Frankenstein: The Monster Returns (NES) Playthrough
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ย. 2024
- A playthrough of Bandai's 1991 horror-themed action-platformer for the NES, Frankenstein: The Monster Returns.
Frankenstein had been laid to rest, and as the seasons passed, the village's memories of his reign of terror gradually faded. Some years later, a giant storm blows in, and a bolt of lightning strikes the headstone, sending a surge of electricity through the corpse.
Frankenstein awakens (Jason, is that you?), kidnaps the village elder's daughter, and casts a mind-control spell on the monsters living in the nearby forest to create an army to do his bidding. You, of course, are the hero who sets off on a quest to save Emily and put Frankenstein down for good.
Frankenstein: The Monster Returns was one of several Bandai NES games to be based on a pre-existing work, but as that plot description makes abundantly clear, Tose (the developer) wasn't the slightest bit interested in creating a faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel. That they confused Frankenstein for his monster implies that nobody on the staff had even read the book, but since the game wasn't intended to be used as interactive Cliff's Notes, I don't think any of that matters much.
It's a side-scrolling action platformer that places heavy emphasis on its monster movie boss battles and plot-driving cinematic cutscenes. Fittingly enough, it feels like a Frankenstein's monster of pieces from Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden. It's neither as attractive nor as solidly built as the games it was carved from, but the pieces were preserved and stitched together with enough skill that Frankenstein still manages to be rather compelling on its own.
The hero, who looks like a Roman soldier wearing a Belmont cape, begins the four-stage adventure in his home village where he'll chat with people, gather supplies, and do battle with a sewer dragon, Death, and a Demon Horse. Once he breaks through, he'll continue on through a dark forest until he reaches a castle, inside which he'll find the entrance to the "Evil Dimension" where Frankenstein is holding Emily.
You start out unarmed, but as you punch and jump kick your way through enemies, you'll gain access to an assortment of upgradable clubs, boomerangs, swords, and magical attacks, as well as healing potions and life bar upgrades.
The levels are made up of short platforming segments linked together by fights with Frankenstein's possessed boss monsters. Once you've broken Frankenstein's magical hold over them, they'll fill you in on what they know and where Frankenstein is headed, and you set off again until you hit the next encounter.
There's no depth to the plot, but its so earnestly melodramatic that I can't help but to smile over the silliness of it all. The gameplay has a few niggling issues with collision detection and it feels way too short, but it's pretty fun. I found myself wanting more when I hit the end.
Frankenstein fits in well with the mid-tier NES platformer crowd, rubbing elbows with the likes of games put out by Jaleco and Vic Tokai (many of which were also made by Tose - go figure!). Like those games, there is some inherent jank, but it's nothing than can't be adapted to after a few minutes of play.
If your looking for a stylish monster-fighting alternative to Castlevania this Halloween, I recommend checking this one out!
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (www.nintendocom...) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
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Frankenstein is the NES equivalent of a popcorn movie. It's not deep, but it's a whole lot of silly fun for the short time it lasts.
Yeah, but some of the popcorn is only half baked. so you occasionally choke on it.
I remember buying this game inside a bin in Block Buster for like $30. Very hard game
I've heard bad reviews about this game, but it doesn't look too bad except for the ear rape music.
...it would also seem that even nintendo thought "Frankenstein" was the monster's name, and not the name of the mad scientist who created it.
@@mopbrothersgodd
first time hearing about this game and i'm in awe at how cinematic the cutscenes are
that's what i love about nes games: developers found so many ways of pushing the hardware and its graphical capabilities, it's admirable
This game is basically a Castlevania game, but with the Frankenstein's Monster in place of Dracula as final boss. While Dracula himself is merely a guest character in this game. Its like they switched places.
I want to sincerely thank you for uploading these in the original aspect ratio. I love putting your playthroughs up on my CRT because I don't have to fiddle with them - I just set it to fullscreen et voila. Everyone else puts them at 16:9 and I have to figure out how to stretch it just right and it's not worth the hassle. So thank you, your videos set the ambiance of my room!
Np, I'm glad to hear it, thanks! I hate it when people stretch stuff to 16:9. I usually just skip it when I see that lol
"There are no stairs to the top!"
- Defeats boss
- One screen over takes stairs up
I remember this game from my childhood looking a lot better.
I'll tell you something, the CRT TV was doing a lot of the leg work for the visuals there.
Indeed, with older gaming systems you really should play them with a CRT monitor if possible to get the best of it. Granted, emulators help play old games years down the road, but they just don't capture the original look of the game.
