Bram Stoker's Dracula

The Good
Clearly inspired by "Castlevania", the gameplay is solidly 2-D side scrolling running, jumping, and slashing. You the player are Jonathan Harker, with a variety of weapons at disposal. Including swords and guns. The visuals are adequate for the Genesis, (but look much sharper on the SNES), and the music gets the job done. The color palette is not surprisingly dark which suites the content well. Because this game is based on a hit movie, the level of difficulty is not too extreme.

The boss fights can be fun and a bit challenging and some of thee field enemies are interesting.

The Bad
The developers did not take full advantage of the settings in the movie and the book. The game opens with Harker escaping from Castle Dracula. The landscape is interesting but simple. The developers took such huge liberties adding locations that were not in the film, one can't help but wonder why the art direction isn't a bit more lively. It was a pity the developers did not take better advantage of the really cool settings in the film and book.

This game, because it is based on a film, follows the established trend of not making the gameplay too difficult. The reason for this is so the full spectrum of videogame players can find the game accessible - from the passive gamers to the hardcore game. This is in the negative section because a result of this accessible gameplay is some redundancy: the game never gets too hard or too easy.

The Bottom Line
This game is fun, but not too much fun. Fans of "Castlevania" will enjoy it for a single play through, but because the game is so old and does not possess any standout features, passive gamers won't even care about it.

I do not think, however, the developers set out to make a "Castlevania" clone. There is some uniqueness to this game that some players may find charming. Harker is not a vampire-hunter and so does not control like one; his movements are a bit stiff but suite his character. There were some fun moments in the game, but all in all, it will probably fall, (if it hasn't already), into the ambiguity of the sands of time.