Geon's Gamer Gallery!: Jekyll and Hyde NES · 4:57pm Jul 7th, 2012
Licensed games are rarely good. NES games made by Bandai are rarely good. [Except this one!] When you throw in 19th century British literature, things go straight to hell.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was one of the first five NES games I ever owned. I was never any good at it. My brother was never any good at it. My father couldn't get more than a few feet into the game. We labeled the game a lost cause and set it aside for more exciting and playable games. A year or so later, we came into possession of a Game Genie. Since one of the codes was an invincibility code, I tried playing through the game again. Even when the game suddenly became beatable, it was still an awful game. I don't think our family ever touched the game again. The cartridge, depicting an unusual cross between Two-Face and Freddy Krueger, gathered dust for a long time.
I was not alone in my sentiment. If you do a search on GameFAQs, you will find reviews by a good number of people. ALL OF THEM are 1/10. Flash forward to today, when I played through the game again while looking for review fodder, since it was one of the more awful and obscure games I remembered playing. Not only can I beat the game without cheat codes now, but I've also discovered two things:
* This game is one of the least enjoyable games I've ever played
* This game has a worse reputation than it deserves
Great, now I'm starting to sound as bipolar as the game's protagonist.
The story "The Strange Case of DR. JEKYLL and MR. HYDE" was written by the famous Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. "DR. JEKYLL and MR. HYDE" became a best seller as soon as it was published in England in 1886, and is now famous throughout the world. Now, in this Nintendo game pak version, you can experience firsthand the struggle between Good and Evil for control of the human personality. Who will triumph - DR. JEKYLL or MR. HYDE?
When the manual spends more time explaining the novel's creation than the plot of the novel, one starts to wonder if the plot is any good. And what's with boldfacing both characters' names?
Then the manual gets to the actual storyline. Dr. Jekyll the scientist has crossed a line that man was not meant to cross. He has split the good and evil portions of his personality. Thus, when Dr. Jekyll becomes angry, he turns into Mr. Hyde. Although the plot originally examined this in terms of the battle between good and evil, the game doesn't really capture that theme as well as it claims. Mr. Hyde feels like nothing more than a powerful alterego, much like The Hulk, Amagon/Megagon, Bert of Monster Party fame, and the like. Some have told me that this is remarkably similar to Dr. Jekyll's portrayal in the movie "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." I never cared for that film.
It gets worse. When Dr. Jekyll finally succumbs to his anger and becomes Mr. Hyde, it is the world that changes most of all. Much like Monster Party's first level (how many times am I going to reference that game in this review?), the world becomes much more dark and sinister. The generally normal townsfolk are replaced by demons, making Hyde's rampant violence seem almost benevolent. Or, at the very least, self-preserving. I guess no one would want to play as Mr. Hyde if he was a murderous felon. Actually, they might. There's a market for those kinds of games now.
FINALLY, after two pages of fluff text, we actually get to the plot of the game. Oh. Jekyll's off to marry Miss Millicent, and it just so happens that a lot of people are around to piss him off. Also, the demons want Hyde dead, but that's normal for demons.
The game says NOTHING about this. The opening sequence features a long-armed hand that shows up nowhere else in the game, images of Jekyll messing around with chemicals (hasn't he learned his lesson?), and the Hermit music from Rygar (Review Coming soon). If it wasn't for the manual, how would anyone be expected to know what's going on?
The instant you start controlling Jekyll, you know it's going to be a lousy game. He can do nothing but walk really slowly, jump, and poke uselessly with his cane. Amazingly, his jumps have decent non-platformer height and distance, and Jekyll can change his trajectory slightly in midair, so he manages to outjump the NES Castlevania Belmonts.
Once you get going, the goal of the game becomes apparent. Walk to the right and dodge things. Listen to the one song that plays through EVERY LEVEL, changing only when certain interesting characters appear. Repeat. When things hit you, they decrease either your Life or your Meter. If you run out of Meter, you turn into Hyde. If you run out of Life, you turn into Hyde and then drop dead. It must be great to be Jekyll. He doesn't have to be present at his own death.