Yeah, definitely. These old games were usually designed to take advantage of the way CRTs diffuse color to up the perceived level of detail in the image. Most of them tend to look less colorful, less detailed, and super jagged when they're mapped onto a modern display's pixel grid.
The best example I can think of is in Metal Slader Glory's bright red areas. They're beautifully detailed on a CRT, but on an unfiltered LCD display they become an indecipherable, eye-searing mess of featureless blobs. I seem to remember Symphony of the Night also looking waaaay better on a CRT.
I appreciate both of your responses and even took a look at Metal Slader Glory because I've never played it before. Thank you for citing it as an example!
But I have already known for decades about the importance of CRTs in experiencing 32, 16 and 8-bit consoles, as I still play games from those generations somewhat regularly. Mega Man and the original Castlevania trilogy, for example, still hold up even without the CRTs subpixel effect on them.
What I meant to say is that this Frankenstein('s monster) game is fugly. =P
Even so, I'm still thankful for a channel that records it for historical reference.
The pixel art looks great and the gameplay seems good, but I can't help but think about how at the beginning of the game the protagonist consciously sets out to rescue Emily, but when the village elder asks him the same task, he ain't sure. Then, less than 5 minutes into your adventure, you face Death himself, but he's not even the boss of the first level! because after defeating him, there is an earthquake that makes you fall to face the real boss of the level, the very famous "demon horse" and when you defeat him, you get a sword! only to change it a couple of minutes later for a weapon that doesn't even have a name... And, all this, in less than 10 minutes!
I still own my copy, and golly is it one of those games I somehow come back and revisit.
I remember that last area being very difficult. Had to stock up on all of the potions JUST so I could survive against Frankenstein.
I actually checked the prices of the game and it is not cheap. Sells for a very nice chunk if you have the box and manual.
@@Steelflight773 I'm still trying to get ahold of the manual, and it ain't easy.
You are right about that. I only see 3 on Ebay and they are all 125-150 asking price.
Bandai: Hey, Konami...can I borrow your homework?
Konami: Sure but try not to make it obvious that you copied my work
Bandai: Sure thing..
Arrording to the 1931 film. Dr. Frankenstein's hunchback assistant, Fritz, (Igor in later versions) bungled in snatching him the correct brain and settled for a degenerate's brain without the doc's knowing. And to add fuel to that already lit flame he tormented the monster with a lit torch while it was locked away and chained to a wall all for shits 'n giggles. It is from this version I say it was Fritz who created the monster.
Defeating enemies with the power of ice cream!
I was just saying the same thing 😂😂😂😂
*Random facts:*
Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson"
"Beam me up, Scotty" is not a line from Star Trek
Tails' real name is Miles Prower
As in "Miles per hour"
It's the kind of complicated game that few players manage to finish.
It’s not complicated but it’s not easy. Castlevania is complicated.
I'll consider trying this out someday. Just the sort of game to kill time this Frankenstein... And it looks better than that Frankenstein game for Sega CD!
It's more fun for sure. Less frustrating.
Dr Frankenstein created a monster to protect his girlfriend, unfortunately for him, his monster's running amuck.
Fun fact: The creation that Dr. Frankenstein made was called The Creation. He never referred to it as "Frankenstein".
I used to see this game for rent at Phar Mor, should of gave it a try.
Nice game
Phar Mor is gone now.
5:40 "the great demon horse"! easily beaten
Wow that evil dimension.
This reminds me of how I once did a story that is basically a retred of the plot but reversing the good and bad guys position. Though in this case, its Frankestein taking Draculas place. Basically what I'm saying is I just imagine this exists cause someone was like "I like the idea of Castlevania, but I think Frankenstein would be a better main bad."
Question: What is the point of having a password system in this game when you should have unlimited continues?
Answer: Because the only reason you should enter a password is if you turn the game off and want to come back to it later.
Truly the dark souls of Frankenstein
I wouldn’t mind having a copy of this game, but the last time I saw a copy, it was going for a crazy amount of money.
Considering the creature literally let himself perish, I'm quite puzzled why he would just...come back and start being a villain on purpose-
I think if this game fixed a few problems and had some polish, it actually could have been a pretty good game. It definitely had some potential. It's honestly that not that bad, but it should be remade someday.
I really wanted to like this game. I could tell some effort was put into it. I liked Bandai as a company... I had hoped it would feel more like Castlevania but with Frankenstein's monster... It just felt kind of empty after beating it... I don't know what it was, but I never went back to it. 😢
I do remember the last boss, though. That stood out to me.
