Here’s a fun little time-waster: A Flash-based game wherein you play a ghost trying to rid your house of noisy party guests.

There are 30 guests scattered around a multi-floor house. Use the arrow keys to maneuver your ghost around the house. You can “possess” various objects (furnishings, toys, etc.) by hovering near them and hitting the spacebar, then use the arrow keys to cause various actions: The bathtub walks across the floor, portraits scream, a teddy bear growls, and so on. If you do spooky things in front of guests you can frighten them out of the room and (eventually) out of the house; the goal is to scare all 30 people away.

Scaring people will increase your haunting abilities and allow you to do more powerful things, but if you frighten anyone too badly you run the risk of causing them to panic and accidentally kill themselves. Also, children and a few of the giddier adults tend to take your paranormal activities in stride, so there’s some skill involved in being juuuust scary enough.

The game is whimsical and cartoony instead of creepy, so there’s no risk of causing nightmares in small children.* Whether you’re trying to set a record for the fastest time chasing everybody away or just wandering around and seeing what you can cause various objects to do when you possess them, it’s certainly worth a play or two.

*Shadowboy loves this game, and is much better at clearing the house than I am. Being pwned by a seven-year-old is humbling.