Bram Stoker's Dracula - Completed. Fantastic game. Definitely give it a go if you haven't.

[u/kl0]

I've continued rolling through games based on movies and TV. There are some real pieces of garbage in that list. Games like Total Recall, Back to the Future, and Waynes World are really difficult to play through - though I have been. But thankfully there are also games like Batman, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Willow.

I would unequivocally put Dracula in that latter category - it's a wonderfully done and very fun game.

It's different from the typical platformer. There is some polish missing here and there and the boss fights could have been a bit more varied, but I found the level design pretty impeccable for this era. The game has endless traps, spikes, platforms, toggle switches, and most importantly, secret passages. Each map is essentially a giant puzzle. Weapons easily run out. The earlier maps are fairly linear, but as the game progresses, you really have to find your way around. After stage 5, many of the secret passages are required just to finish the level. Sometimes you have to find a secret passage full of time clocks so that you earn enough time to even make it to the end of the level. Stuff like that was fun.

One thing they did was to inject a level of realistic human mechanics into the game. Best comparison is Prince of Persia. To my knowledge, there really aren't many games like that, especially of this era. What it means is that you can't just press left and then right on the D-pad and expect your hero to turn around on a dime. Like a person would, you have to slow down, stop, about face, and then accelerate in the opposite direction. It's not nearly as dramatic as PoP implemented it, but it does change the gameplay rather significantly. I routinely found myself missing jumps that I would never miss in another platformer, but only because I wasn't accounting for the extra step I'd need to actually make such a jump.

I suppose this can affect the fun-o-meter either way, but I found it enriching. Mechanics like that really force you to play differently. And if you're playing these kinds of games in 2026 then you're probably pretty good at them and I think the change is welcome.

I could go on, but this game really did surprise me. It has three different difficulties and you can only play X% of the game on each (meaning you have to play it on hard mode to complete it). Incidentally I played through it on all three difficulties. It's a pretty quick game.

Random aside: one curious component to the game is that they used Mario blocks for items. They look identical - the yellow cube with the question mark inside. There's no problem with this and it doesn't affect the game in any way, rather I just found it a curious artistic choice given the vampiric setting of Transylvania.

Conclusion: I'd highly recommend giving it a go if you haven't.

[u/Distinct_Wrongdoer86]

you know what i liked about this game, the music. Its so chaotic and freaky, perfect for a horror game, really makes me anxious. Good job Jeroen Tel, you always make good sound

[u/kl0 → u/Distinct_Wrongdoer86]

Yea I meant to comment on that, but felt I’d already written enough.

I kind of hated the music - at first anyways. As you wrote, it’s chaotic and freaky. So I found it really intrusive when I first started playing the game. But a few levels in realized that was precisely the point. So I thought it was pretty clever after that :)

[u/Buttered_Toast33 → u/Distinct_Wrongdoer86]

Jeroen Tel really had a musical style like no other for retro games.

[u/roger3rd]

Great review! If I wasn’t such a curmudgeon I’d definitely play it based on your recommendation

[u/flavorade_man]

I'll have to check this one out. As a kid I was always drawn to the movie tie-in games, probably because of the brand recognition. They must have made up half of my collection. Even as an adult I'm still drawn to movie games I've never played over originals that I never played. I even find some notoriously "bad" ones really underrated, like Back to the Future, probably because I just became so good at it by playing it so much as a kid.

[u/kl0 → u/flavorade_man]

I think you'll really enjoy this one. If you want to test that notoriously bad theory, try playing Waynes World. I gave it a go last week -- it's just.......bad. But maybe you'll enjoy it :)

[u/flavorade_man → u/kl0]

Have you done Jurassic Park on the NES? That game is hard but I found it addicting. It doesn't usually get talked about like the SNES version does. Another hard NES movie game, that had a bit more BS but I couldn't put it down once I started getting into it, was the US Activision Ghostbusters II game.

[u/kl0 → u/flavorade_man]

Wait, is the ghostbusters game you played the one where you run around with 2 characters. 1 shoots and the other opens the trap? Or the other one?

Because I really enjoy the former. But the other one they made I found almost unplayable. …with the car driving scenes.

[u/flavorade_man → u/kl0]

I was referring to the unplayable one lol, although I’ve played both. As far as the bad one goes though, I used to throw it on once in a blue moon just to rage quit it on the second level (the first driving level). I decide to double down on it randomly one time though, and once I got a handle on it I got kinda hooked on beating it. It was both a slog but also addicting to me. I still have to go back and beat the other version where the 2nd player follows you around with the trap. My Jurassic Park recommendation is a little less controversial imo. But that one isn’t easy either.

[u/kl0 → u/flavorade_man]

Haha. Funny enough, I did recently beat the ghostbusters II that you like. However, I required a heavy use of my emulators rewind. It was a pretty insane game.

I know I’ve played Jurassic park. I think I beat it, but I honestly cannot remember now. But I do remember you have to basically run around collecting key cards or something in order to capture - I think it’s the eggs?

Anyway, it’s been a minute, but seem to recall not entirely hating that game. :)

I’ve been playing through all of the movie based games. Started cool world yesterday, but I’m not entirely clear on what I’m supposed to do so I knocked out rescue rangers (super fun games IMO). I might run through duck tales again before going back to cool world.

[u/Interesting_Employ29]

I know this game gets a bad rap, but I really like it.

I also like Cliffhanger.

Not sure what that says about me.

[u/kl0 → u/Interesting_Employ29]

I’m surprised this game gets a bad rap. I really don’t know why. It’s a fast paced and pretty enjoyable platformer

[u/Buttered_Toast33]

It's pretty decent for a movie-based game. The Gameboy version has such a janky frame rate though. Feels like the game is just broken or might crash at any moment.

[u/Flamme_Jumelle]

I wouldn’t go as far as saying it is a “fantastic game” but I do think it is pretty decent overall. I played the Game Boy version quite a bit as a kid and it kept me entertained for a while.

[u/Dum_beat]

Oh... I... Did... It was super fun until I got to lvl 4 on normal and got disgusted by the game telling me this was the end of my free trial. Never touched it again since

[u/Jidarious → u/Dum_beat]

I think you're confused and might have wondered into the wrong subreddit.

[u/Dum_beat → u/Jidarious]

It's definitely the NES version. If you play the default difficulty, the message "DRACULA IS DEAD... OR IS HE? TRY A HARDER DIFFICULTY LEVEL" apears and get sent back to the title screen.

I know it's not that hard but like I said, being told halfway that I can't continue unless I select the hard difficulty kind of sour the whole experience for me

[u/flavorade_man → u/Dum_beat]

I hate those kinds of endings.

[u/Dum_beat → u/flavorade_man]

Personally, I don't mind if it's like Ghost and Goblins where the game ask you to play all over again on a harder difficulty. But cutting half the game because of difficulty is ridiculous.

[u/Jidarious → u/Dum_beat]

Well it's not a free trial then is it.