I never played this game but it seems very big for an nes game. The storyline seems awesome. I’m sure this game is costly by now.
laughs in rom
@@ZoeMuller80😂
@@ZoeMuller80laughs at poor people
@@notchunglingsu7014 thats rude
I think the AVGN helped to propel this game’s value. It’s become much more sought after because of him in my estimation.
"Ha ha ha, you haven't seen anything yet!" * takes off clothes *
Oh, saucy boy! 🙊
This would be a nifty concept to revisit! Metroidvania but Frank instead of Drac.
No conocía los pasajes secretos de las alcantarillas al principio, que gran dato.
lo raro es que nunca mas aparece esa arma en el juego Raaro no es OP pero para el jinete va como piña podes tener toda juntas creo fue hace años que lo jugue
You know sometimes I like think of the what if universe where Frankenstein was the game that really took off instead of castlevania. Like imagine if Frankenstein pioneered metroidvanias.
Outstanding video.
Right i usted to play it a bit when i was young, i did complete it but man was it hard, is not bad but is really difficult to master.
Konami: ok Bandai, you can make a game based in a minster franchise, but don't use any Castlevania assets like SMS Master of Darkness
Bandai: Ok, let's use Frankenstein in a action game XD
Blademaster had the magical potion to cure his injuries but he gives it away instead lol.
This was a cool game, but man, the price to justify it is something else.
AVGN ragged on this game, but it actually doesn't look too bad. The graphics are very good. There's so much detail in each stage and it would greatly benefit from being played on an old CRT. And those cutscenes... They really pushed the NES to its limits.
The music is passable, though. Nothing really stood out to me. Plot is by no means deep, but the gameplay more than makes up for that.
I honestly don't think avgn is a very good critic when it comes to games. Obviously he's played some awful games but it honestly feels like he complains to just complain and over exaggerates a games faults. Like that is the point yes and I still enjoy his videos but I'd take any opinion he has on a game with a grain of salt.
@@nightmarearcade2663 I dunno, he was right on M.C. Kids tho. That game sucks.
Oh absolutely but sometimes he exaggerates a lot of his points for comedic effect which is fine but at times it goes a bit overboard and can give many the wrong impression of a game.
Pretty high quality nes game from Bandai...
Ninja developer TOSE was responsible for developing this masterpiece. Bandai Namco only published it.
Dude I had no idea you could get that boomerang and fire on the first level!
You have to defeat a "water" dragon that shoots "fire". Cool 👍
Cannot Collect Extra Energy 😒
and One Hit is Fatal!
i see you started to use the same trick, as others did to push the YT codec to encode the video in VP9 (YT H265) then AVC1 (YT H264)... :p
then wait when it will hit 3500 views for a VP9 re-encode...
Wait really? That's a thing? I didn't know, haha! It's just how I've been encoding them since I started doing 4K stuff.
@@NintendoComplete yup its a thing , when you upload videos in 1440p (any H resolution but W must be 1440) it will encode those vids in H265 aka VP9 ... then H264 aka AVC1 ... but if a video AVC1 will get 3500 views it will be are-encoded to VP9 ...
same is with AV1 (H266) that YT now pushes for Music Videos, if they set a set million view count ...
and you see the Quality Jump ...
Final Boss Demon King Frankenstein
Woah, didn't know you jump up to the ceiling and get a boomerang at 3:31, I like it when NES games do stuff like that.
Despite AVGN's thoughts, I think it's challenging/hard in a good way, although I would have included more than two continues, and maybe have more lives instead of just one.
Esse jogo marcou minha infância!!!
Joguei só quando descobri os emuladores
Mas o conheci pelas revistas de games
@@Accelluter Eu descobri esse jogo na locadora próximo de minha casa.
Aí nos finais de semana, vc alugava duas fitas e levava uma fita grátis.
Agora com este vídeo, descobri as passagens secretas que não sabia.
Vou voltar a jogar!!!
Também
This is the counterpart of Castlevania
But here the main villain is Frankenstein's Monster instead of Count Dracula
It's Frankenstein's Monster!! The doctor was Frankenstein, not the monster!
Linkara (Atop the Fourth Wall) explained this.
The monster is technically Dr. Frankenstein's offspring (being created by him). As the doctor's offspring the monster would inherit his surname.
What a great game !
One of those pain in the ass games where mini bosses appear everywhere.
The Nerd: Now for the feature presentation. Well, the cartridge says Frankenstein: The Monster Returns, but the title screen just says Frankenstein. What the hell? As the game begins, you'll notice that the graphics are pretty good for NES standards, and it reminds you of Castlevania. Essentially, it's the same concept, but instead of Dracula, it's Frankenstein you're goin' after. You're tryin' to rescue some girl, I dunno. Who cares. And yeah, the monster in the game is called Frankenstein. I guess nobody ever read the book or saw any of the movies. So basically, you walk right and kill everything in your way, but just to confuse you, there's all these doors which don't have much purpose whatsoever.
