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ノスフェラトゥ
©1994 Seto Co.,Ltd.
Release: 1994-10-07 (¥9800)
Cartridge SHVC-NS
Platform / Action game
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Released in America as
NOSFERATU
( SNS-NS-USA )
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Norferatu is a creepy side-scrolling action game by Seta and
features many kind of blood feeding vampires and other werewolf monsters. The player
takes control of Kyle who is determined to rescue his beloved girlfriend
Erin from the hands of the evil vampire Nosferatu. Everything starts
inside a dark and humid cell and our character has to escape and embark on a long
journey that will take him to vampire's forbidden castle.
Thankfully, a passageway hidden in the ground allows him to run away... but not very
far and he quickly encounters his first enemy in a shape of a slow zombie-like
humanoid monster. The game features countless traps, puzzles to solve and a great deal of
monsters to defeat. Kyle starts off the game with only the ability to punch his
enemies. However, special red crystals can be collected on the way (often after defeating enemies)
and can upgrade his abilities and later trigger powerful combos and other kick
attacks. Other crystals can also be found and have different powers - green ones, usually hidden inside chests,
give him some health back whereas blue crystals extent his maximum life.
Kile can run, jump, grab onto
ledges or slide through tiny gaps in the ground. Norferatu features six
vast non-linear and time limited areas with mini-bosses and a
tougher and nastier boss waiting at the end of each one of them. The game offers
infinite continues but no saving option.
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LK
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Add your Pov here !
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Norferatu can be roughly described as a mix between Prince of Persia and
Castlevania. Graphics are very well drawn, creepy and very detailed,
and this especially applies to enemies and environments. The animation is also very smooth
and reminds of the ones seen in Prince of Persia, which is a good sign in my book.
However, another side of the game is the incredibly hard difficulty level and you will
certainly curse the game creators for including an unfair time limit!
Furthermore, some traps just can't be avoided the first time you play and
this leads to a painfully long learning curve.
Then enemies are incredibly tough, especially bosses. But they are gorgeous to look at -
the Werewolf from the first stage starts in a (yet creepy) human form and slowly transforms into
a terrible beast as the moon fills up in the background. As already mentioned, this game
reminds me of prince Of Persia in places with incredibly smooth animation cycles, traps
- but not only - like in Persia, controls are a bit loose
and cause frustration, especially when Kyle simply keeps missing the same ledge
again and again, or when he just doesn't seem to stop running when you
want him to. But the non-linear level design, the overall ambiance
and the graphics remind, somewhat, of Castlevania. Norferatu is an
extremely hard but very enjoyable game. A saving function would have
been welcome though...
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