Once you are turned into Hyde, you can jump a lot higher, punch, and throw a really weird oscillating ball the manual calls a PSYCHO-WAVE (with bold) by holding up when punching. Hyde's goal is as simple as Jekyll's. Get scrolled against your will to the left and kill things to relieve stress so that you can turn back into Jekyll. Hear a different song that is also repetitive, while waiting for interesting song changes. Occasionally pick up the coins that the enemies drop.
Remember that whole "Good vs. Evil" thing I mentioned before? It only exists in one form. According to the manual, if you travel more distance as Hyde than as Jekyll (which is tempting, since the Hyde parts are usually more fun), it counts as "Evil Triumphing Over Good", which leads to "Smiting Hyde With Lightning", which leads to "Game Over".
You know, I don't think I've read a single review that knows why Hyde gets struck by lightning and falls down and dies. It is a stupid gimmick, but it's not as random as people say. And, even more amazingly, there's a substantial reward if you circumvent the gimmick! I'll explain in due time.
Billy Pones: You see that blond-haired little urchin that keeps running around and occasionally shooting you with his slingshot? His name is Billy Pones, and he's annoying you because he has a crush on Miss Millicent. Yeah. Too bad the manual doesn't explain why you run into him at least 20 times during the game.
Bomb Maniac: Don't you hate it when that happens? You're just walking to the church one beautiful day and things aren't going your way, what with the cats and dogs and occasional people bumping into you? And just when you think everything's going to get better, a guy walks up to you, plants a lit bomb at your feet, and runs off? Then the bomb explodes and kills you if you don't get out of the way? Yeah, I've had days like that. Fortunately, if you're just barely within range, most of the damage will be psychological. Still, there are apparently 50 of these guys walking around, and in some places you can't go a few feet without meeting another one. Those Maniacs are clever. In the first stage, the bombs have fairly short fuses, and your best hope for survival is to backtrack. In the next three stages, the fuses get progressively longer, allowing you to walk past and get out of range that way. Then in the fifth stage, the fuses become shorter than they were in the first stage. If you try walking past the bombs at this point, you die. Bastards.
Rosette Ranright: She's a nice lady and the daughter of one of Jekyll's friends. She spends her time waving out the window of one of the buildings you're walking by. If you stop inside to meet her, she'll... well, we never do see what happens, but the end result is that you get a bagful of money, your wounds are healed, and you become completely calm. One can only speculate about what prompted this effect to take place.Then again, sometimes when you meet her, she'll take every cent you own and make you so mad that you instantly become Hyde. Pfft. Women.
Elena McCowen - She's a fat lady, and she sings! Unfortunately, she's completely tone-deaf, so her cacophony makes the game's music worse than it already was. This also sends a large volley of notes into the air for you to dodge. The easiest way to get past her is to walk up to her and give her about 8 coins so that she will shut up. And people say this is one of the worst games of all time... If you poke her with your cane, you automatically get pissed off and become Hyde, taking no damage in the process. I'm not sure why this happens. Did your cane get stuck in her folds of fat? Did you cause her to scream, breaking your eardrums? The world may never know.
Arnold Ebetts - He's got a hunting rifle and he's pointing in your general direction! This would be bad if he wasn't a well-trained hunter. He'll never end up shooting you. (The manual suggests otherwise.) The problem is that when he shoots, birds fall out of the sky. And onto your head. It can be tricky trying to dodge dropping birds and bird droppings at the same time. What do you mean, you'd rather hear about the bird droppings than Arnold?
Bees: Actually, these tiny insects are pretty normal. They simply fly around and do damage if they hit you. So why are they here? *loud fanfare* They can be killed by Jekyll's cane! They're the only reason for that completely pathetic move to be in the game! Sorry. That cane really gets to me.