The Nerd: If you go in, you might find some energy, but some of them, like this one, take you into these sewers where you have to fight a dragon which looks like Barba from Zelda II. If you beat the dragon, you get some energy, which might make up for whatever energy you lost fighting the dragon, so how about just don't go in there and fight the dragon at all? It only exists to make the game a little more complicated, but all you wanna do is keep walking right and don't go in any of the doors. Then you get to the stage boss, which is the Reaper, kinda like Dracula from Simon's Quest. But here's the real annoying part: when you beat him, a bird comes, and trust me, you gotta kill it. If you let this bird touch you, it carries you back to the beginning of the stage! So, you fuckin' gotta go through all over again! And you think that the Reaper would still be dead? But no! You have to beat the Reaper again! And the bird, AGAIN! What the fuck?! Afterwards you fight some Minotaur thing, which is the real stage boss, and then you get a cutscene which is slow and drawn out. Why can't the text move any faster?
The Nerd: In the second stage, you fight your way through the woods. Some of the trees have platforms, but you're never sure where you can stand. (His character is somehow standing on the gap between two tree branches) Like, look at this! I'm standing right in between them, don't you think I would fall down? Then you climb up a giant tree stump, I guess, and there's some random guy who talks to you. Afterwards, you don't know where to go, so at first I climbed back down and then walked all the way back to the start and wandered everywhere 'til I found out that you're supposed to jump down the right side. But you keep getting stuck on the edge, so it's never clear of where to go. Like, couldn't there be a sign or something?
The Nerd: Then immediately, you fight the evil He-Monster and She-Monster of the trees, which is what the guy just told us about. Doesn't it seem cheap, that right after he tells us about a certain monster they appear? It doesn't build up any mystery. Remember the first Zelda game? You knew that you had to fight Ganon, the instruction manual talked about him, characters in the game talked about him. But at the time, nobody knew what Ganon looked like. It created all this suspense. But imagine if they never talked about him until right before you walked into that room. It's like: "Oh, there's this monster you gotta fight. Oh, there's the monster! Fight him!"
The Nerd: Then you come to this swamp where you have to hop on lilypads. But there's barely enough space to jump from one pad to the next. If you miss, you have to fight a Merman underwater. You can't swim back up. The only way to get out is to beat the Merman. But there's no real strategy, so you just keep attacking him and praying not to get hit. When you die, you'd expect to start right back at the swamp, but no! It starts you off with the Merman! Yeah! You don't get a second chance on the lilypads! You have to fight the Merman over and over until either you beat him, or run out of lives!
The Nerd: And you only get a few continues. The only way to pick up where you left off is to enter a password. And then you still have to play the whole stage all over again. Finally, you make it back to the swamp. This time I'm just gonna try to inch my way to the edge of that lilypad. Oh, fuck! It goes away! Wow, you're really smushed between a bag of piss and a pile of shit.
The Nerd: If you jump right away, you don't make it. If you take your time and carefully plan your jump, then the lilypad sinks. And once you fall down, you might as well hit Reset, because the whole game's over. Look! I'm standing as close to the fucking edge as possible! And even then, it's still not enough to clear the distance! So, I give up. I'm putting in a password for the third stage.
The Nerd: Here, you get this pretty cool graveyard scene. The tombstones attack you. I think they were really running out of ideas here. Then I'm goin' through this castle, and the enemies are too hard to kill, so I find myself running past them just to get ahead. But that's not the mark of a good game, is it? Because doesn't it mean that you're not enjoying the game if all you wanna do is bypass everything so you can get the game over as quick as possible?! Then you gotta fight a floating red skull that calls itself the Gatekeeper. What's the hand's name, the Keymaster? (A "Ghostbusters" reference) Then you fight Dark Warrior. (sarcastically) Oooh, scary name! How about Death Guy or Mr. Kill?
The Nerd: Stage 4 is the final stage. Yeah, they chose to keep the game as short as possible, yet as annoying as possible. This place is all fucked up! There's all these weird faces in the background. Like, where are you supposed to be? Inside Satan's asshole? (a giant turd goes through the stage) Then you start fighting all the classic monsters. First it's the Wolf Man, but here he's called the Manwolf. After you beat him you get a new weapon, three-way fire. It's kinda like the Spread Gun in Contra. But guess what? When you get hit only one time, you lose it! Which happens only in a matter of seconds. Then you get smothered by sackless balls. Yeah, floating testicles. Then you fight Dracula. Yeah, Dracula's in this game. His arm looks all cockeyed, looks like a dick, like his hand is a dickhead? (Chuckles) Dickhead. So once again, it's like Castlevania, almost as if Frankenstein and Dracula just switched places. Then you have to swing on vines like Jungle Hunt, but you end up just jumping through the vines and die.
