31 Days of Monster Mania: Day 12: Bram Stoker's Dracula The Game

Written by Stu Cooper

For today's Monster Mania entry I am going to take a look at the games based on the 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula film. In the 80's and 90's it was not uncommon for virtually every big budget film to get some type of video game interpretation. Everything from "Top Gun" to "The Untouchables" got a video game. It should come as no shock then that the 1992 Coppola movie got a series of games. The game was released on pretty much every platform available at the time. All of them were platformers, and most of them were piss poor platformers at that. The NES and Gameboy versions were very simplistic and similar to Mario. The SNES and Genesis versions were actually pretty fun and nicer looking than the NES, but still far from a good game. Then there was the Sega CD version which is such a mess, it's been ripped to pieces by virtually every game critic. Today I'm going to focus on the Super Nintendo version of the game.

Now immediately the game opens up with a rather beautiful and creepy cinematic of the knight version of "The Count" standing on a hill of destruction. It provides you with some pretty creepy imagery and a good start. Once you get to the menu screen I will advise you to go to the options and make sure you are playing on at least Normal or Hard, because if you choose "Trainee" you will not get the full experience of the game. I beat the game in about 20 minutes on "Trainee" mode and the game ended after I killed the witches, there was no confrontation with Dracula. If you play on Normal or Hard, you should be able to access the full game and get the final battle with Dracula. Several games did this at the time as a way to extend the life of a game. In some cases you would go through the entire game, but because you did it on an easy difficulty, you would get a weaker ending or no ending at all. Dracula doesn't quite go that far, but it's a nice tip to have going into it.

Once the gameplay begins you will notice it's a pretty basic side scrolling platformer. You play the character of Johnathan Harker (Keanu Reeves). The sprite for the character does look just like Keanu Reeves, so they did good there. In terms of weaponry you are armed with a sword/dagger type weapon that looks more like a whip when you use it. The weapon is quite weak and has short range, but it will get the job done. You start out in a tavern beating up peasants,cougars, and bats. Then you move around the maze like level, until you find Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins) who tells you what kind of new weapon you need to advance to the next stage. The next couple stages range from dungeons within Dracula's castle, to rocky mountains that surround the castle. You continue to fight off mostly wild animals, but later you battle skeletons and spiders. Basically a whose who of random "spooky" enemies.

At the end of each stage you will have to battle one of Dracula's minions such as a giant knight with a whip, the witches, a dragon (I don't remember that in the movie), and then of course Dracula in all his various forms. The sprites for Dracula actually look pretty spot on and quite good. For some reason tho every boss is gigantic, including Dracula. So you will better prepare yourself to fight a 12 foot Dracula. Taking small liberties with the movie there. The game is obviously nothing like the movie because let's face it, the film is not really an action film. You may see a character doing something action oriented twice in the whole film. If you can get over that and just play the game, you will probably have a bit of fun.

The big issue the game has is that it is painfully easy. You can beat the entire game on Hard mode within about 35 minutes. It's similar to the Power Ranger SNES games if you've ever played those. You go through a stage, fight a boss, go through a stage, fight a boss. Occasionally you'll be treated to some kind of transitional image taken from the movie, explaining where in the movie you are but not much else. If you manage to complete the game you will be rewarded with a very poor quality image of the aging Dracula, and a text crawl story telling you what happened. Then like Mario, you see the castle crumble.

For what it is, it's not bad. It's certainly not as bad as movie games like Cliffhanger, Last Action Hero, or Terminator 2. It's quite playable, and it's fun. The big downfall is the incredibly easy difficulty. If you paid full price for this game when it was first released, you'd probably be pretty upset. If you rented it, maybe not. I picked the game up for about 5 bucks off ebay, so it wasn't hurting me too much. From what I've seen this is the best version of the game they made, and if that's the case, it's not saying much. I would just make sure to avoid the Sega CD version of the game, which is an epic gaming failure.