Barrels: I guess someone decided that it wouldn't be a true "dodge the obstacles" game for Jekyll if he didn't have to jump over barrels that were thrown at him. Well, we see how well that worked! Mario's starring in games on the Gamecube, and Jekyll's gotten no further than a couple of licensed games! Thank goodness.
Maybe it's just the ROM I'm using for the snapshots, but this game seems to have a worse problem than the traditional "slowdown" when there are many objects on the screen. This game suffers from "speedup". Everything starts going really fast, and Jekyll loses a lot of invincibility time that he normally enjoys when he takes a hit. I've been hit FOUR TIMES by a single barrel before. This is bad for the life bar.
Rachel: You remind her of her late husband, so she stands on the balcony and throws hearts in all directions. The stupid timesaving programmers couldn't even make her NOT look like Elena and NOT sing the same godawful song while attacking with the same pattern.
The Urinating Statue: No, it's nowhere within range of your fine tuxedo. I just wanted to bring it up.
These guys have the right to be wacky. Unfortunately, they don't get bios, but they still get names!
Shepp: The most common enemy in the game is a hopping brain with legs named Shepp. Are you sure this is one of the worst games of all time?
Onoria - An old woman walks up to you and the music changes. There's a reason why the music changes. If you don't hit her fast enough, she hits you as she passes by. Yeah.
Actually, she gets a better move in later levels. She sheds her skin (which can do damage) and becomes a large snake that looks like it was ripped directly from A Nightmare on Elm Street. Now THAT'S worth a different theme song!
Nunu: A crawling baby that suddenly becomes tall when you get close. It's surprisingly weak for having such a nice gimmick.
Corum the Skull: It's a skull. Its special attack is opening its mouth so wide that it takes up half of the screen's height and dashing forward. Too many of Hyde's enemies leave me without any good punchlines. Oh well.
Eproschka - Okay, a small winged demon that blows bubbles through a trumpet while it flies around is a good idea and all, but could someone please tell me how to pronounce his name?
Letule - One of the last enemies in the game, it's a head that appears out of nowhere, spins around, and spits three flames at you. It doesn't seem to move, though, so if you dodge the first volley, you can hit it before it appears again. Come to think of it, this one isn't really all that weird, but I need to reference this guy later.
Here are some bugs in the game:
Compounding this game's crimes is the large number of glitches that occur during an average game. I'm pretty sure it's not the ROM I'm using, since I've seen a lot of these before on the NES.
-At several points in the last stage, Jekyll has to jump over a pyramid-shaped set of large steps. The collision detection on this thing is atrocious. Most of the time, Jekyll accidentally falls through the stairs and off the bottom of the screen, reappears at the top of the screen, lands on the stairs, and continues walking as if nothing happened.
-I've had a Bomb Maniac plant a bomb that never explodes. It follows Jekyll at the bottom of the screen and never does anything. This is actually interesting, since the odd thing about these bombs is that Jekyll never turns into Hyde until they've exploded. You can stay as Jekyll forever! In fact, you can run out of life bar, continue walking as if nothing happened, find Rosette and get healed, and then have the bomb go off when the next Maniac comes along and survive the whole encounter!
-In the fourth and fifth levels, when Jekyll moves to higher ground, the Bomb Maniac continues to appear at ground level. As a result, his bombs never reach you. It's a good thing, but it seems sloppy.
-Hyde autojumps when he reaches ground that's higher than the ground he's walking on. I guess this is to prevent him from getting crushed off the side of the screen, but it causes some weird multiple jumps at times, especially in places where there are pits. I forgot to mention that. Some of Hyde's levels include fatal falls. This is a single life game, so falling means Game Over. It's Battle of Olympus (Another Review coming soon) all over again!
Once you've successfully traversed all six levels with Jekyll, he reaches the chapel. As he enters, the camera cuts to the chapel, the Wedding March plays (in a really annoying loop), and the word "END" appears.
That's it... I have heard many people complain about this. They're right to do so. That may be one of the biggest letdown endings I've seen... But hey! Did you know there's a better ending? One that I haven't seen anywhere on the Internet? It's true!