The Nerd: So now, just to try again, I gotta type in the fuckin' password. It's so tedious! I mean, it's not the longest password I've ever seen, but it's still longer than necessary. But unlike most passwords, if you move the D-Pad to the sides, it doesn't move your cursor over to the other side. So say your cursor's on the letter K, and you need to move to J? In most games, all you need to do is move the cursor left, and it will show up on J. But here, you can't do that! You have to move the fuckin' cursor all the way to the J! A lot of effort considering that J comes right before K. It's so fucked up. And also, if you enter the password and it turns out that it's wrong, like if you messed up on one letter, it erases the whole thing and you gotta type it in all over again! Why can't I just go back and fix the one letter?
The Nerd: I really hate this password thing in general! Because, what's the point? You should have unlimited continues. Yeah, because, the only reason that you should have to put in a password, is if you turn the game off and wanna come back to it later. As long as you're still playing, you're gonna keep playing the same stages over and over and over again, so what's the point of sending you all the way back to the beginning? The earlier stages are the easiest, and those are the stages ya end up playing the most. It's the later stages where you need the most practice. It's all about trial and error. Like - imagine if in high school, you fail outta Senior year. What happens, you do Senior year again, right? You don't have to go back and do Freshman year again! So, bottom line: have unlimited continues! GODDAMN IT!
The Nerd: Another big piss-off about this game is that enemies can kill you even after they're dead. Like you have to wait for them to completely die before you can pass! Anyway, I can't get past the vines, so I'm gonna cheat with Game Genie, the last resort. But check out these codes! Almost Unlimited Energy, Invincibility After Losing the First Life (May cause the game to freeze), Start with No Continues, Can Not Collect Extra Energy, and One Hit is Fatal!
The Nerd: (shocked) What kinda codes ARE these?! Is there like some sick fuck who thinks the game isn't hard enough?! Like somebody who wants to be tortured some more?! Well, how 'bout this? I got a code for ya. How 'bout a code that just starts you off dead? ("PHUCKEWE" appears on the screen) Yeah. Well... well I don't wanna freeze, so, I guess I'm gonna go with almost invincibility, whatever that means.
The Nerd: At first, the code works fine, but then I found out that if you collect energy, it takes life away. Not that you would NEED to collect energy, but it's kinda silly, isn't it? And guess what? Once you get to the vines... you still die! Well, THAT would have been nice! Why couldn't the code say Invincibility Except for the Vines? Even if you pass the vines, the invincibility goes away, so you're left with your own wits to fight Frankenstein. So, fuck the Game Genie, and let me tell ya, when Game Genie doesn't help, you KNOW you're fucked. (Throws Game Genie away)
The Nerd: So you fight Frankenstein. His first form's pretty easy, but then he grows into a giant Super Frankenstein. Come on! C'mon! C'mon, you fuckin' Fuckenstein! (Lightning strikes the Franken-Nerd and he starts attacking the Nerd while he's fighting Super Frankenstein, and a rock version of the Angry Video Game Nerd theme plays, then the Nerd eventually beats Super Frankenstein)
The Nerd: YEAH! (The NES Toploader electrocutes the TV as it causes it to explode, and an explosion kills the Franken-Nerd)
Cringe
Y'know, you could've just referenced a single line from that AVGN episode. *Not the entire script!*
It's basically Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but with a Castlevania Flavor 🤣🤣🤣🤣
"Castlevania? Never heard of it."
the angry video game nerd can't pass this swamp lakes 9:50
Playing as Frankenstein would have been more fun.
You can play as him in Monster in my Pocket
❤😊
This game may as well be an 8-bit anime game. As such, it sports very good graphics. However, the writing and gameplay leave much to be desired.
The game play reminds me of teenage mutant ninja turtles game.
Medusa has absolutely nothing to do with Frankenstein lol
Doesn't have to anything to do with Dracula either.
This is horrible lol I love it! Ty
Eu amo esse jogo kkk
WTF ! Frankenstein talked all that shit lol All he had was some weak ass punches and a trash final form 😂😂😂
wow, such annoying music...!
This game is the worst! Even AVGN hates it!
Cringe
@@AyeThatsHandsomePete no u!
@@AyeThatsHandsomePeteno
It's still better than Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.