story | gameplay | my thoughts |
BASIC INFO:
Title ....... Dr. Franken
Players ..... 1
Genre ....... Platform
Subgenre .... Amble-and-jump with puzzle elements
Platform .... Game Boy (1992)
STORY:You are a 7 foot tall masterpiece creation of the Dr. Frankenbone! Or, at least, you were. Now you are a 3 foot midget, thanks to the doctor's other, less masterful creations. These jealous and wicked creatures have also dismantled your beloved girlfriend, Bitsy, and scattered her parts about the castle. It is your boyfriendly duty to gather her pieces and put her back together again, so that you can return to your grotesquely reanimated snuggling.
GAMEPLAY:
You must gather the 10 parts of Bitsy's body; the Body Plan that lets you know how to assemble her; Thread with which to sew her together; and a Conductor and a Power Lever in order to operate the machine that will bring her to life.
In order to obtain these 14 items, you must gain access to all of the castle. In order to do that, you must collect several other items. These include (but are not limited to) various keys, levers, and dynamite. Upon obtaining an item, you typically have no idea where to go next to obtain the next item.
While exploring the castle, you must beware of various enemies. While you can shoot lightning bolts by pressing B, not all enemies can be defeated in this (or any) manner. Hazards, such as flames, falling objects, barrels, and spikes must also be carefully navigated.
You have a health meter, which can be viewed in the select menu and restored by grabbing Lightning Bolt items in various rooms or at the power outlet on Floor 4. You can save your game, but the save disappears upon reseting or turning off the console; fortunately, saving your game also provides a password.
THOUGHTS:
Dr. Franken reminds me of a very rudimentary Metroidvania. The primary and detrimental differences are that: [1] the entirety of the map is given to at the beginning of the game, and [2] upon obtaining an item that opens up a new part of the map, you are not given any sort of hint as to where the new area is.
Point 1 quickly becomes annoying as you forget where you have and have not yet explored. In Castlevania, if I get lost after obtaining a new item or ability, I can simply check my map and see where the dead ends are--and I know one of those is where I need to go next.
Point 2 is just plain bad design. Upon being given a new item that opens up access to a new area, the only clue you have as to where that new area begins is the item name. While sometimes, the item name is sufficient (the Dynamite, for instance, led me straight to the giant pile of TNT I had previously had to jump over), most times it is not. For example, I wandered almost the entirety of the castle before discovering that the Armory Key opened up a new door under a random set of armor. Mind you, sets of armor are all over the frikkin' castle--nevermind that I was expecting one of the random locked doors of the castle to be the door to an armory.
Don't get me wrong, I like the game. It's quaint design flaws are something I, personally, can appreciate...at least in an 18-year-old game that I barely paid $2 for. I would really like to see this series revived for modern handhelds, in full-blown 2D Metroidvania style.
LEVEL STRUCTURE:
We don't need no stinkin' levels.
CONTROLS:
D-pad .... move cursor; move character
select ... bring up or close menu
start .... bring up or close map
A ........ jump
B ........ use weapon
OPTIONS:
The music can be turned on or off in the select menu.
