Beat in slow mode. This game looked a lot like Castlevania and I was enjoying the beginning. You stated off with no weapon just 1 button for punch and the other for jump (press again in the air for a jump kick). Controls were actually better and more responsive than Castlevania. Enemies were infinite and often dropped stuff; healing, clubs, and ranged shot. The ranged shot reminded me of Link's. It made combat easy but was lost upon taking a hit. Healing did not restore it, rather I had to find a new drop. The club was also dropped upon taking a hit but it could be picked back up. There was an optional sewer area accessed by pressing up on a door, where there was a dragon boss that rewarded a healing potion. I later figured out that pressing select used a potion to fully heal. Bosses moved around and attacked in patterns, plus had significant invincibility frames after taking a hit. This made it easy to move through them. After stage 1 the punch was replaced by a sword, which was very nice progression. Later he got a better sword but the graphic was not updated. The least they could have done was change the color. The sword had a slightly bigger magic and this stage had a few enemies that dropped spiked clubs. I could not tell whether those clubs were worth using over the sword, and the later stages abandoned this temporary weapon mechanic altogether. The flying medusa head boss was probably the most difficult in the game for me because there was no tell for when she went low, and it was impossible to avoid the attack unless you were already jumping in perfect time to hit. The graveyard stage had about 2 invulnerable jumping tomb stones and infinite gargoyles, which stayed on screen flashing for so long after dying that I kept trying to hit them again. They seemed to always drop orbs rather than hp so I could no longer farm enemies to heal. The castle had a single skeleton enemy that kept getting back up, but you did not even need to go where it was. Such a waste of an enemy design. Then the area above had annoying statues that shot boomerangs, but I found I could just run past them. Had to fight them for the boss though, then the dark knight gave me some trouble. I eventually figured out to just rush him for a quick hit before he got the chance to attack. He was slow but had good vertical attack and a fair range thrust. The wolfman was another tough boss due to erratic fast movements. I felt there was no choice but to suck up some damage. He dropped an interesting 3 way shot that helped against the many shooting enemies during this stage, but again it was lost upon taking any hit. The vampire boss was easy with the shot though seemed like it would be just fine with the sword since he barely moved around. Frank was even easier since the sword seemed to have longer range than his arms and his jumps did not seem to cause damage. Would have been even easier if the loot from the vampire did not force the loss of the shot. You got a permanent simple shot just for the final boss which was giant Frank. It was one of those stationary bullet hell style bosses where it was mostly about avoiding the near constant stream of shots. His fist was flying around too and could be destroyed. I liked how gaping wounds appeared on the boss as he took damage. Eventually his head came off and starting flying around after the body took enough damage. It was a little more difficult to hit the head but it moving around made the shots easier to avoid.

At times this game felt more like a boss rush than a game with proper stage progression. It had some good mechanics and designs but that could have been stitched together into much more drawn out and engaging stages. The platforming was limited to 1 area with 2 pits and 1 vine swinging section. The swinging was more about pressing the button at the right time as it seemed like he automatically switched vines when the timing was right. Otherwise falling just caused damage so you could brute force through. Decent game that could have been a classic if it had better stage design. It had some cool cutscenes and dialogue even though making Frank the big bad over the other monsters made little sense.

6.0/10