squares thingie on page 120. Things are made much
worse by the fact that the writing is well below par (and par is pretty low
when you consider that we're talking about Goosebumps here). The overall
tone is light, but not humorous, thus undermining the horror and inducing
apathy in the reader. There are lots of pointless sentence fragments (my
favorite was the gramatically nightmarish "Let him show itself."),
and descriptions often go too far overboard in attempting to be impressive (a
Pterosaur as big as a tree?!). Add at least one dumb factual error
(tarantulas and scorpions aren't insects, and most people know that by now),
and you've got quite a mess. It's not very challenging either, and the title
doesn't feel quite appropriate. Definitely the low point of the series thus
far.
6. Revenge of the Body Squeezers
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Craig White (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: June, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-51674-4
Length: 134 pages
Number of Endings: 23
Plot Summary: You return from a trip to find out that your friend
Jack has just fended off an alien invasion -- and a second one is just
beginning!
My Thoughts: This book doesn't really seem to belong in this series;
there's nothing special about it to make it a Special Edition -- no gimmicks,
no rules, no extra-high challenge level. The only justification I can think
of is the fact that it's a sequel to a non-interactive Goosebumps 2000 novel,
though that doesn't seem like a very good reason to me. Even if I didn't
feel the need to complain about its inappropriate classification, though, I
still would have a lot to gripe about -- this is a mediocre effort at best.
As in the last book, the writing is pretty awful, being filled with annoying
sentence fragments that seem to be meant to make things more exciting but
which actually serve only to distract the reader. Like practically
everything bearing the Goosebumps label, the adventure lacks originality and
intelligence. Surprisingly, though, there is one small but amusing sign of
creativity in the book: in probably the most bizarre scene in the whole
series, you attempt to save Los Angeles from an alien squeeze-bomb by
attacking Leonard Nimoy's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a pick-ax!
Alas, the execution of this wonderfully bizarre idea isn't as good as it
should have been, but the idea alone made me laugh, and that's more than I
can say for most members of the Give Yourself
Goosebumps family. This is a pretty lousy book, but it deserves a little
credit for being more outrageously odd than most of its kin.
7. Trick or... Trapped!
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Craig White (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: October, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-99393-3
Length: 135 pages
Number of Endings: 27
Plot Summary: It's Halloween, and your classmate Nathan has just
tipped you off to a great place to acquire loads of candy!
My Thoughts: This book is at least a bit more special than the last
one -- this time there is a gimmick, namely inventory management. As you
explore the book, you also have to keep track of the candy and other items
that you pick up. Sounds interesting enough, but it's seriously underused.
Books with inventory management work best when you can either use the items
strategically or when the book itself feels like a puzzle. Obviously, in a
book without attributes or hit points, strategic item use doesn't figure into
the mix, and this book doesn't manage to inspire the puzzle feeling since no
items are essential for victory... there isn't even an end score for them to
contribute to! So ultimately, the whole thing feels empty; lots of random,
pseudo-horrific events combined a few pointless items to pick up do not make
a very successful gamebook. It's not entirely awful, but it doesn't have
enough distinguishing features to make it worth wasting time on.
Errata: Page 38 should really offer an "If you have neither
item, turn to..." option. I guess the author was just desperate to
sucker people into falling for the cheater trap on page 92.
8. Weekend at Poison Lake
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Craig White (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: December, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-99652-5
Length: 135 pages
Number of Endings: 23
Plot Summary: In four mostly unrelated but somewhat parallel stories,
your trip to Poison Lake turns out to be a decidedly horrific event.
My Thoughts: As I understand it, the Goosebumps books were nearly the
doom of Scholastic; lots of money was invested into the series, but then it
suddenly dropped in popularity, leaving contractual obligations to be
fulfilled but little public interest in more books. If not for the timely
appearance of Harry Potter, the publisher would probably be in considerably
worse shape than it actually is today. In any case, I say all this to
justify my theory that the use of the phrase "Last Chance" on the
cover of this, the last Special Edition Give Yourself Goosebumps book,
is not a coincidence -- in fact, there was likely some temptation to put
"Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish" somewhere on the book's exterior.
Anyway, publishing industry disasters aside, this is a pretty pitiful ending
to a series that started out by exceeding all expectations. The gimmick here
is that you pick a lucky number at the start of the book, and this lucky
number determines which of the four unrelated stories you end up participating
in. At numerous times during each adventure, you have chances to use your
lucky number to get out of bad situations. If this were something like the
"Test Your Luck" situations in Fighting
Fantasy, it might be interesting. Unfortunately, there's no pattern to
the way your lucky number works, so it acts mainly as an excuse for the
author to include random story branches without having to devise actual
meaningful choices. It almost goes without saying that the writing isn't
good enough to compensate for the frustratingly pointless game design.
Although I was pretty displeased with this book, I could see its basic format
working well in more capable hands -- it normally frustrates me when gamebook
plot lines deviate as wildly as the plots do here, but the difference is that
most gamebooks have one introductory passage from which all plots diverge.
In this book, however, the first choice comes before any plot is introduced,
and thus each storyline has its own distinct beginning. Imagine an
interactive collection of short stories, running parallel with one another
and sharing the same themes but being otherwise distinct (except, perhaps,
for occasional opportunities for the reader to cross over from one into
another). I think it could be fascinating if done correctly.