What's that? You want the REAL ending?
As I've mentioned before, if Hyde gets to the point where Jekyll last left off, he gets struck by lightning and the game ends. I've also mentioned that people (including me) hate this. But there's one interesting stipulation.
Early in the sixth level, Hyde's path suddenly takes a turn upward. After he makes a few forced jumps, he goes to a completely different stage where he jumps across the rooftops of several buildings. Once he reaches this stage, he'll never get struck by lightning, so he only has to worry about his life gauge (and possibly becoming Jekyll again).
As a result, it is possible for Hyde to arrive at the chapel before Jekyll ever does!
If Hyde makes it there first, the Meter fills entirely to the Hyde side, and a red Letule (you know, the spinning flame-spitting face) starts teleporting around. As Hyde hits him with his attacks, his Meter slowly goes back to Jekyll. If the Meter reaches Jekyll before Hyde runs out of life, the red Letule explodes 46 times and dies, Hyde turns back into Jekyll again...
...and Jekyll awakens to find that THERE ARE NO MORE ENEMIES IN THE GAME. The remainder of the walk to the chapel is a breeze now (although painfully boring), and he can easily make it in time to see Millicent waiting outside the chapel, which she never did in the other ending.
The game cuts to the front of the chapel, the Wedding March becomes annoying again, and we see Millicent and Jekyll in fine white outfits walking toward each other (with ridiculously slow frame rate) and entering the chapel together. Then we see a spotlight scene where they kiss, the screen fades out, and the word "END" appears on a black background. Then after a short period of time, you hear the sound of a bomb, lightning strikes, the "END" inverts and you see Hyde's silhouette holding a cross of some kind.
Okay, it's not THAT great of an ending, but it certainly beats the crappy excuse for a regular ending. And you heard it here first! (Assuming that I didn't miss an obscure website that actually mentions this ending.)
This is the kind of thing that makes me realize that this game might have been okay, if only it didn't suck so much!
I believe I have determined the reason why this game isn't as bad as most people say, and as I remember from my youth. I've been playing the Japanese version. After finding the US version, I notice that there are quite a few differences.
-The title screen looks different, and includes ONE JAPANESE PHRASE! The only one in the game!
-The Japanese levels have a lot more variety. The US levels are Japanese levels 4, 5, 4, 2, 5, and 6 in that order. Two entire level designs have been lost for no reason!
-Since the fourth and fifth levels are overused, the Bomb Maniac appears weak early on. He's frequently dropping bombs where they can't reach you. On the other hand, his fuses start long and become steadily shorter as you progress, losing the whole "tricky fuse length" thing I mentioned before.
-A large number of enemies are missing. These include the two people in windows who throw objects at each other, Carotta the bow-wielding mermaid, and the entire character of Rosette Ranright (effectively eliminating your main source of income and healing, as well as the main reason to enter doors). In addition, all instances of Rachel become Elena, but I have no problem with that. Rachel was essentially Elena anyway.
The only thing these enemies have in common is that they have alternate themes. Could the version change be because the US version couldn't handle the music? Well, that's just great. They just made the US music MORE BORING.
-Hyde enemies deal a lot more damage than before. Jekyll enemies tend to deal either stress or damage, but not both. (Exceptions include bombs, notes, and barrels.) In the Japanese version, damage was spread out between the two meters.
-By the time Onoria shows up in the US version, she's always turning into the snake. The early moments in which she shows up and does nothing are gone.
-The "fall through ground" bug is largely removed in the US version.
-Millicent isn't waiting outside the chapel after you've beaten the red Letule. Once you enter the chapel, the improved ending continues as usual.
Amazingly enough, the urinating statue remains in the US version. Even more amazingly, the 5th level (the graveyard) includes a large number of crosses in the background. Some of them are covered in blood. These were NOT removed in the US version. Given this fact, I have no idea why the versions are different in the first place, other than the music thing.
