Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
System: NES
Release Date: April 1989
Developer: Advance Communication Company
Publisher: Bandai
Genre: Action
Here we are with one of the internet’s most hated NES games with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This is an infamous title thanks to everyone’s favorite Angry Video Game Nerd. I’ll be honest, it totally deserves the derision. This isn’t a good game by any means. Dr. Jekyll has created a potion to separate the good and evil portions of his personality. The good has manifested itself as the Dr. Jekyll personality and he finds he has trouble controlling his transformation into the evil Mr. Hyde personality.
You start of as Dr. Jekyll and you have a goal of reaching the chapel to marry his fiancee Miss Millicent. You walk to the right very, very slowly. You have the ability to poke your cane at people, but this does absolutely nothing. The good Dr. Jekyll wouldn’t attack anyone, anyway, so it’s probably just there to taunt you. There are lots of people walking along the streets of London. Normally they are harmless, but if they start running, they will stress the good doctor out.
Jekyll needs to control his stress levels, lest he gets too overwhelmed and transforms into the heinous Mr. Hyde. You awaken in an evil hellscape and are attacked by demons as you move to the left. Here, you in danger of death if your life meter drops to zero. As you kill enemies, your stress bar fills up again and once it does, you move back to Dr. Jekyll. Hyde’s world is a mirror world and if he makes it as far as Jekyll does in the real world, Zeus smites you with lightning and it’s game over. Hyde is equipped with two attacks, a punch with the B Button and the Psycho-Wave with up+the B Button. These levels scroll automatically, so you need to make sure to kill or you will be killed.
There are six levels of walking for Jekyll and fighting for Hyde. They run through the town (twice), the cemetary (twice), the park, and the final street. Did I mention how slow Jekyll moves? It’s excruciating. What I find silly is that it’s mainly minor annoyances that increase Jekyll’s stress level and turns him into Hyde. Spiders apparently scare him. People running bother him. Bee stings bug him. Birds pooping on him from the sky disgust him. Cats and dogs annoy him. And of course, Elena McCowen, the singing fat lady, drives him insane!
The main suckiness comes from the Mad Bomber. He walks on screen, drops a bomb at Jekyll’s feet and then runs off. In the first levels, you can keep going and jump at the last second and be fine. But as the levels move on, the bomb is dropped further to the right, so you have to walk left the moment the bomb is dropped and jump as it explodes. On the final stage this is infuriating, as Donkey Kong is throwing barrels from off screen that you need to jump. I went back and forth from Jekyll to Hyde a bunch of times before I finally made it to the chapel. On further thought, maybe this level is so hard so you make it to level six with Hyde and beat it with him for the better ending…
Graphics: 1.5
I’ll honestly say the graphics are decent. They’re the best thing about this game.
Sound: 1.0
I didn’t care for the music and the sound effects are terrible, especially the singing lady.
Gameplay: 1.0
Jekyll’s levels are awful. Some of the worst gameplay I’ve seen. Hyde’s levels are better, but still not very good.
Difficulty: 1.0
Once you realize that Jekyll can’t do anything except walk and jump, his levels aren’t hard. The enemies in Hyde’s levels can be cheap, but can be overcome with perseverence thanks to unlimited continues.
Fun Factor: 0.5
This game is a chore, not fun. James was right, despite going about it in a melodramatic way.
Overall Grade: 1.0
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde earns a D. This game isn’t as good as the sum of its parts suggests. Stay away… far, far away.