Season 20 Round 13 - Bram Stoker's Dracula

[+asponge]

Sorry this is a little late.  This one was a suggestion for Season 19.  It looks like it could be fun.  Hopefully this isn't too off-the-wall.  Surprisingly this isn't the first time this has made an appearance in the HSC.  

 

A quick tip for those of you, like myself, who are going to jump in without reading the manual:  jump and then hold down to to smash through a ledge.  It took me more time than I'd like to admit to figure that out. 

 

You can access your score at any time by pausing the game.  The score sticks around for about 10-15 seconds after game over.

 

 

 

Game Rules:

Hard Difficulty

No Continues

Manual

 

Score Post Deadline: Sunday July 10 at 11:59 PM CDT.

 

AtariAge High Score:

14,690 by darthkur posted on 10/16/2008

 

Scores as of 7/10:

fakecortex   267,540
Razzie.P     222,560
Frozone212    75,880
mbd39         17,460
asponge       12,260
Dashopepper    9,370
RuySan         9,110

 

Season Standings:

 

 

General HSC Season Rules:

• To participate, just post a score to the thread. Anyone can join in at any time.
• A picture or screenshot is encouraged when posting a score but not required.
• The season is 15 rounds long.
• Games will be posted on Sundays and run two weeks through Sunday at 11:59 PM CST.
• Do not exploit game glitches, take advantage of 1-up loops or intentionally die in order to replay a level.
• If "point pressing" is not specified in the game rules you should be moving forward in an attempt to complete/loop the game and not "camping" for points.
• No emulator save states, slow-mo, rewind, etc.
• No cheats, e.g. Konami code, Game Genie, etc.
• Turbo controllers are allowed.
• Season points are awarded according to the following chart:
  

 

[mbd39]

Interesting. I've never played this one before.

[+Razzie.P]

22,590

 

After a few plays, I made it to Scene 3.  It's a start, and seems to be a bit above the current high score, so yay!

 

 

 

[+Razzie.P]

13 hours ago, mbd39 said:

Interesting. I've never played this one before.

Same here, for the most part.  I think I may have been the one who suggested it as a potential S19 game and played for a very short bit to see if it would fit the HSC (tracked score and all that good stuff) so it's nice to have an excuse to put see if I can finish it. 

 

It doesn't seem hard so far, just has a clunky sort of feel that took a moment to get used to.   Playing as a real estate agent feels different from last game's Ninja. 

 

Much of it has come down to trial, error, and good old fashioned "learning my lesson" 

 

 

One potential tip that drove me batty much of the morning -- I don't think you can kill the mini boss/ghost woman thing (scene 2).   Seems like you just need to jump over her a few times, avoid her until she gets bored and leaves.  If there's a way to kill her, I've not found it.   The manual only mentions "young prince Dracula," which was a super easy boss fight.

[RuySan]

9110

 

Very strange seeing the iconic Psygnosis logo in such a lo-fi way. Didn't know they ever released NES games.

 

This game is technically ok, but a bit annoying, but I will persevere

[+Razzie.P]

51,940

 

Not gonna spam the thread with incremental score increases, but I found some diamonds (10,000 points each) so was pretty happy with the progress.

 

 

Not much farther in the game though.  But I am quite conformable with the controls and clunkiness now, so I'm liking it quite a bit.

 

[+Razzie.P]

23 hours ago, asponge said:

Game Rules:

Medium Difficulty

 

 

 

Might need to change that to allow any difficulty.  Unless I'm missing something (maybe some secret in the game or something) "medium" seems to end after Stage 4 and it says you need to play on a harder difficulty.

 

[fakecortex]

38 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

 

Might need to change that to allow any difficulty.  Unless I'm missing something (maybe some secret in the game or something) "medium" seems to end after Stage 4 and it says you need to play on a harder difficulty.

 

Oh wow! That’s interesting. I feel like I’ll be seeing that message soon. I played a little today, not too shabby. Some platforms blend into the background and enemies pop up once you’re on top of them, but I’m enjoying it. May as well throw a score up for now:

 

Draaaaaaculaaaaa - 29,060

 

I continued a bit to get a feel for later levels (I think I was on 2 night), and enjoyed it, especially finding secret areas. I’ll say this, he sure can jump for a real estate agent. Although, you are Keanu Reeves after all...

[+asponge]

1 hour ago, Razzie.P said:

Might need to change that to allow any difficulty.  Unless I'm missing something (maybe some secret in the game or something) "medium" seems to end after Stage 4 and it says you need to play on a harder difficulty.

Well these are the pitfalls with posting a game you're not familiar with.  Hmmm.  We only have three scores posted so far.  I feel like it makes the most sense to change the difficulty to Hard so the game can be completed.  I don't know if it affects the score or not and I'd prefer everyone use the same setting.

