Post Halloween gaming | GamesYouLoved
With Halloween just over – we enjoyed the retro gaming theme so much at GamesYouLoved we asked guest writer, Wyn James to come up with something appropriate to cure our Post Halloween blues…
Article by Wyn James – @Hekatonchieres
Bram Stoker’s Dracula. SNES – 1993. Released by Psygnosis – Sony Imagesoft
VIDEO LONGPLAY:
Mwhahahaaa…..well, as it’s Halloween just gone, I thought it would be appropriate that I would do a review of an old SNES game called Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
My memorable part of this game is of course finally defeating the Lord of Darkness himself, Dracula. Weird thing about this game is of the ‘explosive’ sound effects. You’ll see what I mean when you play the game, but that didn’t put me off from playing this addictive scary game.
Any Dracula fans will enjoy slaying all the enemies that confront your vampire hunter hero Jonathan Harker. There are 7 levels each with various day and night sections, plus incredible 3-D graphics bring to life the cold, dark dungeons of Castle Dracula. By day, you’ll fight bloodthirsty bats and poisonous spiders in your search for weapons. Your hero is not as nimble and fluent in movement as Simon Belmont, but he’s just as strong.
All Dracula fans should know what the main mission is….slay Dracula and rescue the fair Mina.
The release for the SNES and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis releases were platforming action games that are identical to each other, but have a few alterations depending on the version. In the game the player takes on the role of Jonathan Harker.
Throughout the levels, Abraham Van Helsing will help Jonathan in his quest by providing advanced weapons.
The game is of the side-scrolling genre. In the game, Jonathan Harker travels through six different stages (each having between a number of areas, except for the final stage which only has one area) and fights various bosses, such as Lucy Westenra as a vampiress, Count Dracula’s three brides, Dracula’s coach driver, Dracula’s fire-breathing dragon, Renfield, and even Dracula himself in multiple forms, such as his bat form, his young form, his evil wolf form and finally his knight form.
Levels in the game include the Romanian countryside, a rat-infested old village inn, Dracula’s castle, Dracula’s cavernous vaults, Dracula’s misty catacombs, various locations in London, Lucy’s crypt, a graveyard and Carfax Abbey.
Rules of the game:
- Controls are Left and Right, Crouching, use your weapon, jumping, and you can Jump slash as well.
- You begin each game with 5 lives. Three energy beakers equal one life. All it takes to lose an Energy beaker is one blow from an enemy, so you have been warned!!
- An arrow leads you through each level.
- Finally, there are many Pick ups in the game – each with its own special function. Pick ups are placed after you find Doctor Van Helsing in selected points throughout the level. to collect a Pick up, you must crouch to obtain it.
So, prepare and sharpen your stakes for this spine chilling game!
Article by Wyn James – @Hekatonchieres
