Moving directly on from the previous episode on Dracula games, we have James covering games based on the Frankenstein story, with a nice little twist thrown in for his classic Halloween theatrics. James is playing the Nerd as Dr. Frankenstein (or, well, Dr. Franken-Nerd, I guess, to be accurate to the story) who creates a monster to play shitty games for him. Honestly, kind of a fresh take on things which I certainly like! So, enter Franken-Nerd , played by Mike Matei, to take charge this time around.
We begin with the “Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein” on SNES. Game good? Game not good. It looks like it could have been a decent title, but it suffers from a bit of “where do I go” syndrome combined with just being all around poorly executed. It just an overall mess and enrages Franken-Nerd.
Next up, “The Adventures of Dr. Franken.” Beyond some confusion about the title and Franken-Nerd getting to wear some shades, this game doesn’t get much screen time before the confusing controls (think Street Fighter but drunk) cause Franken-Nerd to attack the real Nerd! However, the Nerd put in a way to control and stop the monster in such a case (unlike in the real story of Frankenstein) and thus he is safe. At least from the monster; he still has to play the game.
This is where we hit more classic Nerd territory where he covers the controls, the objective (collect the F. Bone passport pieces) and that’s your lot. Control is really the big issue — it tries to do too much at once and as a result doesn’t seem to do too much well at all. It looks like it might be fun, but it would take some adaptation.
The Nerd grows tired of the game, and moves on to one last title: “Frankenstein – The Monster Returns” on NES. Oh yes, we end with some staple NES gameplay!
This is probably, honestly, one of my favorite review segments in the whole series. This game actually looks like it’s not half bad. Keyword, looks, as it’s quite unforgiving. Yep, I’ve actually played this one (for a bit) and it doesn’t really hold your hand.
It has flaws. Some critical ones. The strange boss battles to regain energy, the end level bird, the jumping controls, the odd pacing, it all adds together to become quite the frustrating experience. Even a poor quality password screen shows its face here! That’s right, that old nerd trope shows its face once again! I won’t spoil it all here — it takes up the bulk of the episode and is just a pretty satisfying rant all the way through. At least, for me it is.
By the end of the game, Franken-Nerd rises from his sleep to attack the Nerd, all while the Nerd is trying to finish the NES game, with one of the many AVGN covers playing to boot. A fun little ending to the episode. Absurd? Certainly. Fun? Absolutely.
Final Rating: 4.0/5
This is certainly the better of the two Halloween 2008 episodes. It’s a little more focused than the Dracula one, and really has a bit more energy behind it. Franken-Nerd was a great addition (with that same mask you can see in films James made as a kid) and the overall rage present when discussing the Frankenstein NES game was just perfect. This episode just sticks out for me. Yeah, it’s one to easily overlook but when I think back to episodes I like, this one ranks as a personal fave. Still, it’s only an above-average episode, compared to others, but that’s not a bad thing. It just balances itself out, you could say.
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