 

Is anyone who's posted a score so far against changing the difficultly rule to Hard and reposting their score?

[Frozone212]

...

I feared this day would come

Ah well, let's do this

[mbd39]

Rules should be hard difficulty if that's the only way to complete the game

[fakecortex]

Agreed, let's do this! Bram Stoker's Hard Mode Dracula!

[+Razzie.P]

1 hour ago, asponge said:

Is anyone who's posted a score so far against changing the difficultly rule to Hard and reposting their score?

No gripes here. ?  Change away

[+asponge]

1 hour ago, Frozone212 said:

I feared this day would come

Ah well, let's do this

 

1 hour ago, mbd39 said:

Rules should be hard difficulty if that's the only way to complete the game

 

54 minutes ago, fakecortex said:

Agreed, let's do this! Bram Stoker's Hard Mode Dracula!

 

28 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

No gripes here. ?  Change away

 

I figured as much.  Just didn't want to throw out scores and change rules without running it by everyone.  Rules have been updated.  Game on!

[+Razzie.P]

83,380

 

 

I can breeze through 1 - 4 now, but Scene 5 hands me a whoopin'

 

 

 

[+Razzie.P]

I did the math

 

 

0 lives left + 9 seconds remaining + 15 second wait time for the platform to return = might as well go ahead and pray now

 

 

[fakecortex]

I like the hidden 1-ups, wondering if I’m missing anything else early on. First diamond I found was on scene 3 I believe. Points for coins and diamonds at the end of the level really push you to complete it. 

 

Bram Stoker’s Dracula starring Theodore “Ted” Logan - 50,730 scene 3 night

[+Razzie.P]

1 hour ago, fakecortex said:

I like the hidden 1-ups, wondering if I’m missing anything else early on. First diamond I found was on scene 3 I believe. Points for coins and diamonds at the end of the level really push you to complete it. 

 

 

First Diamond I'm finding is on Scene 3 as well.  I feel like I'm exploring 100% of the maps up to that point and not missing anything, but always a chance something's hidden really well.

 

One thing that wasn't immediately clear to me that you can find in every first half of the scenes -- always try to find Van Helsing.  He's the old scraggly dude that just starts running back n' forth when you find him.  Seems like it doesn't do anything, but when you fight the bosses at the end, you'll get the "triple rocks" instead of a single shot, making those fights pretty much pushovers and speeding things up (which gives you a better time bonus for points)

[fakecortex]

2 hours ago, Razzie.P said:

always try to find Van Helsing

That's who he is! I've been finding him, but thinking maybe he was Renfield. I didn't know he gave the triple rocks, but I did notice that I was getting them and kicking butt, lol.

[S.BAZ]

I really like this game  x)

[+Razzie.P]

1 hour ago, S.BAZ said:

I really like this game  x)

Me too.  If I had known about this game back when I was a kid, I think it would have easily been one of my all-time favorites.  I was very much into the gothic/vampire thing, loved a game with a bit of exploration, and I LOVED Dracula.  The book, all 1 million+ movie versions, comics, etc.

 

The only thing I’ve seen to not like so far is the "turn" animation.  It adds a sense of “lagginess” to the controls that doesn’t need to be there.  Imagine how much more polished it would feel if you could instantly turn left or right and fire when you need to quickly react, instead of waiting for the turn animation to complete.

Oddly, you can bypass that by jumping and turning.  So I’ve developed an odd habit of always lightly jumping when I turn.  It’s a reflex, now. 
 

[+Razzie.P]

222,560

 

 

If you get to the final stage and absolutely can't find Dracula (that was driving me crazy) -- you have to use a secret passage/corridor to reach him.  Super easy boss fight once you find him, though, if you have the triple rocks.  But I had a heck of a time finding him.

 

 

Also, the score leaves once the game ends.  So you'd wanna pause and check your score as soon as you beat him and he turns back into the puff of smoke.

 

 

[+Razzie.P]

21 hours ago, fakecortex said:

Points for coins and diamonds at the end of the level really push you to complete it. 

 

 

 

A bit of a bummer on the last level since there are a few coins and diamonds to find, but they're not added to your score, best I can tell.  After defeating Dracula, it goes straight to the cutscene and nothing's added since it never bothers to show the score again.

[Frozone212]

so is this the final game?

 

[Frozone212]

ran out of time before I could finish the last level. There needs to be a way to harm the ghosts. Most of the time it's just jumping. The level design is also a bit cramped. As far as I can tell, there's no way to switch weapons either. It's ok but it's no Castlevania. Decent, not horrible. Much better than Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde that's for sure (and I had to put Mesen on turbo in order to get to the end, that last level SUCKS.

 

anyway