Youtube Gem: Nintendo Training Videos

Written by Stu Cooper

As the youtube generation continues to grow, the library of obscure videos is also growing. I've recently discovered several company training videos that have been uploaded to Youtube, probably by a former employee. I ended up finding some Nintendo oriented ones and since I'm a huge fan of retro gaming, I loved every bit of these. One is about customer scenarios you would encounter in a retail store and the other is about those old nintendo display cases they had in stores. It really does give me a flashback to an early 90's Toys R' Us. Also look closely in the first video and you'll see a cameo by Dr.Phlox from Star Trek Enterprise!

Monster Mania Day 27: The Addams Family Presents Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt

Written By Stu Cooper

This will be a quick review because there isn't a whole lot to say about this game, but I just got it in and had to give it a go, especially considering the time of year. Now when I was younger I remember renting one of the "Addams Family" games and having a pretty hard time with it, and from that point on I never really tried any of the other games. I'm not sure which game that was, but it wasn't this one because I had a blast playing this. In "Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt" you play the cartoon version of Pugsley who accepts a scavenger hunt challenge from his sister Wednesday. You play as Pugsley for the entire game and I'm alright with that. You get into all sorts of mischief and you can actually choose which levels you want to play by entering certain doors in the Addams Family house. The controls are pretty crisp and easy to get the hang of, tho attacking can be defeat at times and you have to be quick. The real highlight would be the music. It has the Addams Family theme at the beginning but the soundtrack throughout the game is pretty catchy and fun. It's just overall a fun little side scroller. If you're looking to play something with a Halloween feel and looking to interact with the Addams Family, this game is a good bet. Be sure not to confuse it with "Fester's Quest".

What You Should Watch: CONTINUE?

Written by Stu Cooper

In the age of the internet it is becoming common that people are now getting entertainment from certain Youtube channels as opposed to Television. This allows for a special type of programming that might not be available on television due to tricky copyrights or budgeting. I try to catch these special channels as often as I can, but one gem just recently came up on my radar, despite being around for the past couple years. That Youtube Channel is known as "ContinueShow". The premise of the channel is that 3 guys host a show called "Continue?" in which they choose a game every week to sit and play, and after about 10-15 minutes of gameplay, they decide whether or not they would enjoy continuing the game or not. Sounds pretty bland when I say it like that, but rest assured it's anything but. It's kind of like those old Beavis and Butthead segments where they would watch music videos and make fun of them. It's a similar vibe here.

The 3 guys are named Nick, Paul, and Josh. They all sit side by side on a couch, and clearly share a on/off-screen friendship that helps create a fun chemistry in the videos. You really feel like you are just hanging out with these guys, gaming like you would with your friends. They are constantly busting each other's balls and being competitive while playing, which gives you another sign that they are actually friends. The humor is top notch and really cracks me up. It's definitely not for people who are easily offended tho. There is definitely some crude humor, but that is my favorite kind, so I don't mind. Also they do not look up anything about the games prior to playing them, so you may get frustrated with them at times if they don't know how to properly play the game. It's suppose to enhance the idea of them going into the game totally blind.

These guys really are funny and from what I've seen they are very humble and thankful for all the fans they've gotten. They reply to almost every comment on twitter/youtube, and they often play games on the show that are submitted by the viewers themselves. This channel and their selection of games actually make me miss those SURGE and 3-D dorito filled sleepovers I had as a child, staying up all-night trying to defeat Shao Kahn with a group of 3-4 other friends. Those were the days indeed. So if you're into gaming, nerd culture, riffing, or nostalgia, there is something on this channel for you to enjoy. It's a really fun channel worth checking out, and if you enjoy one, then I suggest you free up some time because you have about 100 more to go through. So take a look at some of the videos and decide yourself whether or not you would CONTINUE...CONTINUE?

