By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.
After watching Netflix’s “Frankenstein,” I recalled how much I enjoyed playing “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” on my Super Nintendo.
“Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” looked great on my Super NES. The graphics were typical for an action platform, but at the time of its release, it just looked better than other single-player games of its time. The Creature’s look was genuinely scary to me, and the game recreated the look from the Kenneth Branagh film completely. The game followed the plot of the movie closely. I’m not sure how the weapon of the blue ball of negative energy came about in the game; it wasn’t in the 1994 film. But the weapon is very useful as The Creature plods through the streets of Ingolstadt, Bavaria.
The game does get a little redundant the further you get into it. The ending is anticlimactic. It’s so disappointing, but I do like the ice landscape that The Creature must maneuver to get to its maker. I guess it’s a satisfying ending if you dislike Victor Frankenstein.
When I read the novel “Frankenstein” in college, I didn’t like it very much. When my class was assigned to read the Shelley classic, I thought, I love the video game, the book must be great as well. I was disappointed, but there were memorable moments in the novel.
Watching Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” on Netflix has made me want to go back and read the book. Toro’s film was fantastic. He put you in a world that felt so authentic and gothic. An adaptation of his film into a video game on PS5 or Xbox could be amazing. The Netflix film is far superior to the 1994 film which starred Robert De Niro as The Creature. Del Toro’s film was much more engaging, and Jacob Elordi’s performance as The Creature is worthy of an Oscar. Elordi’s The Creature would be an amazing central character in a modern game that takes you from the lab in the castle to the countryside, fighting off various threats. In the film, The Creature’s fight with a pack of deadly wolves was an outstanding action sequence.