Hopefully you've learned something from this review. I have. Reading reviews of unusual and awful games can give you a really bad impression of them. But even the worst game isn't as bad as many people make it out to be.
Don't play this game. Stay as far away from it as possible. Then again, if you're willing to play a mediocre game, go ahead and play it. You might be surprised by how unawful it sometimes gets!
Of course, that's more likely if you come across the Japanese version.
NO GOD! NO GOD PLEASE NO NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-
217830 AAAAAAAAHAHAHAHHAAHHHAHHAHHAHHA
I'm one of your followers who brings in something that's irrelevant to your blog posts. AND HERE IT IS:
oi49.tinypic.com/1ya3us.jpg
217845 This is relevant to my interests.
YOU HAVE FAILED.
217858 [youtube=09s-c2JVI40]
217888 Yes.
Now I must get in a rocking chair and feel old.
So we're tryingto bring random whit into your blogs now?
Okay:
i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/234/934/3f0.gif
217889 I would too,
but instead I'm going to be sitting in a regular chair playing this:
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/53/Spyro_the_Dragon.jpg
And any other parts of the series I can find in the archive.
217901 GIMMEGIMMEGIMMEGIMME GIMME
Nice game review! Good to see you're writing again. Anyway, have randomness!
iambrony.jsmart.web.id/mlp/gif/it%27s...%20ALIVE%21%21%21.gif?1320234281
217968 Danke! :3 this was just a test. I wrote most of this with one hand.
217971
Then nice skills man. I would've given up if I only had one hand to write this entire review.
217976 XD
217968
i.imgur.com/OE1iF.gif
218214
i1225.photobucket.com/albums/ee391/soratobuazure/Gifs/freakout.gif
218225
media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lmot3itRZA1qafrh6.gif
218229 WUT RUDOING
BLAAAAAAAAAARG
218285 IT WUS HIS FOLT! NAWT MYNE!
218293 STOP, CRIMINAL SCUM.
218297
Go to Jail
>Resist Arrest
Pay Gold
www3.picturepush.com/photo/a/6555876/480/lol/come-at-me-bro-Spider-Man-Meme-s480x390-196085.jpg
218314 THEN PAY WITH YOUR BLOOD>
218331 HA! You're only a dragon, but guess who I am?
I'M A DRAGONB-
Crap, this isn't Skyrim.
218335 AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA~
You know, that game sounds like it actually has a few nice concepts. I mean, there's the whole Light World/Dark World thing, and this is before A Link to the Past ever came out. Plus I really like the idea of Onoria. Like, imagine that in a decent, modern game, like a Silent Hill game or something. You're walking down a dark road, already on edge because it's far too quiet around here, and you just know there's some sort of terrifying boss around the next corner.
And then the music changes. You knew it! You resist the urge to scream and instead just start gripping the controller tightly, ready to button-mash your way out of this fight just like you've done to everything else. But instead of the horrifying monster you were expecting, a normal-looking NPC just walks on past. When she leaves, the music changes back to normal, and you're just left there wondering what happened.
And this happens a few times. It really gets you the first two or three times it happens, but you've gotten used to it by now. You know that this mysterious NPC's theme music doesn't signal the arrival of some awful mini-boss, but a completely harmless red herring. So the music changes again, a good bit further into the game now, and you just sigh and wait for the woman to walk on by. And she does. But this time, she does something different. She walks up to your character and stops. You're on edge all over again; this isn't what usually happens, right? Right? Then, without warning, the "harmless NPC" becomes a giant snake-creature in a grotesque transformation sequence that actually does make you scream this time. You were expecting a terrifying boss, and you got it. Just a couple encounters too late.
...Okay, so that sort of got out of hand, but what I was trying to say is that some of these concepts sound like they could work if done correctly. I'd love to see a similar scenario to the above in a modern horror game.
218821 Oh most definitely. If they could do these sortof concepts with the newer horror games, it would be neat! Th+e only one I can truly think of that's close to this game, would be Amnesia.