Some of my favorite episodes:

Retro Game Review: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (SNES)

Written by Stuart Cooper

I was lucky enough to witness two massive crazes when I was a child. The explosion of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, and “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers”. Well when TMNT was starting to fall off the map, it was prime time for a children's show to swoop in and stake it's claim on Saturday Mornings. The show to do that would be “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers”. The show was almost instantly popular and spawned so many toy lines and alternate series that I've long since lost count. I was one of those children who ate it up and had to have every toy, every game, every coloring book, all that good stuff. In terms of merchandising, Power Rangers might even have the Turtles beat. Well amongst the many items released during it's peak popularity, children were blessed with the opportunity to play TONS of Ranger games. I'm talking 3-4 games for SNES, Genesis, then ports to Game boy, Game Gear, Mega Drive, Tiger Handhelds, etc. They actually rushed the first line of games pretty quickly since the first game takes place before they even meet The Green Ranger, which was technically still in the first season. As a result, some of the games are good, some are not so good, but today I'll tackle the Super Nintendo version of “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers”.

Now the game itself apparently differs depending on which console you get the game for. Most versions are a side scroller and the only differences being the bosses, but the Game Gear version is actually a partial fighting game as well. The Super Nintendo version starts off with the 5 rangers in human form, staring on as Rita for whatever reason, decides to show her face. There is pretty much no story, you start off in the city and you go through 7 different stages, all of which seem to be just random locations that have nothing to do with the story or show. So if you are looking for an enticing story element, this game won't have it.

On the plus side, you do get to choose between all 5 rangers and you can change which Ranger you are with each stage. Since there are 5 side scrolling stages, you can play 1 stage per ranger if you'd like. That is what I decided to do, so I could test each one and see if there was any difference. As far as I can tell all 5 rangers were pretty much the same strength. The red one seemed slightly stronger than the others, but that might just be my brain being influenced by the actual show. The one difference I did notice was the use of their special weapons. Each ranger has a special weapon like they do in the show. The pink ranger has a bow, the blue ranger as a little gun, the black ranger has an ax and so on. The pink Ranger actually shines when it comes to this because her bow can shoot arrows after you combo a few hits. This can provide you with some reach. Each level, except for the last two, stick to a simple formula. You beat up waves of Rita's “Putties” and when you get to the second part of the stage you are confronted by the boss and proceed to hunt him down while in your ranger outfit. At the end of the level you face the boss.

The bosses are really my favorite part since they are the shining stars of the show itself. As a kid I remember tuning in every week just trying to imagine what kind of deranged weirdly themed creature Rita's slave sculptor would conjure up next. The game kind of disappoints in it's selection but you have to consider when the game was released the first season hadn't even finished, so no Evil Green Ranger, Rita, Goldar, or Lord Zedd fights. To be honest I only recognized 2 out of the 7 bosses in the game, that being the Skeleton man “Bones” and the unforgettable petrifying “Eye Guy”. Fighting Eye Guy brought back some memories and made me want to re-watch that episode. As far as difficulty, unless you are under the age of 10 there probably won't be much. If you can understand very basic boss patterns and how to do jump-kicks, you'll beat this whole thing in about an hour. The last two stages of the game you actually get into your MegaZord form and it turns into a fighting game. You fight this incredibly random villain (that is not in the game previously), It looks kind of like a Gundam or something from Escaflowne. Very forgettable boss fight but it's cool that they found a way to get the Zords in there.

Overall I'd say this game is definitely worth checking out. I wouldn't say that if you still had to pay 50 dollars for it, but the game can be found for about 6 bucks on eBay or a local retro game retailer. I got my copy for 5 dollars. It will always hold some nostalgic value for me and it's a good side scroller. The cons would be the lack of story, lack of difficulty, no two player mode, and you can beat it all in an hour. If you loved this show growing up and you miss it, perhaps it's time to pop this cartridge in and say IT'S MORPHIN TIME!

Some bonus Rangers videos just because: