''Bram Stoker's Dracula'' is a 1993

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

released for the Mega Drive/Genesis,

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

Super NES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Oceania a ...

Game Boy The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...

Master System The is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console manufactured and developed by Sega. It was originally a remodeled export version of the Sega Mark III, the third iteration of the SG-1000 series ...

Sega CD The Sega CD, known as in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory and format for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. Originally released in November 1991, it ca ...

Game Gear The is an 8-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth-generation handheld game console released by Sega on October 6, 1990 in Japan, in April 1991 throughout North America and Europe, and in 1992 in Australia. The Game Gear primarily ...

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

, and

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

. It is based on the 1992 film '' Bram Stoker's Dracula'' which in turn is based on the 1897 novel ''

Dracula ''Dracula'' is an 1897 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The narrative is Epistolary novel, related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens ...

'' by

Bram Stoker Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912), better known by his pen name Bram Stoker, was an Irish novelist who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. The book is widely considered a milestone in Vampire fiction, and one of t ...

. Most versions are

platform game A platformer (also called a platform game, and sometimes a jump 'n' run game) is a subgenre of action game in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels wi ...

s. The Sega CD and Amiga releases are

beat 'em up A beat 'em up (also known as brawler and, in some markets, beat 'em all) is a video game genre featuring hand-to-hand combat against a large number of opponents. Traditional beat 'em ups take place in Side-scrolling video game, scrolling, 2D c ...

s, and the MS-DOS version is a

first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...

. The

version was released in 1994 for North America and Europe. A

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

version for MS-DOS compatible operating systems was released in 1995.

Gameplay

Each console has a different styled genre game based on the film, and in most games the single player character is

Jonathan Harker Jonathan Harker is a fictional character and one of the main protagonists of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. An English solicitor, his journey to Transylvania and encounter with the vampire Count Dracula and his Brides at Ca ...

, who is one of the main protagonists of the film, as well as the original novel ''

'' by

Mina Harker Wilhelmina "Mina" Harker (née Murray) is a fictional character and the main female character in Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. In the novel She begins the story as Miss Mina Murray, a young schoolmistress who is engaged t ...

, Jonathan's wife, is absent throughout each version of the game and only mentioned in the Sega CD version. However,

Lucy Westenra Lucy Westenra is a fictional character in the 1897 novel ''Dracula'' by Bram Stoker. She is the 19-year-old daughter of a wealthy family and is Mina Harker, Mina Murray's best friend. Early in the story, Lucy gets proposed to by three suitors, A ...

, who is also a character in the novel and film, is present in

SNES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Oceania an ...

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...

, and

versions of the game as a boss.

8-bit versions

''Bram Stoker's Dracula'' for the

is a 1993 video game that bears a closer resemblance to platform games such as ''

Super Mario Land is a 1989 platform game developed by Nintendo Research & Development 1, Nintendo R&D1, the same team that designed the Game Boy. It was published by Nintendo as Game Boy#Launch titles, one of the first four games released for the console. I ...

'' than

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

s. The player controls a young lawyer named

. Harker must free himself from

Count Dracula Count Dracula () is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. He is considered the prototypical and archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by some to have been i ...

's captivity, follow him to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, and end his reign of terror. It was voted to be the 21st worst video game of all time, according to ''

FLUX Flux describes any effect that appears to pass or travel (whether it actually moves or not) through a surface or substance. Flux is a concept in applied mathematics and vector calculus which has many applications in physics. For transport phe ...

'' magazine. The game is also on the

. The gameplay is very similar to the Game Boy version, though the NES version has much smoother character animation, colors and better resolution.

and

versions of the game are also similar, but with a wider color palette and more shading effects.

16-bit versions

The

and Megadrive/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

. Throughout the levels,

Abraham Van Helsing Professor Abraham Van Helsing () is a fictional character from the 1897 gothic horror novel ''Dracula'' written by Bram Stoker. Van Helsing is a Dutch polymath doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the ...

will help Jonathan in his quest by providing advanced weapons. The game is of the

side-scrolling A side-scrolling video game (alternatively side-scroller) is a video game viewed from a side-view camera angle where the screen follows the player as they move left or right. The jump from single-screen or flip-screen graphics to scrolling grap ...

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

as a vampiress,

's three brides, Dracula's coach driver, Dracula's fire-breathing dragon,

Renfield R. M. Renfield is a fictional character who appears in Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''.

, 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.

Sega CD version

The release for

makes use of digitized backgrounds and includes

full motion video Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than Sprite (computer graphics), sprites, vector graphics, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games featur ...

(FMV) cutscenes from the film. Released in North America, the player controls

as he travels through seven stages that are based on scenes from the film.

Amiga version

The release for the

uses digitized graphics for characters that were recycled from the Sega CD game. However, the setup is quite different. There are nine stages in the game to play through. Each stage has a primary task which involves finding and destroying all the coffins that have Transylvanian earth inside, in order to advance in the game. Like in the Sega CD game, Jonathan Harker has to punch and kick his enemies. The player can restore health by finding potions, and extra lives are available to pick up as well. Picking up Holy Crosses allows the player to fire a long-ranged holy beam attack, but only for a short period of time. Staircases and doors can be used to travel throughout each stage.

DOS version

The release for DOS is played from a first-person perspective, similar to other games like ''

Doom Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (1934–2020), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitche ...

'' or ''

Wolfenstein 3D ''Wolfenstein 3D'' is a 1992 first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen for DOS. It was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software video game '' Castle Wolfenstein'', and is the third installment ...

''. In this version, Jonathan Harker must traverse several large stages to locate and purify a varying number of coffins, while warding off monsters with either a pistol or a knife. When all of the coffins in a stage are purified, Harker must then confront Dracula in one of three forms (his old man, young man, and original knight form).

Reception

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The magazine was fou ...

'' gave the Sega CD version a 5.25 out of 10, commenting that the main character's movements are choppy, the battling with birds and bats is unimpressive and dull, and the

sequences are so

pixelated Pixelization (in British English pixelisation) or mosaic processing is any technique used in editing images or video, whereby an image is blurred by displaying part or all of it at a markedly lower resolution. It is primarily used for censorshi ...

and blurry that it is difficult to make out what is going on. ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...

'' stated of the DOS version, "It appears that Psygnosis spent most of their ''Dracula'' budget on acquiring the movie license, leaving little for game development and packaging. The game play is uninspired and repetitious". The magazine recommended ''

Veil of Darkness ''Veil of Darkness'' is a horror-action-adventure game for MS-DOS, FM Towns and PC-98, which was developed by Event Horizon Software and published by Strategic Simulations in 1993. ''Veil of Darkness'' is a third person, 2D point-and-click adv ...

'' or '' Dracula Unleashed'' to vampire fans.

References

External links

* - Game Gear, Master System and NES * - Amiga, Genesis/Mega-Drive and SNES * * {{Traveller's Tales 1990s horror video games 1993 video games Amiga games Beat 'em ups DOS games Epic/Sony Records games First-person shooters Game Gear games Master System games Nintendo Entertainment System games Platformers Probe Software games Psygnosis games Sega CD games Sega Genesis games Single-player video games Sony Pictures video games Sprite-based first-person shooters Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Video games based on adaptations Video games based on Dracula Video games based on films Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games scored by Jeroen Tel Video games scored by Matt Furniss Video games set in castles Video games with 2.5D graphics