Being Halloween draws near, its always good to look back at some spooky games. Some of us look way back, as we are a little long in the tooth. Or the neck bolt. Behold Frankenstein, a fairly obscure NES game.  It is similar to NES games like Castlevania, or Battle of Olympus - where you must platform and attack things in a serious theme. You pick up potions to restore your health, while pursuing the giant monster - and can even get your weapon to fire projecticles. If Castlevania hadn't existed and been popular, I could see this game being better recognized. As it is, the game felt fairly generic, really, although it takes quite a few creative liberties with the source material and folklore in general.


Story:6
Frankenstein is shown burning a village and capturing a girl that looks almost like a doll next to his giant frame. I give the game credit, it does use the non-talking cut-scenes and map well to sell the story.  You are a traveler that has been beseeched to stop this menace and return the mayor's attractive daughter. A few things one may not expect here is our titular foe. Frankenstein, for those not familiar, was a story about a mad scientist who reanimates a dead body, just called the monster, or the creature. In this game, there is no Dr. Frankenstein, the monster is called by that name. And Frankenstein got himself edu-macated too! Many are the story of Frankenstein's perceived poor ability to communicate, but not here. He will laugh at your hero's actions, and give you narratives of how foolish it is to stand up against him!

A sample Frankenstein quote!
"If you have to use all your power to defeat even the weakest enemies, you will not catch me."  I can almost picture him with a monocle and a curled mustache.

So apart from our sinister, more erudite Frankenstein's monster-er, Frankenstein, what else is going on here than a chase? The game brings forth some classic monsters that he is controlling as well, such as Medusa! A vampire! Hey, its almost like a Castlevania reunion!  And someone who looks very much like the Grim Reaper, however we never get to find out, as he does not talk to us. Talking enemies? In a NES Castlevania wanna-be game? Yes, in several boss characters will converse with you before and sometimes after a fight. Even such has-beens as the water dragon that lives in the sewers, has something to say. And who could forget Demon Horse? Yes, that is what he calls himself. I wish we didn't have to talk to him, he looks ridiculous. But these are often little more than taunts and groans of surprise at their failure to stop you. There are a small handful of humans you can talk to, but they also do little to advance the story, and just give you items. In general, the action is infrequently broken up with these cut-scenes, showing us their face, and what small word of encouragement or insult they give us. Serving little story use, the talk cut-scenes mainly just introduce bosses.


Graphics: 6
Cut-scenes are great, not matter if its Frankenstein, Medusa, an old man, whoever. They also do dramatic slides of portrait panels when a character dies that I thought was an nice stylish choice. In game characters are large and the hero model looks pretty good, hes got armor, and later gets a impressive looking sword. Some of the enemies I couldn't tell what I was fighting though.. little eyeball.. things?

The backgrounds are by and large, quite generic. One nice thing about the stages is its not just one background per stage,but all lack detail. The town stage in the beginning with its HUGE barn doors wide open, the totally boring castle walls and statues on the 3rd stage, its just without any kind of polish. One stage did have some nice foreground art, the forest, which could obscure your vision temporarily with the trees. For me the worst background was the graveyard, which has tombstones that you can step on, or walk right past-  and they have the exact same shading and height.

Special mention of our hero's weapon at the beginning of the game. Clubs were very difficult to do in the 8-bit era. Too skinny and it looks like a breadstick. Too fat and it looks like a turkey leg. You beat the demons senseless with yon turkey leg until ye get sword.


Sound: 3
I found the music to border on the shrill side. The title music and first stage music is pretty good, giving us menace with drum beats (who would've thought). The password music, map screen and fourth screen  was some of my least favorite. The boss music is hectic and pestering, and sounds a bit like the soundtrack to a big spider, but strangely fitting (despite the void of spider bosses).  What I'm trying to say is the music is not too good, and the sound effects are good, and not as heavy-handed as the shrieky music. Now of course music soothes the savage beast, so perhaps you might be fond of it, I only know if I had to listen to some of these songs for too long, I'd get a migraine.


Depth: 5
The game is only four stages, though each area is comprised of a few parts, if you took out the enemies, they are not very long at all. There are some tiny optional rooms that often contain just health. There are power ups to get, including different swords, life potions, and a bit out of place part with a key, in treasure chests. You learn new moves, often by pressing up and the attack, but you lose them quickly when hit.


Difficulty: 9
Its pretty tough, some of the regular enemies fire spread shot at you, and any powerup you get is taken away when you get hit. you do get potions that restore your life, but have only a few continues. The four stages themselves are not very long, but two have terrible, terrible platforming sections. These are very breif, but quite merciless. One is jumping over a swamp, and the other is swinging across some over-animated vines.

The bosses can be pretty evil until you learn their patterns. They have flashing frames and freeze when they are hit, so you can pass through them, which is good because placing is important to set up your next attack. On some bosses the freeze frame trivializes them, and they never get a chance to attack - which is pretty funny after you just sit through a speech from one of them.  You also have to watch out for the weak hit box, sometimes your shots will just pass through enemies.  The last boss in particular seems to fire things at you like a never ending machine gun if you don't find one of the few safe spots.


Addictiveness: 4
Its a lot like other platformers, and you just think if you could keep your power you could beat it, but the game has some pretty unfun parts.  I did enjoy the cut-scenes, especially in the forest level, where they serve more story purpose. The later stages the scripted use is quite banal.


Final Score: 5.3
One cannot help but compare this to Castlevania, and it does share a lot of monsters and similar enivroments. But this doesn't hold a candle to the Castlevania series, here the weak backgrounds, and rough difficulty is just not fun.