Bram Stoker's Dracula wasn't especially bad on other systems, but this game manages to be of lower quality, despite being on a CD. It seems to me like it'd be a lot easier to make a good game when you have an entire CD to store your game on, but that's just me, I guess. But how much lower quality is it than the NES version? Let's see.

For one thing, the graphics are amazing, especially for the Sega CD. Despite the fact that the game is 2D, the backgrounds are rendered in glorious 3D - in fact, they even rotate! You can't do that on a Genesis. Though the sprites don't look quite as good, they're still up to par. Jonathan Harker looks the part, and also animates quite realistically, though it isn't complete full-motion video we're dealing with here. Speaking of the inevitable FMV footage, it's probably the worst movie footage of any SCD game I've ever seen. Not only is it even grainier than most FMVs on the SCD, but the audio is completely missing!

To bring up another point, the storyline. It really doesn't make any sense whatsoever, especially when compared with the movie. Jonathon is a real go-getter in this version of the storyline, because he goes right after Dracula with nobody to help him and with nothing but his bare fists to defend himself. And no, you can't find or pick up any weapons in the game. By the by, the FMV footage? It doesn't help the story in any way - in fact, it actually makes the storyline basically incomprehensible because you can't tell what is supposed to be going on! It's to the point where you'd think the developers didn't even watch the movie, because the footage is in the wrong order. Yes, they literally can't even arrange the movie footage correctly so that the storyline is anything above impossible to understand. How do these people do it?

The sound is actually quite nice, even by CD-based standards. Sure, some of the music can be loud and hard on the ear when you first hear it, but you'll get used to it, and you'll probably start to enjoy the music. The sound effects aren't bad, either. Of course, this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, so...what do you say we dive into what really matters?

The gameplay, well, let me explain. You move to the right along a 2D landscape, in an attempt to reach the end of the level, just like a normal sidescroller. Only thing is, this one has problems rarely seen in sidescrollers, due to the way it was made.

One of the biggest problems to be found are the controls. It takes about a second before Harker will actually do any action you tell him to do, which doesn't fit in well with the extremely fast enemies, who also swarm you with sheer numbers. Along with that is the fact that, due to the fact that the main character is a digitized actor, it's incredibly cumbersome to do most actions. Combine that with the fact that he doesn't appear to understand the concept of aerial attack, and you have some horrible control on your hands.

The landscape, impressive as it may be, also has its flaws - the game is only programmed to scroll the background at the same speed at which the main character walks, and since he covers more distance when he jumps, you may have to wait for the screen to scroll so you don't get blindsided by the enemies. Also, occasionally, it will deceive you:When you come to a bridge in the middle of the first level, you had better land squarely on the wooden planks, or you may find yourself falling right through them, even when you could swear you landed perfectly on them! This is yet another problem with the game - and given the cumbersome controls, and the fact that you can't control the character when he jumps or change how high or far he jumps, this may cause lost lives and frustration.

The different attacks available to our hero are not exactly especially diverse or powerful, and they cannot be powered up or changed in any way throughout the game. There's the basic punch, along with a three-punch combo, which is useless because almost all of the enemies die in one hit anyway, and the enemies that take more than one hit are not desirable targets for your fists of fury, mainly because they either have a long reach, or, in the case of the gargoyle sub-boss in the second level, they fly and only swoop down when they feel like it, inflicting some unavoidable damage to you as well. There's also two different types of kicks:low kicks that are made to hit enemies on the ground, and the roundhouse kick, a more powerful and longer ranged version of the punch. That's it.

And then there's the powerups, which are very few and far between, making them precious lifesavers when they do appear. Only problem? They only appear when they feel like it! It seems as though they appear if you have this many or less lives or if you have this much or less energy remaining. So, you have to die in order to get lives and you have to get hurt to obtain health? Sounds like a good plan to me!

As for the level designs, there's a stretch of land that you have to cross to reach Dracula's castle, there's Dracula's castle itself and its many traps and dangers, and then there's a dungeon...wait, when did the dungeon ever appear in the movie? Ah, it doesn't matter, they're already basically making their own storyline for the game, what does it matter if they add areas that were never in the movie?

Now, let's discuss the bosses. The first level gives you absolutely nothing, unless you count the exploding beams of light(!?) as a boss battle, the second level gives you Dracula in his old man form, who shouldn't be hard unless you have no lives and energy left from the two levels which you just went through, which I wouldn't blame you for, and then the third level gives you Dracula in a gargoyle form, who is basically an upgraded version of the gargoyle sub-boss, except he spits fireballs at you. Great creativity, huh? You'd think that they could make better bossfights out of a vampire who can shapeshift, but then again, take a look at the other things that Sony created during this dark time in their history - most of their creations were truly terrible...

Overall, this game is playable, but not especially fun. You can tell that they put a lot of work into it, but unfortunately, it amounted to yet another mediocre game to add to the SCD's library - which, by SCD standards, would easily improve the average quality ratio of the system's games...

Final Rating - C-(Playable, but definitely not good)

You are so right about that. It's hard to find a good Sony game that is worth playing nowadays. Bram Stroker's Dracula used to piss me off when I tried it out for the first time.